The MMA Draw Podcast

The MMA Draw Podcast
The MMA Draw Podcast
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Nate Wilcox, the founder of Bloody Elbow and Zach Arnold, the founder of Fight Opinion explain the game behind the fights, covering the business of MMA, combat sports and a little bit of pro wrestling. www.themmadraw.com

  1. 3h ago

    Mad Squabbles MMA History: BJJ vs. Luta Livre

    This week’s podcast with Nate & Zach is all about discussing the very complex history of Brazilian fight styles beyond the carefully curated Gracie family business narrative on display at the early UFC events and the marketing of nascent MMA in the US and Japan. As the UFC became more popular in the United States and the Gracies transitioned to Vale Tudo Japan & PRIDE, many fighters and hardcore fans began learning about the genealogy of Brazilian martial arts. As Zach noted in our most recent Ken Shamrock podcast article, most Japanese fight fans were familiar with Masahiko Kimura — the judoka who beat Helio Gracie in 1951. However, Japanese fans were well aware of Kimura because of a double-cross involving Rikidozan in 1954 that forever changed Japanese fight sport history. Helio and Kimura would be key icons in the marketing story behind the Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Royce Gracie 2000 Pride marathon match at the Tokyo Dome. But that’s a story for another day; we’ve got a lot of history to catch up on. Long before the UFC, there was a battle in Brazil for the heart and soul of fight sport. There were multiple Gracie family branches with competing interests. The Gracies were closely aligned with various right-wing government administrations. Catch wrestling (known in Brazil as Luta Livre), judo, Capoeira, Muay Thai, and other styles were confronted by elite BJJ talent. Sometimes winning, sometimes losing. There were also internal BJJ rivalries that captured fans' attention, like the Gracie family feud with their star pupil, Waldemar Santana, who beat Helio and then lost to Carlson. But when Luta Livre competitors learned judo, they became a real threat to Gracie BJJ, and stars like Euclydes “Tatu” Hatem and later Ivan Gomes dominated the sport. But the problem in Brazil throughout the 20th century was the failure to extend past short-term spectacles. A few matches a decade would capture popular attention, but then the fad would pass. It was all too much freak show, too little sport. The one-year lifespan of the Gracie’s Vale Tudo TV show Heróis do Ringue from 1959-1960 was typical. Initial strong ratings imploded when a submission hold broke an arm on live TV and the whole thing got canceled. The battle exploded again in the 1980s when Rickson Gracie established public dominance. First in his fights against Casimiro de Nascimento Martins aka Rei Zulu, and second in his videotaped beach confrontation with Luta Livre leader Hugo Duarte. The real target was Marco Ruas, but Ruas wanted weeks to train and Rickson already had a ticket purchased to follow his brother Rorion to Hollywood. The irony of Ruas becoming UFC champion at UFC 7 after Royce Gracie exited the UFC was rather thick. The elites vs. the working class. Generations of tradition vs. cross-training in multiple disciplines. When you go back in time and look at what happened in Brazil in the 20th Century, it truly was the melting pot of combat sports and immigration. It all traces back to Kanō Jigorō, the founder of judo, who sent students like Mitsuyo Maeda to the Western Hemisphere to challenge catch wrestlers on the carnival circuit that ranged from Alaska to Brazil. This week’s edition of the Mad Squabbles MMA show goes in-depth on much of the Brazilian fight history that has been revealed to the English-speaking world in the last 10 years and how new archival information changed the narrative of what was truly evolving in fight sport. The key fighting event this week’s podcast is based on was a 1991 Gracie BJJ vs. Luta Livre 3-on-3 event called Desafio. It was the war to settle the score. Luta Livre lost that day, but Marco Ruas and other multi-disciplinary fighters would make sure that Vale Tudo would soon rule the MMA world. It didn’t take very long before the next generation of monsters from Chute Boxe would dominate in PRIDE and thrill hundreds of thousands of spectators with legendary performances still talked about to this day. We’ll be back to talk about the entry of freestyle wrestlers like Dan Severn, Mark Coleman, and Mark Frye in our next historical episode. Ways to listen to the Mad Squabbles (MMA Draw) podcast We’ve been giving the wrong instructions for how to do this so apologies! Ways to listen to the Mad Squabbles (MMA Draw) podcast PAID SUBSCRIBERS — START HERE Your full episodes don’t come through Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Those apps carry our public feed, which has only free previews of paid episodes. Full episodes come through your own private feed, which is unique to you. The easy way — the Substack app. Install it, sign in with the email address you subscribed with, and every full episode is waiting. Nothing to copy or paste: https://substack.com/app Or add your private feed to the podcast app you already use: 1. Open your subscription settings: https://www.themmadraw.com/account 2. Scroll to “Private podcast feed” and click “Set up podcast” 3. Copy the feed URL. It’s tied to your account — please don’t share it. 4. Paste it into your app: Apple Podcasts — Library, then the ••• in the top right, then “Add a Show by URL” Overcast — the + button, then “Add URL” Pocket Casts — paste the URL into the search bar, then tap + Your private feed link is also in the welcome email you got when you subscribed. FREE LISTENERS Free episodes, plus previews of the paid ones: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id984162015 Spotify: RSS: https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/1407790.rss Paid subscriber and seeing 12-minute episodes here? That’s the preview feed — use your private feed above instead. Nate Wilcox is Editor-in-Chief of The MMA Draw. He founded BloodyElbow.com in 2007 and sold it in 2024. Zach Arnold is a lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw on Substack. His archives can be read at FightOpinion.com. Contact Zach: fightopinion at protonmail dot com. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.themmadraw.com/subscribe

