POST IT NOTES
**On Friday morning, we will have a UFC 263 Preview Show where I’ll be joined by Phil Chertok and Eric Marcotte to chat about Saturday’s card and we’ll also discuss the state of Bellator prior to their event on Friday night. Subscribe to our free POST Wrestling feed to receive the show instantly.
**On Saturday, you can follow along during the UFC 263 card in the POST Discord with many other listeners and featured predictions for each fight you can make, interaction with other listeners, and more.
**We will be LIVE with our UFC 263 POST Show immediately after the pay-per-view at YouTube.com/POSTwrestling.
MMA NEWS
**Tyron Woodley is the guest on Food Truck Diaries this week with host Brendan Schaub and discussed the fight with Jake Paul this summer. Woodley spoke about the issues he had in the fights against Kamaru Usman, Gilbert Burns, and Colby Covington and felt much better about his performance with Vicente Luque, which was still a loss but a much better output from Woodley. After the loss to Luque, Woodley’s contract expired with the UFC and left the promotion.
The fight with Paul is scheduled for later this summer with Woodley telling Schaub that it’s the most money he will ever make in one night for fighting:
I’m going to make a lot of money in this fight [against Jake Paul]. I’m not going to make as much as I did in my entire career, obviously. [But] definitely, the most I ever made in one night, the only thing I can compare it to is when I fought at UFC 205.
Woodley defended the welterweight title against Stephen Thompson at UFC 205 in November 2016, which was the UFC’s first card at Madison Square Garden and was headlined by Eddie Alvarez vs. Conor McGregor.
**The PFL returns tonight for the first of three consecutive Thursday night events. The big news for tonight’s show is the MMA debut of two-time Olympic gold medalist Claressa Shields. Shields is 26-years old and won gold in boxing competing at middleweight at the 2012 games in London and 2016 in Rio de Janeiro. Shields turned pro in November 2016 amassing an undefeated record of 11-0 and winning several titles at light middleweight, middleweight, and super middleweight. Since signing with the PFL last year, Shields has been training at JacksonWink MMA in New Mexico and will be fighting 3-6 fighter Brittney Elkin in tonight’s non-tournament fight, which will air on ESPN2.
Tonight’s PFL show lost two of its top names with Anthony Pettis set to fight Alexander Martinez but the former UFC lightweight champion had to withdraw from the fight. Two-time tournament winner Lance Palmer is also off tonight’s card and will fight in two weeks.
The rest of the card features regular-season fights in the PFL’s lightweight and featherweight divisions. A win earns the fighter three points with additional points depending on whether they get a stoppage with three points for a first-round finish, two points in the second round, and one point for a third-round stoppage.
Here is the full card for tonight’s event with the main card airing at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN 2 and TSN 2 in Canada:
MAIN CARD (10 p.m. ET on ESPN2)
*Claressa Shields vs. Brittney Elkin
*Clay Collard (6 points) vs. Joilton Lutterbach (-1)
*Bubba Jenkins (3) vs. Bobby Moffett (0)
*Tyler Diamond (3) vs. Brendan Loughnane (6)
PRELIMINARY CARD (7 p.m. ET on ESPN+)
*Natan Schulte (0) vs. Alexander Martinez (3)
*Olivier Aubin-Mercier (-1) vs. Marcin Held (3)
*Akhmed Aliev (3) vs. Loik Radzhabov (0)
*Sheymon Moraes (3) vs. Jesse Stirn (-1)
*Chris Wade (3) vs. Arman Ospanov (0)
**Nate Diaz spoke with Rolling Stone prior to his fight with Leon Edwards this Saturday at UFC 263. It will be Diaz’s first fight since November 2019 when he lost to Jorge Masvidal after a doctor’s stoppage following the third round of their fight for the BMF title. Diaz vs. Edwards is unique as it’s a non-title fight and not the main event but is still scheduled for five rounds. In theory, the extended length doesn’t harm Diaz as he’s proven to have success late in fights. It’s hard to envision Diaz winning this fight as it’s a tall order fighting Leon Edwards, who has not sustained a loss in his previous nine fights, he has also proven he can go the full five rounds with his victories against Donald Cerrone and Rafael dos Anjos. Diaz told Mike Bohn in the Rolling Stone piece:
He’s the top guy, he’s the guy who has been beating everybody, so why wouldn’t I fight the best guy? It’s impressive when somebody can win that many times in a row in the big show… He knows how to win and he knows how to get it done, so it’s going to be a serious, but not serious fight. I gotta kill the motherf*cker.
With a victory, Edwards “should” receive a title fight but that’s never a guarantee. Dana White has made it clear he is aiming for a fight between champion Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington next after their fantastic fight in December 2019. If by chance Diaz beats Edwards, it could greatly upset the apple cart as Diaz would leapfrog many other contenders and would be an enticing fight for Usman given his style is a nightmare for Diaz and it’s a major name for Usman to headline with.
