I don't really know why I'm writing this ... I think it's because I've tried to explain it to my uncle but all he said is that I should get my addiction under control and stop forgetting to take my meds.
I can't blame him. You see... I have a history. I've lost it in the past , twice actually. I'm not here to talk about it , but I think it's important to lay this down first. So you can understand.

I've been told something's wrong with my brain, maybe I was born this way, maybe I've been through too much. That my mother was an addict, she'd cut ties with her family for 10 years when she had me. That where she had been and who my father was, is was very unclear. She was part of a community in the forgotten part of the nearest big city when she died. I was there when it happened.
My uncle Sean and Aunt Maggie became my guardians just before my 5th birthday and I'm still with him 20 years later. Maggie left the ranch a few weeks ago after an amicable divorce, I never understood why they were together anyway she was always working somewhere, traveling a lot. I was closer to him and his sturdy way of life.

When I first arrived at the ranch, I was in a bad shape. I got better thanks to him but when I reached thirteen, all the memories from my early childhood suddenly came back. I started having flashbacks. My memories came back, but they came back wrong.

I had been told that my mother had died of an untreated infection. Yet in my dreams, I saw her , again and again , in a pool of blood. An then... Then it came. The... Thing. I won't describe it. It kind of triggers something in me that I really don't need right now.

I've been told that what happened next was so traumatic that my brain made up a monster, a fiction , to make sense of what I was seeing and not processing.
This ... Thing started obsessing me and during my early teenage years I focused all my energy on finding what it was and proving it happened. That a monster did kill and mutilated my mother. My nightmares were so bad that I stopped sleeping. I drank so much energy drinks that I ended up in the hospital twice with severe dehydration.

Thankfully, I got better. I started working more and more with my uncle's horses. I think it's why he employed me, he saw how manual work and caring for the animals helped. I even got my first girlfriend around my 17th year. I was prom king. Who would have thought?
But then... She had a cheerleading accident. In front of me. And I lost it again. I won't go into details but she broke her neck during half-time and once again... The way she fell, folded and screamed. I couldn't process. It was IT. It'd shapeshifted to get to her. I'm ashamed of it but I became violent. Looking for it franticly. Screaming non sense and talking made up words. I had to be sedated. She made it alive, but she never wanted to see me again. I was accused by pretty much everyone to make the accident all about myself. And they were kind of right....

Now you know how I came to be the " crazy" guy. I have a bit of a drinking problem too to be honest... You see I never went back to high school. I started working full time at the ranch when I came by, and sometimes, it gets lonely. It's not rare to find me passed out in the hay in the early morning in the summer. And what can I tell you... I know I shouldn't. I know it's "bad" . But I love those nights. I put music , cuddle with my dog and just look at the cold bright stars, drinking beer until they start spinning.

It's because of this bad habit that I realized something was wrong with the horses. You see, contrary to the movies, horses are pretty silent. They don't neigh unless you separate them from their best mate or bring food. And that night... The night it all started. They wouldn't stop. I could hear them galloping and snorting. I wondered if there was a stray dog but they were used to dogs. I was a bit worried. Horses get stupid when they are afraid and we had a big show coming, it wasn't the time so sprain a leg. What really troubled me was my dog. He seemed ... Weird.
Max was a pit mix my uncle had rescued when I was 15. He only woke when I got up and walked a bit to look at the paddocks. That's when I realised the moon behind me. It was huge, and red. I wondered if I had ever seen it so close and so red before. I looked at Max The white of his eyes showed and he started whining. I had never heard him make this noise. Ever.