  2. Aug 11

    Kid Nate's MMA History: Ken Shamrock and the evolution of Japanese professional wrestling

    We recently launched our fantastic MMA history podcast series on The MMA Draw podcast and discussed The Greatness of Royce Gracie. It gave us a chance to discuss the modern marketing campaign for Gracie BJJ and the launch of UFC. More importantly, it was a window in which we could explain our fandom and how we got into this crazy space in the first place. The birth of PPV, VHS tape trading, Playboy, Hollywood, martial arts movies. So many current UFC fans missed out on the nostalgia. Nate became an MMA fan because of the early days of UFC. UFC was all about marketing the Gracie BJJ family business. Zach became interested in MMA through the various Japanese off-shoots like UWF, RINGS, Shooto, and Pancrase. UFC (America) and Pancrase (Japan) were parallel worlds experimenting with the concept of what Mixed Martial Arts could and should be. UFC was about BJJ and the cage while Pancrase was about hybrid wrestling in a ring. Yes, the Japanese viewed both catch and professional wrestling as derivatives of martial arts. The key figure in the launch of both UFC and Pancrase was Ken Shamrock. He’s our focus on this week’s Kid Nate MMA history series on The MMA Draw podcast. The MMA Draw Newsletter is a reader-supported publication diving deep in the history of the sport that you love. Your paid subscription helps us chronicle fight sports’ biggest events. A quick introduction on Japanese fighting history Before we get to Nate’s old archive from the OG Bloody Elbow about Japanese professional wrestling, let’s do a quick-and-dirty primer to understand what the landscape looked like in 1993 when UFC, K-1, and Pancrase launched. After World War II, former Sumo wrestler Rikidozan became the face of Japanese professional wrestling. He was a national hero who also happened to be of Korean descent, which raised many issues — especially in combat sports — about the role of zainichi. Foreign governments faced a stark political choice: have a Japanese government siding with China or America. Eventually, the CIA and MI-6 would come to terms with the rise of the yakuza. The yakuza would take over many aspects of nation building. Fight sports in Japan were a very special yakuza business. Rikidozan was bridging the dark and light business worlds between Korea and Japan. In December of 1954, Rikidozan had a famous wrestling match with Masahiko Kimura, the legendary Japanese judoka who submitted Helio Gracie three years earlier in Rio de Janeiro. Rikidozan double-crossed Kimura in their 1954 match at Kuramae Kokugikan and won. The fight was labeled as “the Showa Era’s greatest mystery.” The two men had agreed to a three-fight series but Rikidozan went into business for himself and the rest was history. Rikidozan’s double cross of Masahiko Kimura helped influence a series of terms still used in pro-wrestling language to this day, such as cement and crowbar. One of the CIA’s favorite entertainment outposts in Tokyo was called The New Latin Quarter, which was a copy of the The Latin Quarter from New York City. The Latin Quarter was founded by Barbara Walter’s father, Lou, in 1942. New Latin was founded in 1959 and imported a lot of American entertainment acts like James Brown and Sammy Davis. Rikidozan would have a legendary decade of all-time ratings bonanzas, including matches against The Destroyer. Japanese citizens across the country would watch these events on street televisions. In December 1963, Rikidozan got into an altercation with a Sumiyoshi-kai yakuza member at The New Latin Quarter. Rikidozan reportedly was trying to seduce a hostess but ended up getting stabbed in the abdomen and died at the age of 39 due to peritonitis. A decade later, two of Rikidozan’s most important students — Giant Baba (All Japan) and Antonio Inoki (New Japan) — founded their own respective professional wrestling companies. Baba was heavily influenced by American pro-wrestling and his love of wrestlers like Bruno Sammartino and The Destroyer. Rikidozan’s sons, Mitsuo and Yoshihiro, sided with Baba. Antonio Inoki’s vision of professional wrestling was far different. Inoki was influenced by his travels throughout Brazil. He wanted to push the boundaries of wrestling into the world of Kakutougi (“other” fighting). Karl Gotch, Billy Robinson, Lou Thesz, and other key grapplers wrestled in New Japan. A few years after New Japan’s launched, Inoki transitioned into kakutougi matches against different martial artists like Willie Williams, The