Can Vera KO Sandhagen?

Zane Simon & Connor Ruebusch are back to break down this week’s UFC event in San Antonio, TX. With picks and odds for every fight on the card. From Chito Vera vs. Cory Sandhagen in the main event down to Hailey Cowan vs. Taires Vidal in the opening prelim.

The UFC is back in Texas this week with a Fight Night card that’s really thriving on it’s main event. Cory Sandhagen vs. Marlon Vera should be an absolute thriller. The rest of the card may not have so much sparkle, but Nate Landwehr vs. Austin Lingo will be fun and Andrea Lee vs. Maycee Barber is a solid flyweight scrap. Should make for some fun finishes if nothing else.

For those looking to dive deeper into a card that feels as though it’s all just undercard, check out the Prelims Vivi below.

For our paying subscribers on Substack, we have a special treat for you today! With our inaugural MMA Vivi Substack Podcasts you get some EXCLUSIVE BONUS CONTENT right away - stay tuned after the bout analysis & odds for each card... for THE REST OF THE SHOW (accessible only to paid subscribers), featuring a guest appearance from our fearless leader, ‘Kid’ Nate ‘Paywall’ Wilcox! You also earn the ability to comment on the shows over on Substack, and gain access to our entire archive (which is only free for two weeks from the date of publication for our free subscribers). Now we also have individual sections on the Podcast Substack for each of our podcasts, this means you can subscribe to receive emails for specific show sections, and not others! In the future, we may put special content in the section posts, so keep reading the Substack while you catch our shows.

The MMA Vivisection is brought to you by ‘The Fine Art of Violence’, a collection of art and essays recapping the year in MMA by Chris Rini, featuring the most talented artists and writers in Mixed Martial Arts. The book is available in both hard copy and digital formats at chrisrini.com.

Here’s a look at the UFC San Antonio fight card, as it stood at the time of recording:

ESPN/ESPN+ MAIN CARD | SAT. MAR. 25 — 7/4PM ETPT

Marlon Vera vs. Cory Sandhagen — Picks, Both: Sandhagen | At 05:00, Odds 19:11
Holly Holm vs. Yana Santos — Picks, Both: Holm | At 20:05, Odds 27:45
Nate Landwehr vs. Austin Lingo — Picks, Both: Landwehr | At 28:55, Odds 35:19
Andrea Lee vs. Maycee Barber — Picks, Both: Barber | At 36:23, Odds 46:35
Alex Perez vs. Manel Kape — Picks, Both: Kape | At 47:38, Odds 57:03
Chidi Njokuani vs. Albert Duraev — Picks, Both: Njokuani | At 59:50, Odds 1:08:14

ESPN/ESPN+ PRELIMS | 4/1PM ETPT

Daniel Pineda vs. Tucker Lutz — Picks, Both: Lutz | At 1:54, Odds 11:18
Steven Peterson vs. Lucas Alexander — Picks, Both: Peterson | At 13:36, Odds 22:27
Trevin Giles vs. Preston Parsons — Picks, Both: Parsons | At 23:00, Odds 36:19
CJ Vergara vs. Daniel da Silva — Picks, Both: Vergara | At 37:25, Odds 42:05
Manuel Torres vs. Trey Ogden — Picks, Both: Torres | At 42:55, Odds 47:07
Vinicius Salvador vs. Victor Altamirano — Picks, Both: Salvador | At 50:04, Odds 54:37
Tamires Vidal vs. Hailey Cowan — Picks, Zane: Vidal, Connor: Cowan | At 55:09, Odds 1:01:28

For those of you following the picks made on the show, we started tracking them with the July 13th, 2020 Vivisection shows for UFC Fight Island 1: ‘Kattar vs. Ige’. So far, here are the overall standings:

For our last event, UFC 286: ‘Edwards vs. Usman 3’:

Zane picked 10/15 for 67% and Connor picked 9/15 for 60%

Overall stats from UFC Fight Island 1 in July, 2020, through UFC 286 in Mar., 2023:

Zane went 871/1357 for 64% and Connor went 830/1357 for 61%

2023 Stats:

Zane is 71/115 for 61.7% and Connor is 66/115 for 57.4%

2022 Stats:

Zane went 331/505 for 66% and Connor went 312/505 for 62%

2021 Stats:

Zane went 305/493 for 62% and Connor went 295/493 for 60%

July-Dec 2020 Stats:

Zane went 164/244 for 67% and Connor went 157/244 for 64%

Stats Reference Spreadsheets: Vivi Picks Stats_3.23.2023.pdf

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Loyal Vivi Follower ‘Call to Action’: We need a loyal Vivi listener to volunteer your time for us...

The task we need accomplished, is for someone to go to the Bloody Elbow Presents YouTube Channel Vivisection Playlist, scroll down to UFC 251 Main Card show & UFC 251 Prelims Show (from July, 2020) and listen to each show every few minutes before the odds were timestamped (timestamps are listed in the show descriptions); you will be carefully listening for the guys’ picks for each bout. Make a log of Zane’s picks, as well as Connor’s picks for each bout they discussed on the Main Card show AND the Prelims show, noting the name of the event as you go along.

Then do the same for all of the following events from the beginning of 2020:
UFC 251, UFC Vegas 4: Poirier vs Hooker, UFC on ESPN: Blaydes vs Volkov, UFC Apex 1: Eye vs Calvillo, UFC 250, UFC on ESPN: Woodley vs Burns, UFC FN: Overeem vs. Harris, UFC FN: Smith vs Teixeira, UFC 249, UFC Brasilia (UFC on ESPN+ 28): Lee vs Oliveira, UFC 248, UFC Norfolk (aka UFC on ESPN+ 27): Benavidez vs Figueiredo, UFC Auckland (aka UFC on ESPN+ 26): Felder vs Hooker, UFC Rio Rancho (aka UFC on ESPN+ 25): Anderson vs Blachowicz 2, UFC 247, UFC Raleigh (aka UFC on ESPN+ 24): Blaydes vs Dos Santos, & UFC 246.
(These are the events in 2020 we did not track picks on, which makes our stats tracking incomplete for that year, and all years since then.)

Please send your completed log to our BE Production Manager: June M. Williams at orijunels@gmail.com and she will input your data into the ‘Vivi Stats Spreadsheets’ for us.

This project requires someone with integrity who will log the picks honestly and accurately, without bias towards either Zane or Connor. You will be credited by name for your hard work in the first post which contains the updated spreadsheet files.

If you are interested in volunteering for this project, please email June with any questions and let her know you are ready to undertake the task for us. Thanks for your consideration!