I looked at my phone. It was quarter to three. I took a pitchfork to be safe and walked toward the clubhouse. We kept a shotgun there in a locker. The horses kept going crazy and max's tail was stiff. I was walking fast but carefully in the darkness when the music reached me. A chant. A low chant. I kind of felt it too... Like a ... vibration.
It was coming from the yearlings field near the forest patch, on the opposite direction of the clubhouse. My horse was in this field. I backtracked immediately and rushed toward the sound as I dialled my uncle. Off course he didn't answer. He didn't live on the property anymore but a few miles away. I left a message, whispering. " I'm at the stable, something weird ‘s happening. I think they're people messing with horses I'm going to see. I think you should come , I don't know...Call me back.". The weird chant buzzed in the background, louder, as if more people had joined. I saw the glow of the fire before I passed the last building. It rose , under the bloody moonlight. Dark figures circled around it. Slowly. The horses seemed to have retreated at the other end of the pasture and I was relieved. Until I saw it. The figure at the centre of this dark carousel. " What the f are those creeps doing" escaped my lips.
blazing fury filled me , like a white iron like a white hot blade blinding me . "HEYYYY" I screamed at the top of lungs. " WHAT ARE YOU DOING !? ". The figures stopped and turn toward me. I was running now , my knuckles going white around the pitchfork's stick. Max was growling. A deep growl. His hair high upon his backbone. The figure, still pretty far did not move. I could see their heavy hooded cloaks. " what kind of sick pricks are those " I muttered. " HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY" I screamed again, louder than I ever thought I could scream. And then I saw him. Gun.
Gun was my uncle's favourite horse. His old stallion's spitting image. The young horse was lying in front of the fire behind the intruders.
"WHAT DID YOU DO! I'M CALLING THE COPS!!!!". I stopped and was dialling when a figure detached itself from the group and advanced. It seemed to ... float? It moved toward Max and I... so silently.
The burning rage in veins turned cold , and heavy. I opened my mouth but nothing crossed my lips. Suddenly, Max jumped. He growled in a way I hope to never hear any dog do again. A desperate, furious growl. A life or death sound. A war cry... His warm blood spattered on my face. He... Honestly I don't know what happened at that moment. Something lied bloody on the ground but I couldn't even have told that it used to be a dog, even less Max. Acid tears filled my eyes as I realized my mouth was still open. I was tasting him.
I wanted to scream, to run, to just get swallowed by the earth and yet I did nothing at all but stare at the floating silhouette. It was so tall. " Come, my child". " We were waiting for you, we knew you'd come, Your father told us you'd be here when we'd call".
I heard those words, but I wouldn't be able to tell you anything about the thing who spoke them. I say thing because it didn't have a voice. It... Buzzed. Like... a cello.
Suddenly... I floated too. Panick seized me. Like a trapped raccoon in my
chest it dug its claws, scratching furiously my closed throat.
" Your father said you were ready. We will prepare you." I was now in front of the crackling blaze. the other figures circling me. Smiling Men and woman welcomed me. On their faces they all wore a similar mark. a cross covering their eyes horizontally, and their nose and mouth vertically. Their hands... Their hands were still dripping with gun's inside. Gun... Was ... opened.
" A necessary sacrificed" whispered a woman, still smiling. " I know you liked him very much... I'm sorry..." " I could have taken yours, but I knew you wouldn't have forgiven me'. Her voice. .." Aunt Maggie?' I croaked. Her eyes shone with a mad light. " Gosh do you look like your mother tonight... She'd be so proud. Her baby boy..." .
The tall figure made a gesture and I spined and found myself looking at the sky. I thought I'd fallen but... I wasn't touching the ground...
My aunt continued speaking." She was just like you the first time ... So... naive, so afraid.. She was only 16! That was our mistake you see, she wasn't ready for her destiny yet when she joined us... That's why we waited for you."
The chant , the low buzzing chant rose once again. The people around me started walking in a circle around me. I was just above Gun's body.
One, by one, they buried they hands in the belly of the horse and traced the cross on my face. I sealed my lips as tight as I could as the warm blood covered my face. Through the blood and tears I recognize faces. A nurse from the hospital. A teacher. The coffeeshop barista. My psychiatrist... I closed my eyes.
It was a nightmare. It couldn't be anything but a nightmare.
Yet the smell of the horse's inside and the crackling fire still reached me as they started ripping my clothes off.
" This is not real" I whispered. " This is not real, this is not real THIS IS NOT real" I screamed weakly.
'Oh , My dear I'm so sorry ' whispered my aunt. I should have told you earlier... But Dr Carter said it was better to let you grow up a bit first. He said it help you keep the secrets if you were afraid of them. I'm sure you don't feel this way, but it was an honour to watch your mother ascend the way she did. Her agony was the most beautiful thing she could have hoped for. You were supposed to ascend with her but she ruined it". " Slut" groaned a middle aged woman before spitting on the floor.
" She was my best friend you know... I thought I knew her. I thought I could trust her. But she lied to me."
"You see, we know you are his son. But... She wasn't a virgin when she was honoured."
She smiled. " It doesn't matter how cruelly she tricked us. You can help us find the perfect girl."
One by one, each member traced a symbol on my skin.
" You're so handsome... He'll be so glad. The perfect boy. The perfect vessel."
"It's almost time, Prepare" hissed the tall figure.
" You're going to give him his heir, the one ruler among the realms. You see he can't travel here whenever but you're an anchor my love. Each generation he choses an anchor until he finds one who'll give him THE son, the one who'll die for his freedom. Our freedom."
"QUIET SLAVE AND KNEEL" shrieked the tall figure.
She kneeled right near me, and whispered " You're...". I heard a slash. Aunt Maggie’s face slid horizontally. Her eyes followed me as the upper part of the face slid slowly toward the ground.
" HAIL THE PRINCE".
A chant, colder and louder than never before rose with the crackling flames toward the moon.
" Iä! Shub-Niggurath! The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young! » chanted the disciples."
Frozen, I watched the blazing sky above and saw a door. A perfect wooden door , in the sky. It slowly cracked open as the crowd turn to hysterics and the chant turned to mad screams.
"MY SOOOOOOOON" The whole earth seemed to split open under the weight of the sound coming from the perfect rectangle of empty darkness in the sky.
And then... I saw... I saw what I had tried to forget for twenty-years. I saw those split red eyes and their evil glare. I saw the iron hooves at the end of too many legs. I saw the tentacles who fled my mother with their thousand beaks. Everything all at once, I saw it shift, from an odious form to a more loathsome one. I burned in a way I'll never be able to describe.
I woke up two weeks ago in the nearest hospital. I was found on the ground, surrounded by the yearlings, the corpse of gun and some remains of Max. My uncle explained to me that I had found a bear feasting on Gun, that Max must have attacked it and I'd fainted or been knocked out trying to scare it away. Laying lifeless had saved me. I didn't speak of what I saw at the hospital. I knew better now. I've tried to explain to my uncle why I had to move out to the big city. That I had a mission now. That I had never been crazy and that I shouldn't have been afraid.
I know now that I'm blessed. You see he thinks I'm just having another episode, that it’s a "manic" episode and I should go back to the clinic, but I know better now. I am special. I am. And he can be too. Anyway... He'll be whether he joins or not. You'll all be. Because he is coming. He 'll bless us all. Because you see, I know I can find her and I'll give him the perfect door. A door to let him in. A door to let all of him in. He'll honour us all, all at once.
" Iä! Shub-Niggurath! The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young! »

