EDMONTON, Alberta, Canada – Pedro Munhoz will look to halt the momentum of rising bantamweight Aiemann Zahabi.

Munhoz (20-9 MMA, 10-9 UFC) meets Zahabi (11-2 MMA, 5-2 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 246 (ESPN+) featured prelim at Rogers Place. Munhoz has only one win in his past six outings, but the perennial contender is not discouraged by his recent results.

“It is not good and not bad,” Munhoz told MMA Junkie at Wednesday’s UFC Fight Night 246 media day. “It is what it is. Every time that I step in the octagon, I’m always on the night my best version. Saturday night is going to be my better version than all the other fights that you guys have seen before.

“I get to train at the best gym in the world, American Top Team, and train with the best fighters. So, that’s a tool that helped me always to see what I’ve done wrong in the past and always to be a better fighter.”

Munhoz is on a two-fight losing skid. Zahabi has won his past four in a row.

Although there’s a big difference in their level of competition, with Munhoz having fought the likes of former champions Sean O’Malley, Aljamain Sterling, Dominick Cruz, Jose Aldo, Cody Garbrandt, and Frankie Edgar, he won’t take the Tristar Gym prospect lightly.

“He’s well rounded, training with a good team, they have a good coach,” Munhoz said on Zahabi. “I know he’s going to be ready to face me Saturday. Watching some of his previous fights, my coaches also, we got to be aware of everything he can present.

“He’s a dangerous fighter, he fights calm, he’s been around a lot of fighters that have fought in these type of caliber events and fights so, not underestimating him, and I know it’s going to be a tough fight.”

As for his game plan? Munhoz points to specific attributes that will help him prevail.

“Pressure, skills, and my desire to get the victory Saturday night,” Munhoz responded.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 246.

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Craig Whymark

Unsung hero

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Derrick Lewis and Daniel Cormier fought six years ago, but is there still bad blood to this day?

That appears to be the case at least on Lewis’ side as the veteran heavyweight cast Cormier in a negative light at Wednesday’s media day ahead of his fight with Jhonata Diniz at UFC Edmonton this Saturday. Lewis was asked what fight in his lengthy career he’d want to run back and “DC” was the name that came to mind.

“Probably DC,” Cormier said. “Because that’s still not sitting right with me, I don’t know. Do people really like DC like that?

“I told DC in his face, that guy a piece of shit. He’s a piece of shit, scumbag. F*ck DC.”

Lewis and Cormier met in the main event of UFC 230 in November 2018, with Cormier defending his heavyweight championship against “The Black Beast.” Cormier recorded his first and only successful heavyweight title defense, submitting Cormier in the second round.

When Lewis asked to elaborate on his issues with Cormier, he gave a cryptic response, joking about a past beef over a Popeyes chicken sponsorship, but then insulting Cormier again.

“DC know why,” Lewis said. “Everyone know why, too, he disrespect that Popeyes chicken, but other than that, he’s a piece of shit.”

Lewis’ comments made the rounds on social media, though it remains unclear how serious the often sardonic fighter intended to be.

During an episode of The Ariel Helwani Show on Wednesday, Helwani gave Cormier an impromptu call to sort out the situation, with the conversation arguably only raising more questions.

“I haven’t seen him for a while, but I was pretty hard on him about retiring because he had lost a couple of fights and I was kind of telling the truth and he seemed mad at me, but I haven’t seen him,” Cormier said. “I’m going to see him this weekend and I’m going to kind of ask him, ‘Yo, are you mad at me?’”

Lewis has seen mixed results in his past eight fights, with just three wins during that stretch, including a third-round knockout of Rodrigo Nascimento in his most recent outing this past May. In Cormier’s role as an on-air analyst and podcaster, he’s required to give his honest opinion on how fighters are performing and he believes he might have said something that rubbed Lewis the wrong way.

It’s important to note that Cormier was yet to see the clip of Lewis’ comments himself when discussing the matter with Helwani, so he was basing his response strictly on second-hand accounts. Still, real or not, Cormier sees no reason to reignite their former feud.