Monster Man, and a freak show fight with Great Antonio. It was part of Inoki’s master plan to eventually fight Muhammad Ali at Nippon Budokan in June 1976 with Judo Gene LeBell as the special referee. Josh Gross wrote a spectacular book on this subject that you can purchase at Amazon. Inoki embraced the negative criticism from the Ali match head-on. New Japan would eventually become the dominant TV ratings powerhouse for Japanese professional wrestling. However, multiple financial and political scandals in the 1980s created significant chaos for the company. A major financial scandal involving an Inoki Brazilian sugarcane company called Anton Hi-Cel caused major turmoil among New Japan’s top wrestlers like Tiger Mask Sayama, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, and Riki Choshu. New Japan was being used as a piggybank for Inoki’s other ventures. This financial chaos helped create two major 1980s splinter groups in wrestling: the Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF) and Japan Pro-Wrestling (Choshu). Japan Pro-Wrestling did an invasion angle with Baba’s All Japan in 1985. UWF decided to go a separate path and market “dojo pro-wrestling.” The concept was to put on display the kind of daily training professional wrestlers were engaged in. Satoru Sayama had world-class lightning speed and technique. Yoshiaki Fujiwara was a sadistic submission master in the gym spending his many days learning painful joint manipulation holds. The 1984 incarnation of the UWF forever changed wrestling. After the first UWF imploded, Sayama would create Shooto. The second version of the UWF, formed in 1988, brought the first UWF to mass market appeal with key New Japan talent like Nobuhiko Takada and Akira Maeda. There were always whispers that Antonio Inoki allowed these splinter groups to develop, with Akira Maeda recently stating in 2026 that he thought Inoki could crush them at any time but decided not to for whatever his reasons may have been. The UWF had a major show in 1989 at The Tokyo Dome called U-COSMOS. In 1990, a young American wrestler named Wayne Shamrock would be booked by the UWF for a major event at Osaka Castle Hall. The second UWF would implode in December 1990 due to financial scandal. Multiple splinter groups were created. Akira Maeda formed RINGS in 1991 and featured key Dutch + Russian talent like Chris Dolman, Dick Vrij, and Volk Han. Takada, Yoji Anjo, and other UWF talent would form UWF International in 1992. Major foreign talent like Gary Albright, Vader, and Bad News Allen would compete at Nippon Budokan events. Danny Hodge, Lou Thesz, and Nick Bockwinkel would endorse the UWF-I champion as the Professional Wrestling Champion of the world. Yoshiaki Fujiwara would form Fujiwara-gumi and brought along two incredibly talented UWF students: Minoru Suzuki & Masakatsu Funaki. Fujiwara-gumi was financially backed by eyeglass magnate Hachiro Tanaka of Megane Super. Tanaka was a financial backer of the controversial SWS (“Money Pro-Wrestling”) company that lured away famous ex-Sumo/All Japan pro-wrestler Genichiro Tenryu. When SWS imploded in 1992, Fujiwara-gumi continued to produce events until 1993 when Pancrase launched. Fujiwara’s top students, along with foreign talent like Ken Shamrock and Bas Rutten, would soon revolutionize the concept of Japanese professional wrestling’s role in modern Mixed Martial Arts under the concept of shootfighting & Hybrid Wrestling. Which brings us to the rise of Ken Shamrock in both Japan (Pancrase) and America (UFC). That’s the focus of this week’s Kid Nate MMA history series on The MMA Draw podcast. If you enjoy this week’s podcast as much as we did in producing it, please become a paid subscriber to The MMA Draw and join us for future episodes. Ways to listen to The MMA Draw podcast For our paid subscribers — please update your podcast feeds so that you never miss the latest edition of The MMA Draw podcast. You can check out The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack via the following feeds: * The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Apple * The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Spotify * The MMA Draw Substack Podcast RSS feed Nate Wilcox is Editor-in-Chief of The MMA Draw. He founded BloodyElbow.com in 2007 and sold it in 2024. Zach Arnold is a lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw on Substack. His archives can be read at FightOpinion.com. Contact Zach: fightopinion at protonmail dot com. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.themmadraw.com/subscribe