Club Vlad sat near the confluence of Central Avenue and Washington Avenue, Albany’s two main thoroughfares. Two stories with blackout windows and a box office from when it used to be a movie theater, it was swarmed with people when Dom first spotted it ahead. He was somewhat familiar with it: He passed it every day on his way to work, and it was always busy around his time of evening, even on weeknights. Part of him always wanted to go inside and be a part of the scene, but he never did.
The man in sunglasses - his name was Joe - led Dom toward the club, and even before Joe spoke, Dom somehow knew that it was their destination. “There,” Joe said. “We’ll go around back.”
Dom and Joe had been walking for what seemed like an hour but couldn’t have been more than fifteen minutes. Dom stuck as close to Joe as possible as if for protection, and had become accustomed to his pungent smell. It was noticeable only at extremely close range, part sickly sweet and part…something else, something Dom could not place but still somehow recognized. They were two blocks from the club, maybe three, and Dom could hear the pulsing techo/house/whatever music as clearly as if he were standing in the middle of the dancefloor. He could hear the chatter of the people inside, or at least he imagined he could. He could smell them too: Beneath the odors of perfume, desperation, and spiritual rot was something richer, something blissful. Dom realized for the first time that he was parched - so parched - and drool filled his mouth.
A crowd of people waited outside Club Vlad, talking and laughing; some vaped, some stared down at their cellphones like Gollum with his precious ring. Dom’s first reaction was to avoid them. Perhaps sensing this…or perhaps feeling it himself…Joe ducked into an alleyway two doors down from the club. “We’ll go in the back,” Joe explained.
The back entrance to Club Vlad was a single door underneath a bare bulb. The music was so loud that Dom’s head began to throb. Inside, a dark hallway terminated in an archway filled with throbbing white light. Dread filled Dom as they approached it - he didn’t want to be around people - but thankfully they went into a room off the hall instead. An office. A cramped desk, a filing cabinet. A set of stairs disappeared into shadows.
“Sit,” Joe said.
Dom obeyed, sitting in the swivel chair.
Joe went up the stairs and Dom was alone. The deep coldness that had long settled into his bones made itself known again, and Dom leaned forward, wrapping his arms around his chest for warmth. The muffled music vibrated in his skull, setting his teeth on edge, and the various smells wafting in from the main room assaulted his senses. He was alternately repulsed and aroused by the crashing din of scents: The good, the bad, and the mouth watering. A sharp pain cut through his stomach like the killing edge of a knife, and Dom hugged himself tighter. Had his throat always been this dry? His throat felt like sandpaper; his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth and getting it unstuck hurt so badly that tears sprang to his eyes.
Dom rubbed his arms with his hands and tried to still his chattering teeth. He looked around for a blanket, a discarded jacket, something to cover himself with, but there was nothing. Only drifts of glitter on the floor and walls. He supposed it came from a party or something. He’d never been to a night club but it seemed fitting.
A sound drew his attention to the door leading back into the hall. A woman - no older than a girl - stood there, looking confused and unsteady. She was dressed in black, wore glow sticks around her wrists and neck, and held a red solo cup. “I have to pee,” she said drunkenly and laughed. “I thought this was the bathroom.”
A cold wind washed over Dom, and Joe was standing next to him. “The bathroom’s up here,” he said.
“Oh, good,” the girl laughed, “I thought it was here but I didn’t know. This is my first time here.” She held her cup aloft. “Take me to it.”
Joe glanced at Dom. “Come on.”
They formed a party as they climbed the stairs, Dom in the tear and Joe at the head. The girl stumbled and held onto the railing, talking incessantly. Her voice hurt Dom’s head, but the hot smell wafting from her was intoxicating. Drool coursed down his chin and his breathing came in short, hot bursts. Another sharp pain rent his stomach, and he winced.
At the top of the stairs, where the lights were cold and white, a woman in black stood by a doorway, her back ramrod straight and her eyes vacant. Her face was gaunt, her white flesh pulled tight across her skull. She wore a black dress and her black hair long and straight. Dom only caught a glance at her before looking away again.
She looked like a ghost.
“Show her the bathroom,” Joe said.
The woman’s eyes slowly, ponderles, went from Joe to the drunk girl. Her expression, like Joe’s, was dead. She had no expression. “This way.”
She and the drunk girl disappeared down the hall, and Joe led Dom into a room. Though it was pitch black, Dom could still see; not very well…but he could see. Suddenly, a blinding white light flicked on in front of him, causing him to stop and fall back a step. Ahead, through an archway, sat a vaulted chamber, at the center of which sat a man. To Dom’s light dazzled eyes, he seemed a proud king perched upon a throne, the skulls of his many enemies piled around him. Dom blinked and turned his head slightly to the side. His eyes began to adjust, and the world came into focus.
The man was not, as it had first seemed, sitting on a throne. Instead, he was esconded in a motorized wheelchair. The piles of skulls were actually various pieces of machinery, the kind you’d find in a hospital room. A clear tube extended from one of them to the side of the man’s neck: Yellow liquid flowed from the machine and into the man. Another tube, this one in the other side of his neck, filtered out a mixture of what looked like yellow pus and black sludge. An infected malodor filled the air, and the machines whirred softly as they worked.
As for the man himself, his appearance was normal at first glance, Dressed in a flowing red velvet robe, a blue and green blanket with a plaid pattern draped over his shoulders, he was portly, about fifty, and had shoulder length grayish hair with a bald spot in the middle. If the local theater put on a production of Hamilton, they could cast a worse Ben Franklin than him.
On closer inspection, he was not normal at all. His complexion was yellow and waxy, like a statue, and his body was lumpy, misshapen, resembling an overfilled trash bag stuffed with cotton. His eyes were sick and yellow, and something about his posture seemed…off. It didn’t make sense, but the only thing Dom could think was: He looks impossible.
Joe stopped at the edge of the shadows, where the line between light and darkness lay. He seemed to stand up a little straighter, a general greeting his king. “Here he is,” Joe said.
The man squinted slightly against the glare of the light and motioned with one gnarled hand. “Step into the light,” he said. His voice was soft and kind, that of a senile though loving grandmother. Dom imagined he felt a pull toward the man, and did as he was bidden, wincing as the light stung his eyes.
For a moment, the man stared at him, his waxen features frozen fast as stone. Then, a subtle look of compassion flickered across his face. Dom did not believe in God, but he suddenly felt like a man standing before God, his every thought, feeling, and transgression laid bare. He had never felt so naked in his life, so exposed. He had the sense that the man before him could see everything, knew everything.
“You’ve been through a lot,” the man said. It was not a question, but a statement.
Everything Dom had been through over the past couple of days came back to him in a rush, and hot tears filled his eyes. He nodded.
The man nodded slightly, more to himself than to Dom. “Kneel down,” he said, “I want to look at you.”
Dom knelt without question.
The man lifted one hand and touched Dom’s face, tilting Dom’s head from one side to the other like a farmer appraising a horse. His fingers were long and bony, his nails ragged and unkempt; his touch was like ice. He brushed his knuckles over the purple bruise on Dom’s cheek, and there was such gentleness in that one act that Dom broke down sobbing. He leaned into the man’s touch like a cat and gave voice to his misery.
“Shhh,” the man said, “it’s all over now.”
“W-What’s happening to me?” Dom asked.
In his heart of hearts, however, he already knew.
“You died,” the man said patiently. “And you came back.”
Hearing it stated so plainly, Dom cried even harder.
“Only a handful of people throughout history can claim to have defeated death,” the man said, stroking Dom’s hair, “and you’re one of them. You should be proud.”
“How?” Dom asked between sobs. “What am I?”
The man stroked Dom’s cheek. “You’re the same thing I am.”
At that, Dom looked up at the man. “What are you?” he asked.
A little, knowing smile touched the man’s lips, and when he spoke, his canine teeth were longer and sharper than before. “I’m a vampire.”
“No,” Dom moaned and shook his head, “no, no, no.” He grabbed the man’s hand and held tight, his tears coming faster. He trembled like a frightened animal and squeezed his eyes closed, as if by doing so he could escape the hell his life had become.
But there was no escape.
“You have a lot of questions,” the man said, monologuing now rather than speaking directly to Dom, “I had the same questions when I was your age. I have spent the last forty-two years of my life trying to answer them, but every answer I find leads me to still more questions. There’s one thing I’m certain of, though.”
