Sports economist | MMA researcher | BJJ 🟪 | Former ABC-certified referee & judge | Former MMA contributor for Forbes Sports & OG Bloody Elbow | All views mine
Joined March 2012
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Congrats to @Jon_Anik 👊 If you’re taking questions, I’d love to know if you’ve got biz/1st class flights in your contract instead of coach
LOCKED DOWN 🔒💰
Congrats to our very own @jon_anik on signing a multi-year extension with the UFC. After 15 years of calling the biggest moments in the sport, the voice of the UFC isn’t going anywhere…
The Octagon is in great hands with the GOAT behind the mic for years to come 🎙️🐐
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UFC 334’s real main event. Cannot wait!! 👊
The inside look of Nunes vs. Harrison. A story about deceit, misunderstanding or paranoia, depending who you ask.
"My opinion? They probably hate each other's guts, is my opinion."
espn.com/mma/story/_/id/5042…
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When this aired live, I never really paid attention to the fact that Pete’s going out there in his white belt 😂
After announcing at UFC 8 & UFC 10 I finally convinced the then UFC owner in 1996 on the film set when filming & co-starring as myself on the hit TV show “Friends” to hire me as the permanent Octagon announcer & it was the best poker hand I ever played. 🗣️🎙️🙏👊
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Paul Gift retweeted
The big question for me is in regards to enforcement.
Is it a point deduction? DQ?
Because unlike an eye poke, groin strike, strike to grounded opponent, strike to back of the head, etc, it is much tougher to argue that an oblique kick would be unintentional.
🚨 Joe Rogan reveals that oblique kicks are going to be made ILLEGAL:
"It is going to be made illegal, I know. I think we're announcing it right now."
(via @joerogan)
It’s so interesting to be observing all this while in the middle of Lioness season 3
In my world Two Cups just had his method actor fling, woke up to the shakedown while laughing, and the bad guy’s getting interrogated
The Nvidia C.E.O. Jensen Huang’s affair with a Chinese businesswoman, whom U.S. officials believe to be a spy, could turn out to be the costliest extramarital dalliance of all time. The company’s stock tumbled by more than 10 per cent after he admitted that he had been “unfaithful.” In addition to being the chief executive of the $5.5-trillion company, Huang has also emerged as a close adviser to the President.
In May, Huang accompanied President Trump on a state visit to Beijing, at the President’s last-minute request—after a highly classified memo warned top U.S. officials that the Nvidia C.E.O. was in a close relationship with a Chinese spy. This weekend, Trump remarked that he regarded Huang as “an honorable guy” who “probably has an excuse for it.” “The emerging line from Huang’s defenders is that A.I. is so vital to America’s future, and Huang is so vital to Nvidia, that, like the big banks during the Great Financial Crisis, he’s too big to fail,” John Cassidy writes. But how much did Huang, and the Trump Administration, really know about the situation—and what effect will it have on the A.I. industry? newyorker.com/news/the-lede/…
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Paul Gift retweeted
👇👇👇
Josh Barnett sounds off on slap fighting after seeing what happened to Jake Hager:
“It's the dumbest thing I've ever seen in my entire life.
We've had our differences in the past, but watching Jake Hager go out there, it's just like, what are you doing? What are you thinking?
It's the dumbest thing you could ever do.
It kills me to see an Oklahoma wrestler, a collegiate D1 wrestler, an All-American, who wrestled in WWE and AEW and fought in Bellator, out there doing this.
There's so much more you could do with your life and career. You'd be better off doing MMA than ever doing slap fighting... I can't say anything good about slap fighting.”
Tucker’s figured out what most of us knew back in 2016 (+ the Epstein stuff)
Hey, better late than never. I’ll take it.
Devastating montage from Tucker Carlson called ‘The Great Betrayal’ showing the lies, deception, and false promises of Trump, Rubio, Hegseth, Bondi, Patel, Bongino, Blanche and Lutnick about the war, the economy and Epstein.
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Paul Gift retweeted
UFC revenue increased in the third quarter up 60%, or $194.0 million, to to $519.2 million, per the latest TKO Group Holdings financial disclosure
#UFC
Damn, it was teed up for Caruso. Would love to know why he didn’t run again
Breaking: L.A. voters elected Nithya Raman as mayor over Karen Bass, putting Democratic socialists in charge of America’s two largest cities on.wsj.com/3WnSqoY
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In 2024, my students asked if I’d work in Trump admin if asked
Response: “Hell no!”
I then didn’t even talk about econ but prob the most important lesson they’ll learn in their biz careers: Character & integrity at the top matter so so much
Feels like voters got that reminder
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So do we now get to use the “voters have given a clear mandate” line on everything for the next two years?
By we, I’m talking about folks who want a reasonably well functioning govt, run by adults who for the most part will put principle over one man’s delusions
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Or less. $300 is a lot. And stay for a 10 hour day where you show up 4 hours early for a lot of sitting around doing nothing, then work a 13-18 fight card and debrief after. And deal with coaches and sometimes fans, and drunk fans. And do it every Saturday over and over and over
I’ve seen a lot of people saying “$2000 per week to be a referee is a great gig! $100k a year!”
My question to them would be, would you be willing to get paid $300 per event on Saturdays 15-30 times per year ($4,500-$9,000 annually) for 10-15 years (in many cases longer) while also working your current job in order to get there?
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From the judge/ref certification courses I’ve attended, there hasn’t been a lack of people wanting to get into MMA officiating. But you don’t jump into big leagues. It’s a lot of long days, long hours at hole-in-the-wall shows for peanuts. Repeated over & over. Easy to flame out
Big John McCarthy opens up about how little UFC referees get paid, revealing the most he ever made for officiating an event was $2,000:
“I can't tell you exactly, but Dan probably made $1,600 for that fight.
I'll give you the truth. Every fight I ever did in the UFC, the most I ever made was $2,000.
That was the last show I ever did in New York in 2017... I got $2,000 for that entire night.
Betting has become a huge part of the sport, and when people do things right, they're still being called corrupt when they didn't do anything wrong.
They're being abused. They have death threats. You can only take so much.
Eventually, when you're making that kind of money and dealing with all of this, it absolutely has an effect.
After a while, you start thinking, ‘This isn't worth it.’”
Paul Gift retweeted
Big John McCarthy shuts down claims that the standup in Moicano x Nolan was justified:
"We talk about standing fights up when they're in neutral positions. That is not a neutral position. That's the greatest position that Moicano could be in.
In the thirty-some years that I've refereed, I've never stood someone up from that position."
Who are these noncitizens they think are dying to vote… ever… but now especially with ice gestapo roaming the streets?
Oh yeah, it’s just protecting his fragile ego and trying to find some way to cheat
Breaking News: The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to order California to hold 20,000 mail-in ballots for further scrutiny, claiming the ballots have been provided to noncitizens. nyti.ms/4A7hpLy
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