  3. Aug 6

    Kid Nate’s MMA History 1: Pancrase meets Gracie BJJ at UFC 1

    One of the topics that really excites us the most at The MMA Draw is the history of the sport. So many current UFC fans have no idea when this spectacle was created and why. Just how important was the UFC before TKO got their corporate hands on it? How was this industry created? And what exactly were the motives of everyone involved? Long before TKO became a multi-monopoly swallowing up combat sports, the concept of Mixed Martial Arts was something that many different visionaries on different continents were fighting to establish as a marketing concept. There was Antonio Inoki fighting Willie Williams, “The Monster Man” Everett Eddy, and Billy Robinson. There were various Japanese incarnations of the UWF in the 1980s and the multiple factions created after various financial and political civil wars. One of those factions was Pancrase, which promoted and developed major stars like Masakatsu Funaki, Minoru Suzuki, Ken Shamrock, and Bas Rutten. Yes, professional wrestling was considered a martial art. Read Jonathan Snowden’s recent article about Minoru Suzuki and you will be blown away by the concept of Hybrid Wrestling. Zach ventured into the world of MMA through Japanese combat sports. Nate ventured into the world of MMA through the UFC and Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. This week’s podcast for The MMA Draw, which brought us much joy, is based on Nate’s old MMA History series at the OG version of Bloody Elbow. Our focus is on how the UFC was created as a giant promotional machine for Gracie family business and the impact it had on popular global culture. If you love the history of fight sports and the crazy characters that helped build what we watch today, become a paid subscriber to The MMA Draw and enjoy our new podcast series. Black Belt Magazine and Gracie Jiu-Jitsu If you have never seen the archives of Black Belt Magazine, you are in luck. There is an extensive Google archive in which you can go back in time and see the kind of mass market appeal this publication had in the United States. Long before there was an Internet, magazine culture was a real thing. Playboy and Hollywood would have an instrumental role in popularizing fighting sports in the 1980s. Before there was an UFC, there was a cottage industry of self-styled martial arts masters who gained infamy and notoriety. Napoleon Blownapart recently chronicled this historical mayhem. The MMA Draw proudly presents the first installment in our MMA history podcast series. This week is all about The Greatness of Royce Gracie and how he was the perfect avatar for marketing the family business. The UFC was his physical and commercial playground. Topics covered on this week’s MMA Draw historical podcast series * How the sport evolved from what was originally called “No Holds Barred” fighting into what we now know as Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and the UFC. * Royce Gracie’s satisfying narrative arc, winning early tournaments while being tested to his absolute physical limits, and his peak period from late 1993 to early 1995. The Gracie Family & Martial Arts Marketing * The Gracie Family Dynamic and Business: The different agendas within the family business in the 1980s, including Rorion Gracie in Hollywood, Carlson Gracie training successful fighters, Rickson Gracie, and Royce. * The Royce Gracie Avatar: How was this slender, “wimpy looking” guy able to disarm so many of his opponents in sparring sessions and in the cage? It was the perfect example of how the Gracies sold the world that Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu could overcome any size difference. Why was the UFC the greatest marketing gimmick in fight sport history? * Rorion Gracie’s Hollywood Breakthroughs: Rorion moving to L.A. in the 1970s, working as the combat consultant for Mel Gibson’s stunts in Lethal Weapon, and the influential 1989 Playboy magazine article titled BAD that introduced BJJ to the American public. Art Davie paid very close attention… and the rest was history. Historical Foundations of Combat Sports * Kanō Jigorō codifying ancient Jiu-Jitsu samurai techniques into modern Judo at the Kodokan in the 1890s. * Mitsuyo Maeda’s Travels: Count Maeda’s journey from the U.S. to Cuba and Brazil, competing