Dom blinked the tears from his eyes. The last of them had been squeezed from his dead tear ducts and he had no more to give. He simply stared into space, trying to come to grips with his situation.
“There is freedom in death,” the man said. “Death is easy. It’s simple. Once it’s over, you feel no pain, no sadness, no grief. It’s living that’s hard.”
As he spoke, he brushed his long nails across Dom’s scalp. It was a soothing feeling, and served to calm him. “People have so many troubles.” A note of revulsion crept into his voice. “So many needs, so many desires. People are complex but we’re not. We’re easy to please. A vampire wants only two things: A little blood and one more night.”
The combination of his touch and his voice had pacified Dom to the point of almost tranquility. “I’m scared,” Dom heard himself mumble.
Nodding almost reluctantly, the man said, “Fear is one of the only emotions a vampire can’t escape. Everything feels fear. Do you want to know a secret?”
Dom nodded.
“I’m afraid too,” the man confessed. “I’m afraid of death. Well…death as it were. I’m terrified that my body will rot away and leave me a pile of bones somewhere, unable to move but still aware”
A shudder went through Dom.
“As I’m sure you’ve seen yourself, the movies lied. We rot just like any other dead thing. Our flesh decays, our organs turn to sludge, and we go from rational men to monsters whose only thought is feeding.”
Now it was his turn to shiver.
“But…you’re not like that,: Dom said.’
The man smiled. “I’m lucky, I guess” A thin yellow fluid began to drip from his nostrils. He did not seem to notice. “What is your name?”
“Dominick,” Dom said.
“I’m Merrick,” the man said, “and this is my family.”
Dom realized that they were now surrounded by others, ten in all. They stood ramrod straight, their eyes vacant and their faces devoid of humanity. They were mainly men, though one was a woman. Some were pale, others were blue or black, and one was little more than a skeleton clad in withered brown skin, a white button up and jeans hanging from its frame.
A thought occurred to Dom. “You said my brain was going to rot…”
“Not necessarily,” Merrick cautioned, “though it’s possible.”
“Am I going to be…?”
“Like them?” Merrick asked. “Braindead and staring?”
Sheepishly, Dom nodded.
“Maybe,” Merrick allowed. “But these people are free of everything that troubles humanity. You were human just a short time ago. I’m sure you remember all too well what it was like. The constant politics, the moral quandaries, the philosophical pontificating. Human beings - and make no mistake, we are humans - were not meant for all of that. We’re animals. We were made to hunt, fuck, and sleep. Somewhere along the way, we got pretentious and started complicating things.” He looked at Dom, sizing him up, seeming to read him. “Things that animals take for granted, people work their entire lives to achieve. If an animal wants to fornicate, it fornicates. If a man wants to fornicate, he needs to be tall, handsome, rich, funny, progressive when it suits women but traditional when it doesn’t. If a man wants a home, he has to work thirty years for it. An animal has only to dig a hole in the ground.”
Every word struck a chord with Dom.
Because every word was true.
“Unfortunately, the living won’t allow us to live that freely, so we have to hide. These people here - my children - need a guiding hand, a protector, someone who can lead them. And I, an old man, need help.” Here he smiled playfully and patted his bulging stomach. “My body is mostly sawdust and cotton balls at this point, so I can’t do much. I share my wisdom and my knowledge with them, and they take care of me.”
“Why haven’t you…rotted?” Dom asked.
“Embalming fluid,” Merrick said. “Blood doesn’t sustain you. Embalming fluid does.” He smiled at Dom. “It can sustain you as well. If you’ll stay with us. We’re not the most attractive bunch, but we’re a family, and we really wish you’d join us.”
A family.
Dom’s parents had broken up and he lived with his mother. He had never had a family before, and had always wanted one, a real one, like in the movies. Even as a grown man, he sought the love, acceptance, and belonging that a family brings. He sought it in the wrong ways, but that - and not sex, not romantic love - is what he had really wanted all along.
This is what he had wanted all along.
“I want to,” Dom said.
Working quickly, Merrick slashed his wrist open with his thumbnail. An ugly mixture of stale blood, siphoned from someone else, and embalming fluid leaked out. “If you choose to drink, my blood will be in you. You will be my son and I will be your father. You will obey me as your father. You will do whatever is asked of you for this family, as this family will do for you. You will not reveal the secrets of this family to anyone outside of it. You will protect this family from all threats, both inside and out. Do you accept?”
He held his bleeding wrist out to Dom.
Dom did not question, nor did he hesitate. He grabbed the hand of his father, brought it to his mouth, and drank from the seeping wound. The fluid was cold, thick, and vile.
It tasted like belonging.
“Have you fed yet?”
“No,” Dom said.
“Before you do, I have a question for you. Who did this to you? Who made you?”
Dom thought. Everything was hazy. “Was it someone in this room?” Merrick asked.
Dom shook his head. “Her name is…” he wracked his brain. “Heather.”
Merrick nodded. “So there’s another out there.” He looked at Joe. “Did you turn her?”
“Yes,” Joe said.
Merrick looked annoyed. “I’ve told you not to go out and feed on your own. You have no self-control. You drink too much and create others, which creates headaches for the family. Tomorrow night, I want you and Dom to find her and bring her here.” “Okay,” Joe said.
Merrick looked over Dom’s shoulder. “Jess? Can you come here?”
The black haired woman from earlier came out of the shadows, the drunk girl with her, arms tied behind her back. The girl looked dazed. “Max,” Merrick said to the skeletal corpse-thing, “help her.”
Max, Jessie, and another vampire named Matt tied chains around the girl’s ankles and hoisted her aloft via a pulley system. Upside down, she swung back and forth. Merrick instructed the others to leave the room. “Max,” he said.
On his way out, the corpse-thing produced a knife and dragged it across the girl’s throat, slicing her skin; blood spurted out. Max leaned in to taste it, but Merrick shooed him away. When he and Dom were alone, Merrick told Dom, “Go to her.”
But Dom was already on his feet, his eyes transfixed by the crimson life flowing from her pumping throat. The hot, rich smell filled his nostrils and tantalized his senses. Saliva filled his mouth and his stomach panged with hunger. Some small, human part of his decaying brain screamed at him to stop, but he did not listen to it. He had been human for almost thirty years, and he had been miserable. Now, in this chamber of the undead, he gave himself over to his dark thirst. Like a man in a dream, he shuffled to her, inhaled the sweet scent of her blood, and shivered. He was so lost in lust that he hardly noticed the strange, cumbersome feeling of his descended fangs.
“Drink,” Merrick said.
Opening his mouth wide, Dom sank his teeth into the girl’s neck. Her blood filled his mouth and splashed down his throat. Warmth thawed the ice in his marrow and spread through him. His dead heart began to flutter, then to pound. His knees shook, his body trembled, and his mind rolled away on a tide of ecstasy.
As it was his first meal, he couldn’t drink much. Before long, his stomach was hard and distended and his body burned with fire. He collapsed to a heap on the floor and twitched as random nerve endings, stimulated by the blood, began to misfire. He felt full, warm, and drunk. He closed his eyes and let himself drift.
Dominick Mason had died.
And this…
This was heaven.
***
With all that was happening in the city of Albany, the last thing Bruce Kenner needed on Thursday morning was a visit from Bertha the bitch, but that’s exactly what he got. She flew into his office like she owned the place and instantly started in on him. Young man this and have you talked to Joe Rossi that. You’d think she was his boss. And if she were his boss, he’d quit and find another line of work. He heard McDonald’s was hiring.
Bruce almost snapped at her. He’d been up most of last night riding around Albany and looking for Dominick Mason. He and Vanessa expected him to drop dead somewhere close to the medical examiner’s office, but if he had, he’d done so in a super secret location.
“I’ve been busy,” Bruce said, “but I’m going to go by his place of work today.”
Tired and still confused over that bullshit from last night, he had no energy to argue with the old crone. He could spare a few minutes to talk to Joe Rossi, he figured. He assumed that Jessie was safe but he owed it to her to check. If he found the girl, he’d take her back to her grandmother (sorry, kid, really) and try to avoid arresting the guy. Unless he came off as a creep, then he’d bust his ass. See, people assumed that an older guy with a younger girlfriend was some master manipulator hell bent on evil deeds. Sometimes they were, but hell, his grandparents married when his grandpa was twenty-one and his grandma sixteen. They were married for fifty-five years and loved each other to the end. Maybe it was innocent, maybe not. It wasn’t his job to judge either way. Just gimme the girl so I can get her grandma off my back and no one gets hurt.
“It’s about time you started doing your job,” Bertha said, “I heard on the police scanner last night that you people lost a body. What kind of town is this? Your coroner is a drunk who makes up stories about bodies walking away. He probably sold it to black people.”