**Bellator 260 takes place on Friday night and features a really big fight as Douglas Lima defends the welterweight championship against Yaroslav Amosov. It is not receiving as much attention given the UFC card on Saturday and that Bellator has a ceiling regarding buzz it generates. Lima is in the same position as Israel Adesanya this weekend as both are the champions of their divisions yet are coming off losses are competing at a higher weight class in their last outings. Lima fought Gegard Mousasi last October for the vacant middleweight title and lost by unanimous decision. This fight is the best test for both and Amosov has a flawless recording including six wins inside Bellator. Amosov’s most noteworthy wins have come against Erick Silva, David Rickels, Ed Ruth, and Logan Storley, which is quality competition, but Lima is a different level.
Here is the full card for Bellator 260 with results from Thursday’s weigh-in:
MAIN CARD (9 p.m ET on Showtime, YouTube in Canada)
*Bellator Welterweight Championship: Douglas Lima (169.75) vs. Yaroslav Amosov (170)
*Paul Daley (175) vs. Jason Jackson (175) – Catchweight fight
*Aaron Pico (145.75) vs. Aiden Lee (145)
*Demarques Johnson (170) vs. Mark Lemminger (170.5)
PRELIMINARY CARD (6 p.m. ET online)
*Levan Chokheli (170) vs. Kyle Crutchmer (170.25)
*Tywan Claxton (146) vs. Justin Gonzalez (145)
*Bobby King (156) vs. Nick Newell (156)
*Matthew Skibicki (146) vs. Lucas Brennan (146.5)
*Amanda Bell (145) vs. Marina Mokhnatkina (145.5)
*Gustavo Trujillo (205.25) vs. Alex Polizzi (205)
**Bellator has announced that Vanessa Porto is not cleared to compete and her fight with Ilara Joanne for Friday night’s card is off.
**John Nash at Bloody Elbow has a big interview with Nate Quarry discussing the ongoing antitrust suit against the UFC and the ongoing battle regarding fighter pay that has received a larger spotlight due to Jake Paul’s criticism of the pay system and understanding the reasons why Jon Jones isn’t fighting Francis Ngannou next. In the interview, Quarry stated:
It’s great that Jake Paul and his brother are speaking up but they shouldn’t have to. There should be plenty of well known fighters doing it. But it’s still great that they are. And if they want to really make an impact, if they are really serious about helping fighters make more money, then they should come with us to DC. Because as we’ve seen time and time again, talk doesn’t change anything. We need to pass the legislation like the Ali Act expansion. We need to win in the courts like with the antitrust lawsuit. We need permanent change.
**ESPN Deportes reports that a women’s flyweight fight between Cynthia Calvillo and Jessica Andrade has been signed for UFC 266 on September 25th. Calvillo’s last two fights have taken place at flyweight with a win over Jessica Eye last June but she is coming off a decision loss to Katlyn Chookagian last November. Andrade is the former 115-pound champion and left the division after losses to Zhang Weili and Rose Namajunas. In Andrade’s last fight, she was stopped by champion Valentina Shevchenko in a one-sided fight at UFC 261 in April.
**MMA Fighting has confirmed that the UFC has signed a light heavyweight fight between Anthony Smith and Ryan Spann for a UFC Fight Night card on September 18th. Smith is 32 and is coming off a pair of wins over Devin Clark and Jimmy Crute. Spann came off Dana White’s Contender Series in 2018 and has posted a record of 5-1 in the UFC and is coming off a TKO win over Misha Cirkunov this past March.
**ONE Championship has a tape-delayed card airing Friday morning from Singapore on B/R Live at 8:30 a.m. ET featuring a main event between Tsogookhuu Amarsanaa taking on Ben Wilhelm.
**Episode 4 of UFC Embedded heading into the UFC 263 card:
*****
POST INTERVIEW: Nate Milton, The Nubian Wrestling Advocates
John Pollock catches up with Nate Milton to discuss The Nubian Wrestling Advocates podcast coming to POST Wrestling beginning this Sunday.
*****
SHOT IN THE DARK 6/9/21
John Siino reviews this week’s editions of AEW Dark, AEW Dark: Elevation, NXT UK, NWA Powerrr, 205 Live, NJPW Strong, Ring of Honor, and Main Event in under 15 minutes on Shot In The Dark.
*****
upNXT 6/8/21: “I’m Your Poppy”
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman review the June 8th, 2021 edition of WWE NXT: The go-home show for TakeOver: In Your House this Sunday!
*****
ASK-A-WAI: Ask Us Anything (June 2021)
John Pollock and Wai Ting answer their patrons’ questions from the POST Wrestling Forum in the June 2021 edition of Ask-A-Wai.
*****
REWIND-A-RAW 6/7/21: Baszler vs. Doll, Bret Hart A&E Biography
John Pollock & Wai Ting review WWE Raw featuring the latest worst segment of all-time involving Shayna Baszler & Lilly, and a review of the A&E Biography on Bret Hart.
*****
NJPW DOMINION POST SHOW
John Pollock & Wai Ting review NJPW Dominion 2021 featuring Kazuchika Okada vs. Shingo Takagi to determine the new holder of Will Ospreay’s vacated IWGP Heavyweight Championship.
*****
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