against catch wrestlers in professional circuits. * The 1980s Combat Sports Boom: The peak era of boxing (Tyson, Hagler, Hearns, Leonard, Duran) and professional wrestling (Vince McMahon, the first WrestleMania pay-per-view, Hulk Hogan, the Funks, and Ole Anderson). * Traditional Martial Arts (TMA) marketing: 1970s action movies (Bruce Lee & Charles Bronson) and the 1980s craze of Kung Fu and karate movies (Chuck Norris, Steven Seagal, Jean-Claude Van Damme) and Black Belt Magazine articles detailing Dim Mak “death touch” techniques. The Creation of the UFC * Screenwriter John Milius & The Octagon Design: How the screenwriter/director of Conan the Barbarian worked with Rorion Gracie and reportedly suggested the Octagon design. There was even an original proposal to surround it with a crocodile-filled moat. Our old friend Jake Rossen at ESPN published an article in 2013 investigating the truth behind the invention of the Octagon. * The “Gracies in Action” Challenge Videos: Rorion Gracie’s L.A. studio advertisements offering to break the arms of challengers, leading to videotaped fights of Royce against Kung Fu practitioner Jason DeLucia and other traditional stylists. Tape Trading & Regional Crossovers * Blockbuster Rental and Japanese Tape Trading Culture: Renting early UFC tapes next to pro wrestling tapes at Blockbuster, buying tapes through HOOK ‘n SHOOT, and Japanese fighting magazines (Gong, Weekly Pro Wrestling) grouping all combat sports together. * Pancrase vs. UFC Rule Differences: How Pancrase used a ring, banned closed-fist punches to the face, and discouraged ground striking, which left founder Ken Shamrock unprepared for Royce Gracie’s tactics. * How the early days of the UFC was the Wild West: Crazy characters like Jim “Superfoot” Wallace, Ben Perry (in-house Gracie promoter), legendary football player Jim Brown, and (long-time Fox News personality) Brian Kilmeade. Nobody knew what they were watching unfold in front of their eyes! Why did watching the UFC feel so much like watching a “forbidden” underground activity in the 1990s? How did the Gracie family exploit this raw, uncensored environment to convince the world that they owned the combat sports platform that would cement their family legacy? Royce Gracie established the modern standard of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and made it an integral component of current-day UFC fighting. If you enjoy this week’s podcast as much as we did in producing it, please become a paid subscriber to The MMA Draw and join us for future episodes. Ways to listen to the Mad Squabbles (MMA Draw) podcast PAID SUBSCRIBERS — START HERE Your full episodes don’t come through Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Those apps carry our public feed, which has only free previews of paid episodes. Full episodes come through your own private feed, which is unique to you. The easy way — the Substack app. Install it, sign in with the email address you subscribed with, and every full episode is waiting. Nothing to copy or paste: https://substack.com/app Or add your private feed to the podcast app you already use: 1. Open your subscription settings: https://www.themmadraw.com/account 2. Scroll to “Private podcast feed” and click “Set up podcast” 3. Copy the feed URL. It’s tied to your account — please don’t share it. 4. Paste it into your app: Apple Podcasts — Library, then the ••• in the top right, then “Add a Show by URL” Overcast — the + button, then “Add URL” Pocket Casts — paste the URL into the search bar, then tap + Your private feed link is also in the welcome email you got when you subscribed (if you just subscribed recently). FREE LISTENERS Free episodes, plus previews of the paid ones: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id984162015 Spotify: RSS: https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/1407790.rss Paid subscriber and seeing 12-minute episodes here? That’s the preview feed — use your private feed above instead. Nate Wilcox is Editor-in-Chief of The MMA Draw. He founded BloodyElbow.com in 2007 and sold it in 2024. Zach Arnold is a lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw on Substack. His archives can be read at FightOpinion.com. Contact Zach: fightopinion at protonmail dot com. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.themmadraw.com/subscribe

