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- Cain Velasquez is granted bail
- Eugene Baremen was ruthless with his fighters for UFC 281
- A UFC fight is under investigation for suspicious betting
After spending 8 months behind bars, Cain Velasquez was finally granted bail and released from jail this past Tuesday. Velasquez is being charged with attempted murder after allegedly chasing down the vehicle of Harry Goularte and shooting at him. Velasquez tried to shoot Goularte but shot his stepfather Paul Bender instead. Bender didn’t suffer any serious injuries.
When news of the shooting first broke in February, the MMA community was confused as to what had happened. It was then revealed that Goularte had allegedly molested Velasquez’s 4-year-old sonin a daycare that his mother owned and it might have happened around 100 times. Goularte is currently out on bail himself and is facing up to 8 years in prison for sexually assaulting a minor.
This was Velasquez’s 4th attempt at bail. The cost of the bail was $1 Million. His previous 3 attempts were rejected by Judge Shelyna Brown. The new Judge for Velasquez’s bailing hearing was Arthur Bocanegra who granted Velasquez bail because he was convinced that Velasquez wouldn’t do anything while on bail that would jeopardize his time with his family. Velasquez will now await trial for his attempted murder case.
Over the past few years, New Zealand’s City Kickboxing has become one of the most revered gyms in combat sports. They’ve produced some of the best fighters in the world including the pound-for-pound #1 and #2. Alex Volkanovski, who’s based at Freestyle Fighting Gym, does regular training camps at CKB while Israel Adesanya was crafted at CKB. The head coach at CKB, Eugene Bareman, is a former fighter himself and has high expectations for his team. We often hear coaches say that iron sharpens iron, but Baremen took that expression to the next level for this training camp.
UFC 281 features four fighters from CKB: Israel Adesanya, Dan Hooker, Brad Riddell, and Carlos Ulberg. During his appearance on the MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani this past Monday, Eugene Bareman spoke about the intensity of the training camp. He told Ariel that he felt that his fighters were being complacent and there would be 0 tolerance for complacency in this camp. The camp was fractured at the halfway point because of the pressure the coaches were putting on the fighters. If there was a sparring session that didn’t impress Baremen, he made his fighter double the sparring session. Dan Hooker was grateful for the training camp saying “I’m going to train at City Kickboxing forever, no matter how many times Eugene screams at me and does these sort of things. That’s what separates us. He’s able to push us and prod us and break us down emotionally, because there’s no back door. There’s no leaving. We’re in it for the long haul”.
Becoming a Superstar in this sport can create problems for some fighters. When Conor McGregor defeated Jose Aldo, he and his coach John Kavanagh drifted apart for a while. McGregor lost routine while Kavanagh focused on the release of his book “Win or Learn”. Eugene Bareman keeps Adesanya grounded by constantly reminding him that he’s not above anyone else.
Eugene Bareman is intent on taking his fighters to the next level and you can see that with the results of Alexander Volkanovski. Volkanovski’s first two fights with Max Holloway were competitive while the third fight was an absolute shutout. He hit a different level and that’s what Bareman is expecting from his fighters at UFC 281.
Last weekend’s fight between Shayilan Nuerdanbieke and Darrick Minner is under investigation for suspicious betting after Minner's betting line skyrocketed from +180 to +330 on fight day. It was later revealed by Minner’s head coach James Krause that Minner came into the fight with a pre-existing knee injury. Nuerdanbieke finished Minner by 1st round TKO in 67 seconds.
Sportsbooks saw unusual movement in the final hours leading up to the fight, as they were flooded with bets on Nuerdanbieke. Nuerdanbieke jumped up to a -450 favorite on fight day and bets were still coming in on him at a rapid pace which is unusual. There was also significant action on prop bets for the fight to end by 1st round knockout and the under of 2.5 rounds. The drastic shift in the betting line would assume that someone leaked some inside information. Minner’s head coach James Krause runs a Discord chat called the 1% club, where bettors pay him for his betting tips.
The UFC released a statement this week that their betting integrity partner Don Best Sports will be conducting an investigation on the matter and they believe that neither the fighters involved in the bout nor anyone associated with their teams, behaved in an unethical or irresponsible manner.
Tony Ferguson is finally at Harvard.
Justin Gaethje reveals he was in a vicious crash 18 days before fighting Charles Oliveira.
Joanna Jedrzejczyk is thinking about coming out of retirement.
Alex Volkanovski is eating 4,000 calories per day to bulk up for Lightweight.
Aljamain Sterling wants to fight Sean O'Malley over Henry Cejudo.
Ben Askren wins another Tournament.
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