January 18th, 2025 - Philadelphia 76ers @ Indiana Pacers

In the real world, there's a snowstorm on the way in my neck of the woods so here's a sweet little snow edit highlighting the Machine's progress!

The Machine is a big fan of Tyrese Haliburton and Andrew Nembhard but business is business and he had to help the Sixers get the victory! Hopefully he earned their respect in the process.

The Machine is starting to stack solid performances now! He's recording higher scoring totals AND he's becoming more efficient. Most importantly, the Sixers are WINNING. They traveled to Indiana and quieted the crowd in a hurry!

The Machine finished with:

• 20 Points, 2 Rebounds, 9 Assists
• Teammate Grade: A

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🌎My Thoughts on the Sports World Today🌎

In the real world, the Sixers play AND there's a UFC Fight Night! Not a bad way to hide from the approaching snowstorm.

UFC Fight Night

• Dan Ige is basically slowly becoming a mild version of Dustin Poirier. Ige needs to get some stronger wins but, they're kinda similar. Poirier's legacy is much stronger and I don't wanna disrespect the guy but yeah. Ige is always exciting and I always feel like he could genuinely beat anyone he faces. Ige fights the surging Melquizael Costa. Costa is on a five fight win streak, including FOUR straight wins in 2025 alone. Costa is half a decade younger than Ige as well, so considering that momentum and the age factor I think Costa gets the job done by decision. Wouldn't shock me if he gets a finish but I respect Ige to much to really commit to that.

• Geoff Neal was once upon a time a serious dark horse in the Welterweight division but he has now lost three of four. For what it's worth his three losses came against top notch competition. Frankly six of his seven losses in his professional MMA career have been against seriously recognizable names! It's actually wild. Those losses were against Kevin Holland, Stephen Thompson, Neil Magny, Shavkat Rakhmonov, Ian Machado Garry, and Carlos Prates. His only other MMA loss came nearly thirteen years ago in his third pro MMA fight vs Martin Sano. He's facing Uroš Medić tonight and this will be Medić's biggest pro test by far and I don't believe he gets it done honestly. I have Geoff Neal winning by knockout.

MAIN EVENT - #3 Sean Strickland vs #4 Anthony Hernandez - Middleweight Bout

I am actually extremely excited for this fight! I admit I find Sean Strickland pretty hilarious most of the time, and I wouldn't mind seeing him win. Strickland can be like Max Holloway at times though in that, he tries to sort of hack his way through some fights with volume and jabs rather than truly engage aggressively. Point fighting essentially. Max is better and has a much better legacy than Strickland but the point still stands. Sean was a champion though, people often forget that.

Anthony Hernandez is quite similar to Strickland when it comes to having insane cardio. Hernandez is willing to wrestle though and he wrestles in an appealing way for those MMA fans that are secretly kickboxing fans. When Hernandez wrestles it is to take his opponents' soul. Constantly aggressive and seeking a finish by ground and pound or submission. Hernandez has earned my respect and a victory tonight will do BIG things for his career.

A win tonight for Strickland will also really help as well!

A lot on the line!!!

This will be a crazy battle of willpower I feel. I think Hernandez gets it done but I have no idea how, I can't imagine him finishing Strickland and that oddly favors Strickland.

This is gonna be nuts. I could see Strickland taking Hernandez to school too....

GAH!!! I just think Hernandez will likely grind out a decision against Strickland. The last round and a half could just be really boring if that makes sense.

Should be fun!! Gonna eat some dinner and enjoy the show.

The sports world never sleeps, till next time!