  4. Jul 23

    How the US/Iran war + AI debt bomb married TKO, Paramount, and Saudi Arabia

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.themmadraw.com Well, this sure turned out to be one intensive deep dive of a podcast. This week’s edition of The MMA Draw podcast is all about the financial, legal, and political consequences of the United States/Iranian war in the Middle East and how the damage has forced the investments of very rich governments to converge into consolidation. Nate wrote about Oracle’s financial peril and its potential to unravel the nascent Ellison Paramount/WBD/TikTok media empire under his Nat Wilson Turner nom de blog, and we referenced that quite a bit in this discussion. Ed Zitron has a big update about Oracle’s AI debt bomb and how leveraged Larry Ellison is financially both to AI and Paramount. Turki Alalsheikh and SELA have managed to consolidate the boxing world through Nick Khan and TKO. The biggest fights will happen on Paramount or Netflix, while DAZN has control of the legacy promoters for the rest of the boxing world. Saudi Arabia is a key financial backer of the Paramount/Warner Brothers Discovery merger deal. Meanwhile, Mark Shapiro is running wild with his fingerprints all over UFC & WWE matchmaking. Shapiro is not only imposing his sports fandom onto TKO audiences, he’s primarily booking “moments” for his big financial backers like Michael Rubin of Fanatics. On this week’s MMA Draw podcast, we explain the entire Tom Brady/TKO marriage and the role of Silver Lake boss Egon Durban. The heart of this week’s MMA Draw podcast is all about our go-to streaming expert, The Entertainment Strategy Guy. We recently conducted a Q & A with ESG on a number of your most requested questions regarding UFC on Paramount. So much of Larry Ellison’s Oracle fortune is tied to Paramount. As Nikkei recently reported, there is a massive off-the-books campaign by the world’s biggest tech companies regarding how much debt is in the dark from investors. If you want to know how all of this is tied into Paramount and big UFC + Zuffa Boxing fights airing on the Ellisons’ streaming platform, this week’s MMA Draw show is the place to go for prime time storytelling. It pays to become a paid subscriber to The MMA Draw and this week’s podcast is living proof of listener benefits. Ways to listen to The MMA Draw podcast For our paid subscribers — please update your podcast feeds so that you never miss the latest edition of The MMA Draw podcast. You can check out The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack via the following feeds: * The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Apple * The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Spotify * The MMA Draw Substack Podcast RSS feed Nate Wilcox is Editor-in-Chief of The MMA Draw. He founded BloodyElbow.com in 2007 and sold it in 2024. Zach Arnold is a lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw on Substack. His archives can be read at FightOpinion.com. Contact Zach: fightopinion at protonmail dot com.

  5. Jul 14

    UFC 329 week TKO'd Conor McGregor & boxing as we know it

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.themmadraw.com It’s not your fault if you got sucked into the Conor McGregor vortex. At least it wasn’t on PPV. Besides, Benoit Saint Denis’ performance against Paddy Pimblett was far more depressing. This week’s edition of The MMA Draw podcast focuses on the current state of affairs for the UFC Lightweight division after UFC 329’s fight results. Are you interested in Paddy Pimblett vs. Ilia Topuria? How about Max Holloway vs. Arman Tsarukyan? There are lots of unresolved questions from UFC 329 week to answer. We want your feedback to this week’s podcast. Leave us a comment and tell us what you think of this week’s show. For our paid subscribers, we talk all about TKO’s all-in strategy on Zuffa Boxing as a growth story. Mark Shapiro needs this talking point on Wall Street because the value extraction of WWE fans for Summerslam in Minneapolis is not reportedly going according to plan. Thanks to the fountain of (mis)information known as ChatGPT, take a look at the last four weeks of Netflix ratings numbers for WWE RAW. With WWE business softening, TKO’s timeline to take over boxing has plenty of incentive for acceleration. Dana White asked the public to judge Zuffa Boxing at the end of the year by who they sign and how many cards they produce. Right on cue, there is significant consolidation in the boxing industry with both Turki Alalshikh/TKO and DAZN. Some of the big questions we address on this week’s MMA Draw podcast: * Why the Shakur Stevenson signing and Netflix confirmation of Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury is a big credibility boost, especially if that fight happens in Las Vegas * What is happening behind the scenes with the various delays in announcing Ryan Garcia vs. Conor Benn and how a certain boxing Twitter account may have revealed a much bigger story regarding Paramount’s potential involvement * Is DAZN being positioned as TKO’s boxing version of Fight Pass? Will DAZN end up being a permanent boxing subcontractor for all other major streaming media platforms? * Why Zuffa Boxing is able to continue with their consolidation plans regardless as to whether or not the US Senate passes the Ali Revival Act When it comes to TKO, you can’t simply talk about one piece of their combat sports portfolio. They are constantly tying WWE, UFC, and Zuffa Boxing business headlines into one consolidated, corporate package. Synergy. Important News For our paid subscribers — please update your podcast feeds so that you never miss the latest edition of The MMA Draw podcast. You can check out The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack via the following feeds: * The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Apple * The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Spotify * The MMA Draw Substack Podcast RSS feed Nate Wilcox is Editor-in-Chief of The MMA Draw. He founded BloodyElbow.com in 2007 and sold it in 2024. Zach Arnold is a lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw on Substack. His archives can be read at FightOpinion.com. Contact Zach: fightopinion at protonmail dot com.