“It sounds like it may be a little underlying, he might be a little pissed at me because of the way I talked about him,” Cormier said. “I don’t know what fight it was where it he didn’t look great, but then he knocked the last guy out and I was like, ‘I’m glad he’s back.’ So I don’t know. My opinions go with their performances and I think maybe that’s what it is, but in terms of anything else, Derrick and I don’t really have many things that we do together outside of the Popeyes thing and then our fight.

“But we can’t be mad at each other, we already fought. It’s settled.”

EDMONTON, Alberta, Canada – Aiemann Zahabi hopes to follow in the footsteps of Ilia Topuria and put away one of the most durable fighters in octagon history at UFC Fight Night 246.

After Topuria shocked the world and became the first to knock out Max Holloway at UFC 308 this past weekend, Zahabi (11-2 MMA, 5-2 UFC) wants to put the first knockout or submission blemish on the record of Pedro Munhoz (20-9 MMA, 10-9 UFC), whom he meets in a bantamweight bout on Saturday at Rogers Place (ESPN+).

“You never know,” Zahabi told MMA Junkie at Wednesday’s UFC Fight Night 246 media day. “People said Max Holloway would never be finished and then Topuria did it. That gives me a lot of confident that I can do it too. … There’s always a possibility. But the training camp, the main idea was we’re going to decision but he’s never been finished. Never been subbed, never been KO’d. So I’m ready to go all night.”

Zahabi is fully aware what he’s getting into with Munhoz, because it’s the biggest fight of his career so far. The Canadian gets a shot at the record holder for the most appearances in UFC bantamweight history with Munhoz. He earned it on the power of a four-fight winning streak.

“Yeah of course it’s nice to have an opportunity to fight guys with big names,” Zahabi said. “It’s how you solidify yourself in the UFC. Now I’ve got a few records. I got a huge upset win. I’m tied for like the ninth-biggest upset win in UFC. I have some other records, too. So it’s good to be established now and I’m happy to fight someone who has been in the top 15 for so long and he’s only lost to champions and potential future champions.”

Despite Munhoz entering the card on a tough run of just one win in his past six fights, Zahabi discredits the notion he is catching the Brazilian at an advantageous time. In fact, he argues Munhoz is going to be at his most threatening because of his desperate need to put a victory on his resume, which he reminded everyone again is only filled with elite opposition.

“Not everybody can beat all these guys,” Zahabi said. “It’s a testament to him that they keep giving him even bigger names and all these tough fights. I respect him and when a guy has lost a couple in a row, that’s when he’s most dangerous. So I think he really wants to come out there and beat me and just keep himself in the game. I wouldn’t say that he’s taken up lightly at all. He knows I have knockout power so he’s going to be trying to protect his chin as well, because he doesn’t want to get put to sleep.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 246.

Will Hill

FOX Sports Betting Analyst

As we rapidly approach the halfway mark of the NFL season, some of these award races begin to perhaps become clearer. 

I say perhaps because just last season, we saw how fickle and unpredictable these awards markets can be. 

Joe Flacco was 250-1 to win Comeback Player of the Year with just a month or so to play last season. Eventual Coach of the Year Kevin Stefanski was 80-1 to win the award in mid-December. Even MVP Lamar Jackson was available at 15-1 with mere weeks left in the season. Eventually, a Christmas night showdown against the 49ers went the Ravens’ way, swinging the award to their quarterback for a second time in five years. 

These awards are not set in stone since there’s still some football left to play, and leaving a good final impression on voters goes a long way to deciding who ultimately wins.

As far as the MVP race goes, there are four players who have single-digit odds to win heading into Week 9. 

Jackson and Josh Allen are co-favorites, both at +300 odds (a $10 bet returns $40 total). 

Allen finally threw his first interception of the season last week, but it came in a blowout win in Seattle. Allen has his team on pace to clinch the AFC East title by Thanksgiving. 

Jackson continues to put up outstanding numbers, but his team is only 5-3 after an upset loss in Cleveland in Week 8. And I remain steadfast in my belief that winning this award for a third time will be extremely difficult for Jackson, especially considering he hasn’t duplicated his regular-season success in the playoffs. 

