UFC Preview: Hokit vs. Gane and Masvidal's $200K Bet

I want to get to the next story, which is another sport. One of my favorites. I love the UFC. I'm a big MMA fan. And this weekend, we have two championship fights. One of them is Josh Hokin, who's a very controversial fighter. He put out a rap video. He does like a whole kind of, he almost acts like a professional wrestler. But he was a great college athlete. He played college football at Fresno State and wrestled at Fresno State. And he has had a quick upshot. In one year... In the UFC, he won all his four of his UFC battles. And now he's going to fight for the heavyweight championship against Ciryl Gane. But the thing is, he's undersized. So he doesn't cut weight. Josh Hogan is 6'1, 230. He should cut weight to get down to light heavyweight at 205, but he's like, I don't want to cut weight. He's going to be fighting a guy that's 6'4, 265 pounds. Is his wrestling skills going to be able to penetrate that long jab of the Frenchman? We'll see. Now, what do you think? Controversial figure in the sport, to say the least. That's what I know. All I know is that he's very controversial. I don't follow a lot of fighting, but I want to get more into it. I have a couple of friends that do. As of now, I'm interested to see. I know the press conference is coming up, I believe, tomorrow. I want to see the trash talk. Oh, it's going to get crazy. I want to see what he has to say. I know it's going to get pretty out of hand. But it's part of the sport, right? I like the out-of-pocket stuff, you know, as long as we're not getting a little too much. So I'm excited. Now, like any big fight, he's... you know getting a lot of attention from the biggest names in this sport and Humberto, you share with us that Jorge Masvidal, another another Cubano from Miami, you know you know them all dude. Jorge Masvidal put a big bet, talk to me about it. I'm worried about this. Yeah. Can you show the story really quick? Yeah, we got it there. Look at that. So Jorge Masvidal is betting $200,000 on Josh Huo to beat Ciryl Gane. I'm a little worried about that because sometimes I feel this like bad karma to bet that much on somebody winning who's the underdog. Now, he said in his interview that he couldn't pass up the bet because Josh Huo, on whatever platform he betted on, he didn't share which one, was a 5-1 underdog. And he felt that that was way too far. So if he wins for $200,000, he's going to make a million dollars. Million, million, million, million. And then he was asked during the interview, what happens if you lose? And then he goes... Fighting out of, because he's retired. He goes, fighting out of Miami, Florida, making his comeback fight. So, he's basically saying, if he loses, he's going to have to un-retire. But, God, that's scaring the heck out of me. That's a lot of money for him. That's a lot of money. Is this common for retired fighters? Well, I don't know. Is it necessary? It's super necessary, my friend. That was super necessary. Now. the reality is that when these fights come a lot of fighters are out of the loop out of the limelight they they try to get some of that follow-up to them they would say like hey look at me i'm still relevant i'm still here let me put some money there let my name to be heard because like you said maybe he's paving the way there for a comeback fight maybe an exhibition match that you know he's creeping in, he's creeping, well he so so you know the thing about harping like the young ones okay, he is, here's the thing about Jorge Masvidal that he is a notorious gambler And you know, here's the thing and we're not in the sponsored portion of the show and I'm going to use the word, you know, I shouldn't use that word. Let's just say prediction markets are all the rage. So, you know, I think now it's become more acceptable, you know, to gamble. Yeah. So, and so he's always gambled. Now, is it, you were asking if it was common for fighters to bet on other fighters? Now it is, you know, it's a little dicey, right? Maybe now it's more acceptable. Now, do they have, like, inside information? Yeah. Do they have people in the camp kind of in their ear? Hey, this guy hasn't been looking good. He's a little hurt. And you know that they have the inside track. They have the inside track. All of the professional fighters, they know. They know the gym managers. They let them know, oh, someone is training here. Someone is training there. Yeah. That's the reality of the penetration of gambling and betting houses into sports. In Brazil, in Brazil soccer right now there's a lot of turmoil because over 80% of soccer teams are directly sponsored by a betting house. Where immediately you create that conflict of interest that is happening at every level of the sport and now Growing to a you know younger and younger age groups even collegiate sports now It's a problem because players go and they're like dude I'm getting harassed because they we didn't cover the the over of the bets so the rule is with college athletes I believe they're not allowed to bet on your sports. You're definitely not allowed to bet on any game that you're involved Yeah, but you're not allowed to bet on your sport. So he's retired Jorge Masvidal is retired, so I don't, I don't know Not an issue with that, I don't know about general fighters, yeah By the way, we only got a little bit of time. There's another championship fight on the women's side of the UFC. Amanda Nunes, one of the greatest MMA fighters of all time, is making a comeback, the Brazilian, the former champion. And she's fighting Kayla Harrison. Kayla Harrison, I believe, won the gold medal in Olympic wrestling. So you're going to have a jiu-jitsu master in Amanda Nunes, who's also a fantastic boxer, who knocked out Ronda Rousey and retired Ronda Rousey back in the day. You're going up against Kayla Harrison, who would have liked to have gone against Ronda Rousey because both Ronda Rousey and her were Olympians. Ronda Rousey won the bronze medal in judo. Kayla Harrison won in wrestling. Now, here's the thing. Kayla Harrison was a favorite, but she's returning from a neck surgery. She had five herniated discs. I have two. I don't know how she's going to fight with five herniated discs, but blessings to Kayla.