  6. Jul 7

    How Conor McGregor's UFC legacy is tied to Floyd Mayweather

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.themmadraw.com Everyone is holding their breath to see if Conor McGregor will, in fact, make his long-awaited return to the Octagon to fight Max Holloway at UFC 329 this weekend in Las Vegas, Nevada at T-Mobile Arena. In 2026, the two biggest stars in boxing & MMA remain Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor. Both men’s legacies are strangely connected to each other when it comes to business and legal issues. Ari Emanuel’s decision to take the money from their 2017 boxing match instead of changing UFC fighter pay calculations is what has led us down this rather crazy world of fight sport economics. It’s why there is still ongoing UFC antitrust litigation. This week’s edition of The MMA Draw Podcast is one of our best shows to update. If you have not already subscribed, sign up and give us a try for a month for $8. For our current subscribers or those of you considering a paid subscription, $69 a year is the best bargain for the kind of combat sports news and information we provide. There’s a reason industry leaders are all-in on following our content. The MMA Draw Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. Your paid subscription provides access to news on fights, predictions, politics, lawsuits, and scandals you simply will not find out anywhere else. This week’s podcast menu of topics for our listeners includes: * The future of Conor McGregor and how his legacy inevitably is tied to Floyd Mayweather’s misfortunes. Will Conor be able to emerge from a better financial and legal position than Floyd is currently in? * Why Ari Emanuel’s decision to allow Conor McGregor to box Floyd Mayweather permanently changed the trajectory of both boxing and UFC for better and for worse. * What realistic expectations fans should have for Conor McGregor vs. Max Holloway at UFC 329, including our estimates on how big the T-Mobile Arena gate will likely be. * A blockbuster development in UFC antitrust evidence spoliation hearings regarding Dana White’s iPhone 11 Pro phone potentially getting erased. Who did what and when? We separate fact from fiction in regards to what it means for ongoing UFC litigation as far as a timetable and likely outcome, either in settlement or if the case goes to trial. Paid subscribers have access to Zach’s full article on what happened in the courtroom last week. * The growing role of Big Law firm Latham & Watkins in the UFC antitrust lawsuit with long-time UFC attorney Colby Williams leaving to join his old bosses at Red Rock Casino. * How Latham & Watkins became Ari Emanuel’s most trusted legal advisors. How does Ari view his Big Law partners in regards to their role in US Government affairs? Nate & Zach play newly released audio by a Delaware court (obtained by Brandon Thurston of POST Wrestling + Wrestlenomics) regarding Ari Emanuel & Vince McMahon voice messages communicating behind-the-scenes chicanery to sell WWE to Endeavor. Did Janel Grant help Ari Emanuel become a billionaire? * What the future of UFC & WWE could look like once current US President Donald Trump is out of office. If you like your fight news hot, intense, and in-depth, The MMA Draw is the place to sign up and become a full-time subscriber. Important News For our paid subscribers — please update your podcast feeds so that you never miss the latest edition of The MMA Draw podcast. You can check out The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack via the following feeds: * The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Apple * The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Spotify * The MMA Draw Substack Podcast RSS feed Nate Wilcox is Editor-in-Chief of The MMA Draw. He founded BloodyElbow.com in 2007 and sold it in 2024. Zach Arnold is a lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw on Substack. His archives can be read at FightOpinion.com. Contact Zach: fightopinion at protonmail dot com.