Bruce couldn’t help it; he snorted laughter.
“Now what would black people want with a dead body?”
“Probably to use it as a prop in one of their rap videos.”
Bruce didn’t know much about music videos, but he was pretty sure that the people who made them didn’t like the smell of corpse any more than the rest of us. “I’ll be sure to round up all the local rappers for questioning. Is there anything else I can help you with?”
Luckily for him, there was not, and Bertha left shortly thereafter. Alone and able to hear himself think, Bruce sat back in his chair and went over his mental checklist for the day. First order of business, go to Club Vlad. Second, find Dominick Mason. There were others, but that was the most important. He wanted the body found so someone could get to work explaining this whole weird thing. There had to be an explanation. The thought that there wasn’t, that a dead guy literally rose from the grave and disappeared into the night, deeply disturbed Bruce, and the more this whole thing remained ongoing, the more disturbed he would become.
Needing some fresh air, he decided to hit up Club Vlad.
Outside, the day was hot and sunny. Waves of heat shimmered from the pavement and not a single breath of air stirred in the whole world. Bruce slipped on a pair of sunglasses and drove over to Club Vlad. It occurred to him that the place might be closed during the day; it was the only place Joe Rossi was associated with. His address in the computer system was Glens Falls, far to the north. The messages he sent Jessie indicated that he lived onsite at Club Vlad.
The build, wedged between a corner store and a check cashing place, was as grimy and dumpy looking as it had always been. The front windows were blacked out and covered with posters and fliers for punk concerts, house bands, and far left political organizations: The Albany Social Justice Center, something called Bash the Fash 2025, and Bruce’s favorite. ACAB. He caught some kid spraying that on the side of the police station once, and under extreme police torture (ie, a good tongue lashing), the kid told him it meant All Cops Are Barnacleheads.
Bruce shot the kid on the spot and planted a gun on him.
How's that for barnaclehead?
Calm down, he didn’t really do that. He made him clean the graffiti off with a toothbrush. LOL he was out there for hours.
The sidewalk in front of the former theater was empty save for some little. The box office was abandoned. There was no open sigh, but then again, there was no closed sign either. He parked his cruiser at the curb, killed the engine, and got out, sweat instantly springing to his brow.
To his surprise, the door opened. Inside, a couple steps led down to a dance floor. A bar lined the wall to his right, and a couple more sets led up to a railed platform filled with tables. Above, a huge balcony looked down on him. A giant disco ball hung from the ceiling like a pair of glittery nuts and there were cages here and there. Presumably where girls danced go-go style. Oh yeah, nothing hotter than a woman behind bars. Why do you think Bruce became a cop in the first place?
Speaking of glittery nuts, there was glitter everywhere. On the floor, on the tables, on the bar. It twinkled like flecks of diamond and swirled around your feet when you walked. Bruce imagined big buckets of the stuff raining down on the dance floor at midnight and he shuddered. Imagine having glitter stuck in your hair. That shit would never come out.
Music played from the sound system, not as loud as it would be during operating hours. It sounded like ‘80s metal, not exactly what he expected from a place like this.
Some say life she's a lady
Kinda soft, kinda shady
I can tell you life is rich
She's no lady, she's a bitch
Being morning, the place was deserted except for a man behind the bar, busy at cleaning the countertop in anticipation for the night’s events. He was tall, Hispanic or Italian, and feminine, with a single earring and a tank top.
Bruce moseyed over to the bar and the barkeep looked up, missing a beat when he realized the fuzz was here. He sat down his rag and walked over. “Can I help you?” he asked in a whispy voice.
“Yeah,” Bruce said, “I’m looking for Joe Rossi. Is he here?”
“I don’t know,” the bartender said. He looked nervous. “I can check.”
Before Bruce could answer, he scurried off, leaving him alone.
They suck my body out
But friend there is no doubt
I'm gonna pay the devil his dues
Cause I'm sick of being abused
Bruce looked around, his fingers absently drumming on the countertop. Club Vlad was a clashing mix of grunge and glam that made his head hurt. He imagined what the place must be like at midnight, packed and noisy, and nodded to himself. Yeah, this was the spot, he guessed, the place all the cool kids went, if they went anywhere anymore. Hell, if he was thirty years younger, he might come here.
He had been waiting for almost twenty minutes when a voice spoke behind him. He turned with a start, and beheld the strangest man he had ever seen in his life. Short and plump - lumpy, even - he sat in a wheelchair, a red blanket draped over his shoulders and his hands resting on his knees. He was about fifty with sparse gray hair falling to his shoulders and a plastic-looking face. He looked like a wax statue of Ben Franklin come to life, and a deep sense of disquiet stirred in the pit of Bruce’s stomach.
Just can't fight the temptation
It's become my inspiration
Gonna get myself an axe
Break some heads, break some backs
It was only then that Bruce noticed the sickly sweet smell of death.
It seemed to come from the man in waves.
“I didn’t mean to frighten you,” the man said, “my name is Merrick Garvis and I own Club Vlad. Maybe I can be of assistance.”
Bruce grew up in the south where manners and saving face were paramount. His mother and his grandmother both taught him that it was impolite to stare. Maybe he'd been in New York so long that he’d forgotten himself, or maybe Merrick Garvis was just the strangest looking man in the world. Either way, Bruce couldn’t help gaping at his strange appearance. Recovering, he shook his head. “I’m sorry, I -”
Merrick smiled and waved one hand. Why was it so goddamn skeletal? “Don’t worry. I was injured in a fire a long time ago and this is the best they could do for me. To be honest, I’d stare too. What can I help you with, officer?”
“I’d like to talk to Joe Rossi,” Bruce said. “I understand he works for you.”
“He did,” Merrick said, “but I had to let him go. Did he do something wrong?”
Bruce sighed. “Well, yeah, he’s shacked up with a sixteen year old runaway.”
A look of concern crossed Merrick’s features, such as they were. “Oh, my, that is concerning. I haven’t seen him in several days. I assume he went home. He lives in Glens Falls.”
Bruce nodded, his mind working. If Rossi really was in Glens Falls, that meant the whole mess was someone else’s problem. He could send Bertha up there to bother some other poor barnacle head and be rid of her. Yet…he didn’t think Rossi was in Glens Falls. Bruce had a knack for knowing when people were lying, and he was certain that Merrick Garvis was doing just that. It couldn’t be a facial tick, as his features were largely unmoving, like clay. Maybe it was something in his cloudy eyes. Maybe it was the tone of his voice. Or maybe Bruce had the shining and knew things just for the hell of it. In any event, the certainty that Merrick Garvis was lying grew stronger with each passing second.
“Why’d you fire him?”
“He got drunk and hit one of the customers.”
“What did he do?” Bruce asked. “What was his position?”
“He was a bouncer.”
“Aren’t bouncers supposed to hit people?”
Merrick fumbled. “Well…not to punch them in the face for bumping into them.”
“How long did he work for you?”
“Six months.”
“Did you ever see him with an underage girl?”
“Of course not,” Merrick said, “you have to be twenty-one to get in. I make sure everyone’s ID is checked at the door.”
“What if she had a fake ID?”
“Then I guess she’d get in, but I’d assume she was of legal age.”
“You said he shoved someone, when did this happen?”
“Last week,” Merrick said.
“I thought you said he hit someone.”
Merrick again fumbled. “I did.” Now his face seemed to darken a little. A strange yellowish liquid, too thin to be snot, began to drip from his nostrils. Bruce barely suppressed a smear of disgust. “I understand you have a job to do but playing mind games with me isn’t going to solve anything. I can give you his address. Other than that, I can’t help you further.”
“Fair enough,” Bruce said. “But I’d like to see your ID please.”
Merrick glared at him. “I suppose you want my name, rank, and serial number as well.”
“Actually, yeah, I’d love that.”
Merrick drew a deep sigh. “Okay.”
In five minutes, Bruce had Merrick’s ID, social, and all other relevant information. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t have bothered, even though he was well within his rights to ask for this information from someone he was questioning. But something about Merrick Garvis was off, and not just his weird face or strangely bulbous body. Bruce was just smart enough to realize that something was going on here, but not quite smart enough to even begin to imagine what.
When he had everything he needed and saw no reason to stick around, Bruce bid Merrick farewell and left the club. Before he could do anything else, he got a call from dispatch: Officer needed assistance in Pine Hills. Bruce slipped behind the wheel and went forth to help, momentarily putting Merrick Garvis out of his mind.
But soon or later, he would get back to him.
Oh yes he would.