Fair or not, I believe voters will use those factors as a tiebreaker against voting for him. 

Should the NFL fear the undefeated Chiefs or 6-1 Lions more?

Patrick Mahomes is at +600 odds, and that’s largely because of his reputation and due to the Chiefs’ undefeated record. However, Mahomes does not currently have the statistical profile of an MVP, as he leads the NFL in interceptions. 

Lions quarterback Jared Goff is +800, and out of all of these options, he is still the best bet on the board in terms of value. 

But there is another award wager available at an even better number that caught my eye this week.

Jonathan Gannon 22–1 Coach of the Year

The Arizona Cardinals are 4-3 and are favored this week over the Bears. 

A 4-3 record doesn’t sound that impressive, but when you examine their schedule, you realize the Cardinals have played the toughest competition of anyone. 

They’ve already faced the Lions, Packers, Bills, Chargers, Commanders and the Dolphins with Tua Tagavailoa. They also played (and won) in San Francisco against the 49ers. That win could be huge when deciding division tiebreakers later in the season. 

A look at their remaining schedule gives hope to the Cardinals that they can be close enough to winning the NFC West that those tiebreakers can come into play. They’re favored this week, they’re favored next week at home against the Jets, and have games against the Panthers, Patriots, and two games against the Seahawks remaining.

The 49ers were heavy favorites to win the division coming into the season, but they have struggled so far this year and seem to lose an All-Pro caliber player every week due to injury. If the Cardinals can get to 10 wins or more — and I think they can — a division title is possible.

And that would give Gannon a great chance of cashing this ticket at 22-1.

Will Hill, a contributor on the Bears Bets Podcast, has been betting on sports for over a decade. He is a betting analyst who has been a host on VSiN, as well as the Goldboys Network.

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Michael Chiesa thinks he’s put himself in a good position to get the call whenever a new face is introduced into the rotation of UFC color commentators.

Chiesa (19-7 MMA, 12-7 UFC) has been a staple of UFC broadcast for several years now, primarily as desk analyst providing predictions, breakdown and more for various events. More recently, however, he has begun the steps of a proven path toward the commentary booth, which is his ultimate goal.

“The Ultimate Fighter 15” winner has worked commentary for LFA, which streams on UFC Fight Pass, and also recently called “Road to UFC” bouts for the first time. He’s put in tireless hours to craft himself for that role, and Chiesa said it’s only a matter of time until his opportunity on the big show arrives.

“True – 100 percent (I will call an event in 2025),” Chiesa told MMA Junkie. “I feel like it’s coming. For me, I’m just staying patient. I know my time will come and I’m excited for it. My life revolves around this sport. I don’t have kids. I don’t have anything else going on. I eat, sleep and breathe mixed martial arts, dude. So I just know in due time I’ll get what I deserve and I think it’s going to feel really good. I’m pumped.”

The UFC has a strong crop of names already on its broadcast roster. Jon Anik, Brendan Fitzgerald and John Gooden are the trio for all play-by-play assignment. The color commentary features a mix of Joe Rogan, Daniel Cormier, Michael Bisping, Paul Felder, Dominick Cruz and Laura Sanko, who became the most recent addition and first woman to call UFC bouts in February 2023.

Chiesa sees himself as part of that elite crop eventually, and he said there’s no greater joy than his current trajectory.

“It’s just fun,” Chiesa said. “Like, I’m in camp, I get to go to Edmonton and work a desk show and I get a line of training out there and everything about where my life is at right now – I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy. I think that’s good. I know that’s good. I’m excited. When that day comes I just got to make sure to control my excitement. When I get too excited I don’t speak very well. When that time comes, keep a cool head and enjoy the moment for sure.”

Chiesa (19-7 MMA, 12-7 UFC) returns to action at UFC 310 on Dec. 7 when he meets Max Griffin (19-10 MMA, 8-8 UFC) in a welterweight bout at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (ESPN+ pay-per-view, ESPN2, ESPN+).

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 310.

Check out episodes of “The Bohn Fire” on MMA Junkie senior reporter Mike Bohn’s YouTube channel.