    How Conor McGregor's UFC legacy is tied to Floyd Mayweather

  7. Jun 21

    Ari Emanuel's political & business legacy with UFC Freedom 250

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.themmadraw.com Last week’s UFC White House event drew a reported 8.2M viewers on Paramount Plus. The upcoming Conor McGregor fight in Las Vegas against Max Holloway could draw just many viewers. Michael Tasner at Inc Magazine argued that whatever money TKO lost on the UFC White House event would be more than made up for by the wave of earned media before and after the event and a permanent elevation of the promotion’s profile. Is he right? This week’s super-sized podcast from The MMA Draw analyzes every single angle from the UFC Freedom 250 event including the historical juxtaposition of TKO throwing an 80th birthday bash for President Donald J. Trump, only to see him surrendering hours later to the Iranian government by signing the Treaty of Versailles 2.0. President Trump isn’t the only one making political history. Ari Emanuel is one of the key unelected power brokers in this current US Presidential administration and he is preparing for Life After Trump. That framing explains why the US State Department recently signed a deal with UFC in the name of diplomacy. Thought being a fight fan meant you could escape politics? Not any longer. Ari Emanuel enabled, produced, and orchestrated the process behind the UFC White House event. Dana White and Craig Borsari put in the elbow grease but it was The King of Hollywood who President Trump made a beeline towards for the first handshake at UFC Freedom 250. The tabloids and Hollywood press took notice. Everyone involved — including the mainstream political media — would rather not focus on mentioning Ari Emanuel’s name… or if they have to, categorize it in a minimal fashion. On the menu for this week’s MMA Draw podcast: * Why the Paramount Plus media strategy in maximizing UFC visibility for recruiting new subscribers seems chaotic. If you same-day subscribed to the UFC Freedom 250 event, you also will receive Conor McGregor’s return fight in the same billing cycle. Nevermind the Summer campaigns advertising “get two months for 99 cents.” * How much bigger (or smaller) will Conor McGregor’s fight draw in Paramount viewership versus UFC White House? The trends indicate it will draw a monster number. * The huge tax dilemma UFC fighters receiving Freedom 250 crypto bonuses from the White House event are about to face. Nerd alert: We break down how multiple silos of taxation regarding Fair Market Value, ordinary income, and capital gains/losses could hypothetically end up costing fighters tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. * Thanks to Twitter user DeepDarkRock, we now apparently know the name of the doctor who tried to stop the Ilia Topuria/Justin Gaethje fight after round three but was reversed by referee Marc Goddard. UFC’s medical director, Dr. Jeff Davidson, was the other doctor present. What exactly happened and how much more punishment did Topuria unnecessarily absorb? Is Justin Gaethje when he says that Topuria will never be the same fighter ever again? * How Ilia Topuria and Alex Pereira losing in lopsided fashion will create future hesitancy in fighters jumping up multiple weight classes to chase “money fights” instead of sticking to a more natural weight class. * Why Zach Arnold initially interpreted The New York Times article on Conor McGregor and Dr. Neal ElAttrache as a hit piece on the doctor as a larger sports story rather than as a direct hit on UFC or Conor himself. There’s a reason Conor dismissed having a bullseye on his back from The Times during his recent Ariel Helwani interview. A jam-packed 80 minute podcast covering the most politically sensitive issues in combat sports and geopolitics. You simply won’t find this kind of discussion anywhere else in fight sport. Important News For our paid subscribers — please update your podcast feeds so that you never miss the latest edition of The MMA Draw podcast. You can check out The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack via the following feeds: * The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Apple * The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Spotify * The MMA Draw Substack Podcast RSS feed Nate Wilcox is Editor-in-Chief of The MMA Draw. He founded BloodyElbow.com in 2007 and sold it in 2024. Zach Arnold is a lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw on Substack. His archives can be read at FightOpinion.com. Contact Zach: fightopinion at protonmail dot com.

  8. Jun 10

    The Sick, Twisted, Corrupt Relationship Between UFC and Donald Trump

    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.themmadraw.com/subscribe

    The Sick, Twisted, Corrupt Relationship Between UFC and Donald Trump
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About

Nate Wilcox, the founder of Bloody Elbow and Zach Arnold, the founder of Fight Opinion explain the game behind the fights, covering the business of MMA, combat sports and a little bit of pro wrestling. www.themmadraw.com

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