4/7/24-5/14/24
Watched on: HBO Max
IMDB synopsis: "The true story of the inseparable Von Erich brothers, who made history in the intensely competitive world of professional wrestling in the early 1980s."
As someone who has never had even the slightest interest in pro wrestling, I had never heard of the Von Erich brothers, but I watched this film about the four brothers (all of whom were pro wrestlers) since it got strong reviews and I can always appreciate a good melodrama.
After watching it, I had mixed feelings; the casting is strong and while I wouldn't nominate any of the actors for an Oscar, Zac Efron and Holt McCallany (who plays the dad) are especially watchable. The plot is...fine. Which is a nice way of saying, unless you're a fan of pro wrestling, you might struggle a bit when it comes to staying engaged. The second half is better as the tragedies start to pile up and your heart melts for the victims. There's one brief scene near the end that's especially moving. The runtime (132 minutes) is a bit excessive.
Overall, while it didn't match the critical acclaim, I still think this is one of the better pure dramas of 2023. You can tell this was a passion project of writedirector Sean Durkin, and while he didn't hit it out of the park, he was effective and may be poised for bigger things in the future.
Rating: 6.2 / 10

The Undraftables: Week 6 Update (Going into/during Week 7)
This challenge was initially undertook with the NBA and it was fun, so decided to extend it to MLB as well. The rules are simple: Cannot select any player who has an Average Draft Position (ADP), regardless of how high or low it may be. Even if a player's ADP is 250+, they are off-limits if they have any average draft position. The draft took place on Sunday, April 7th. Admittedly, this was after the start of the season, but my focus had been primarily on the NBA season, leaving me with limited time to prepare for baseball. Nevertheless, managed to squeeze in most of my MLB prep work within a few days/week. This is a standard 12 team head to head category league on yahoo with 6 adds per week. The buy-in was lower than my usual, but not free (inactivity and too easy).
Here was the draft results:

1. (6) Lance McCullers Jr. (HOU - SP)
2. (19) Drew Rasmussen (TB - SP)
3. (30) Dustin May (LAD - SP)
4. (43) Ronel Blanco (HOU - SP,RP)
5. (54) Brady Singer (KC - SP)
6. (67) Paul Blackburn (OAK - SP)
7. (78) Cody Bradford (TEX - SP,RP)
8. (91) Chad Green (TOR - RP)
9. (102) Steven Matz (STL - SP,RP)
10. (115) Tanner Houck (BOS - SP)
11. (126) Tyler Anderson (LAA - SP)
12. (139) Spencer Turnbull (PHI - SP)
13. (150) Connor Joe (PIT - 1B,OF)
14. (163) José Caballero (TB - 2B,SS)
15. (174) Gio Urshela (DET - 1B,3B,SS)
16. (187) Will Brennan (CLE - OF)
17. (198) Jake McCarthy (AZ - OF)
18. (211) Jorge Mateo (BAL - SS)
19. (222) Dairon Blanco (KC - OF)
20. (235) Jacob Young (WSH - OF)
21. (246) Bubba Thompson (CIN - OF)
22. (259) Trevor Williams (WSH - SP)
23. (270) Reese McGuire (BOS - C)

Recent Additions from Last Week and This Week (since last update):

• Taijuan Walker (wins streamer)
• Bryse Wilson (wins streamer)
• Gavin Stone (wins streamer)
• Josh Lowe (1 FAAB)
• Dairon Blanco

Recent Drops This Week and Last Week:

• Sal Frelick (might re add)
• Esteury Ruiz (he just isn't playing or doing anything)
• Taijuan Walker
• Bryse Wilson
• Jameson Taillon (because he missed the start I was worried)

Trades that I performed since my last update:

• No trades for this week.

Current Roster and why I choose to own them:

• C: Luis Campusano (for AVG, sorta Runs?)
• 1B: Yandy Diaz (Runs, AVG)
• 2B: Ahmed Rosario (SB, AVG)
• 3B: Maikel Garcia (SB, Runs, maybe AVG, somehow RBI?)
• SS: Jose Caballero (SB, maybe AVG)
• OF: Jacob Young (AVG, SB, maybe R cuz leadoff?)
• OF: Jose Lowe (AVG, SB, possibly R)
• OF: Jackson Merrill (AVG mostly, mid SB, mid R)
• UTL: Jake McCarthy (AVG, SB)
• UTL: Dairon Blanco (AVG, SB)
• SP: George Kirby (Ace)
• SP: Kevin Gauseman (Ace)
• RP: James McArthur (closer)
• RP: Kirby Yates (closer)
• P: Hector Neris (closer)
• P: Cole Ragans (Ace)
• P: Chris Sale (Ace)
• P: Bobby Miller (Ace, but is hurt)
• Bench: Chris Bassit
• Bench: Erick Fedde (Numbers look elite like in the KBO)
• Bench: Jon Gray (2.36era 1.20whip, sell high operation)
• Bench: Garret Crochet (.99whip, high k rate, may sell high)
• Bench: Gavin Stone (streamer, sell high operation)
• IL: Jacob Degrom (ELITE when healthy)
• IL: Max Scherzer (ELITE when healthy)
• IL: Drew Rasmussen (almost elite when healthy, bit underrated)
• IL: Kodai Senga (almost elite when healthy)

Continue the grind! I made it through yet another week! I would like to talk about last week's matchup: It was a humbling defeat where I lost 3-6. The few categories I won were SB, Saves, K. We tied in wins with 7 for each of us. (Incredibly high amount of wins) My ERA and WHIP were massive because of my "Aces" not performing like it. Kirby, Gauseman and Ragans all did bad. People made a big fuss about me "winning those trades" a few weeks ago, but actually if I had Lugo and some of those other names I would have won this week.... Still long term I should be just fine. Oh McArthur also inflated my ratios. Walker was useful to help me with those wins. RP Neris somehow got 2 of them? Fedde continues to shine just like his KBO numbers and I'm much higher on him than most others are. On offense I barely got enough SB actually. Then really did NOT hit for high average. The two standouts were Yandy Diaz and Campusano! Ruiz was a terrible add and recently cut him. He hasn't played in 5 games. Time to shake this loss off and focus on the future.
No trades to report on this week. I was slightly less active trading and sending offers out this past week than I usually am. I still intend on selling high on Jon Gray and possibly Crochet (cuz innings limits concerns), and my streamer who just had an awesome start TUES Gavin Stone. Three for 1 package deal of course. I will be going after those buy low SP. I have no issues holding onto Jon Gray or Crochet either.
My matchup for this current week features an opponent who has only 22sb on the season compared to my 39. They only have hit for .243 average compared to my .251 so I feel pretty confident I can win at least those 2 offensive categories. Since we are two days in I'm actually ahead in runs at this moment too, however I doubt that will last since they are 4th in overall runs on the season. For pitching I'm absolutely dominant in the season stats. I am the LEADER in every single category. Pretty awesome considering the way I started at the draft! (It helps that players I took were absolutely incredible to start the year and I have streamed in many strong names). A deeper look on the pitching though they have 7 starts remaining vs my 5. I'm severely ahead thus far though with 4 wins, 26k, 0.94era, 0.70whip. So I absolutely have no real need to stream more SP. This is the manager that I traded some of my former SP like Tanner Houck, Seth Lugo, Jordan Hicks and Spencer Turnbull. They only have 2 closers compared to my 3 so I like my odds there too. I do predict a likely 7-3 victory for me this week.
In terms of the moves I have made already this week and my future moves this week: I secured a real nice speed and contact hitter in Josh Lowe! Feels like he will fit it on my squad perfectly! And it gets rid of my weakest hitter Ruiz. When I added in Dairon Blanco it's purely a speed play really. He may still be replaceable if this weekly matchup is close in runs and I need them later in week. Sal Frelick is an option to re add as well as other leadoff hitters across the majors. (Frelick hasn't been batting leadoff) I'm glad I held the line on Fedde and Crochet. I almost was going to drop them to stream in more starting pitchers. Late in the week I knew it was close in wins and I had no chance to win the ratios so I streamed in a few extra SP and cut Taillon. I certainly could have tried harder to "sell high" on him. Gavin Stone is fine on my roster, but I may actually add a pitcher with higher upside to both dangle in trades and/or just keep on team. I been in talks to obtain Jarren Duran or Brice Turang (both owned by the same manager) so that might be something that happens for the next update!
Bit of strategy talk here regarding my team build. The goal of a punt power build is to win 2 offensive categories (Ideally 3 eventually, R, AVG, SB) and win 4-5 pitching categories. (If you are able to obtain closers you have upside to win 5 pitching cats, if you punt saves then your upside is 4 and you would be more consistently likely to win WINS and K categories) I technically currently have the upside to win all 5 pitching and 2 hitting categories. (If I gain runs value I would even have maximum upside of 8 categories! 5+3=8) Remember that in category leagues you ONLY NEED TO WIN 6 categories folks! This is the benefit of punting! (And technically in h2h playoffs you can have a tie 5-5 and still advance to next round due to season standings and matchup ranking!) I think punting gives you less variance than other builds? Or maybe this less variance is just from having high AVG contact hitters? Discuss? (Could be an ongoing discussion throughout the season)
There is an interesting topic to bring up regarding trading for hitters who fit the "punt power" type of team build. I think buying low on Kwan and Trea Turner now become viable possibilities for my team and other punt power teams that may exist out there! If you have any other names that could be buy low, I'm all ears. Remember to always keep an eye out for prospects coming up who have the skills that you want/need! Sometimes you can trade away your current assets that you have for upgrades at weak positions on your team and then fill those holes of the guys you traded away with prospects who are coming up soon or have already come up. (Or a hot waiver wire bat that will fill in temporarily) In this way you become a team with "less weaknesses" (Of course that advice can apply to all sorts of type of team builds in head to head category leagues). What this means for this Undraftables team is I may be able to flip my pitching assets for hitting upgrades that give the full trifecta of RUNS, AVG, SB. (Corbin Caroll firmly on my future radar) Maybe I should already be sending feelers, hmmm...
Overall, continue to be quite happy with my team's performance and strategy, (despite last week's loss). As mentioned my goal is to win by a score of 6-4 or tie 5-5, but eventually will have upside to win 7-3 or even 8-2. I'm willing to make adjustments for each week and consider player recommendations to achieve that goal. So far, this has gone better than I expected (whereas this was tougher in the NBA)! One of the bigger takeaways you can glean from this strategy is that there are numerous ways to win a category league. I have won with punt power strategy for 3-4 years now so for me it is "proven winner". (Notate that this punt power strategy has NOT been tested in Roto YET. I plan to test that next year. Is this the best way to "punt power"? No, remember this was an "extra challenge" that I set forth upon myself.) You really don't have to go "Undraftables" (hard mode) like I have! A big takeway is that having superstars (or stars) undeniably will help a build like this do even better (Ronald Acuna, Elly De La Cruz, Witt, Corbin Carroll, etc), but you don't necessarily "need" those superstars. Instead you just need to have the right build or combination of players and a focus on your matchups. (In fantasy and MLB) There are various "useful" players with skill sets that are still worthy. You don't always need "The best player" in everything. (At least NOT IN A CATEGORY LEAGUE) If you have suffered severe injuries to some power hitters (like Trout, Casas, Royce Lewis, Josh Jung) you could transition and/or trade into a "punt power build" to try it out? (Or that could be something you consider further down the road in the season too) If you need help on how to do it, I'm your guy!
I'll provide weekly updates on the team's progress, so let me know if you'd like to follow along or have any suggestions! Thoughts on the team? If you want the previous updates on the team with "How I ended up here" and each week breakdown you can find them in a FB group or I can send them to you in a message. (I wasn't able to post early in season because I changed reddit profiles (hated my username) from last year which had bunches of karma!) (Can't post if you don't have enough karma) Additionally, I'm recruiting for next year, (although this is NOT the central goal of this post) where this unique drafting strategy will be the league's standard for each owner.

Round 1, Pick 26 - Graham Barton, C, Duke:
NFL: The Buccaneers fortify the offensive line with an experienced player who offers position flexibility. His elite presence on the interior should help elevate the run game and keep Baker Mayfield upright.
CBS Sports: A. This is a great pick. They have major issues at center and a question at left guard and he can play both. I love this pick. Barton will move inside from tackle, but he can play there in a pinch too.
ESPN: The Bucs got their top pick of an interior offensive lineman in Barton, who can immediately step in to fill the void left by center Ryan Jensen's retirement. While all but four of Barton's offensive snaps over the last three seasons have come at left tackle -- where he allowed just one sack in 2023 and two in 2022 -- he played 446 snaps at center as a freshman, which is his most natural fit and what caught the Bucs' eye. He plays with a great base, a good anchor and a "nasty temperament" that the Bucs' front office covets.
NFL Absolutely Not Fake News: Likes his coffee hot and water cold which is actually reasonable.
Round 2, Pick 57 - Chris Braswell, DE, Alabama:
NFL: It's not often that a player with two college starts lands inside the top 60 picks, but Braswell did emerge last season as a jack of all trades for the Crimson Tide. At the very least, he could be a terrific special-teamer, but the Bucs likely hope to develop Braswell's pass-rush arsenal and squeeze even more out of his terrific athletic profile.
CBS Sports: A+. Had early RD2 grade on this outside rusher. Length, methodical pass-rush moves, deceptive power. Very productive generating pressure at Alabama. Sets a sturdy edge. A need in the post Shaq Barrett era.
ESPN: While the Bucs did sign Randy Gregory in free agency, he'll likely wind up being more of a rotational player opposite second-year edge YaYa Diaby. What they've needed is a replacement for Shaquil Barrett, who departed for the Miami Dolphins in free agency. Braswell's three forced fumbles in 2023 were tied for the most in the SEC, while his 42 pressures were the third most in the SEC. His eight sacks were tied for the fifth most in the SEC after having 2.5 sacks from 2020 to 2022. He also had 53 coverage snaps in 2023, which Todd Bowles does ask of his edge rushers. Braswell played 41 games with Crimson Tide but only made two starts, both of which came last season.
NFL Absolutely Not Fake News: He only likes the yellow part of the gummy worm.
Round 3, Pick 89 - Tykee Smith, S, Georgia:
NFL: Smith has a Mike Edwards-like projection, so it's easy to see why the Bucs took Smith here, in the same range they drafted Edwards in 2019. Although Smith is undersized and not an elite athlete, he has the nose for the ball and enough special-teams value to be a contributor in Year 1.
CBS Sports: B-. Slot defender / safety hybrid closer to slot CB size but doesn’t have those quicks. Surprisingly powerful hitter at his size and plays with a lot of conviction when tracking the football. Super-smart in coverage. Reads QB’s in a flash which helps him play faster than his timed speed.
ESPN: The Bucs see Smith as a nickel, and he played 80% of snaps in the slot with Bowles keeping a close watch on the UGA program, where his son, Troy, plays. They started undrafted free agent rookie Christian Izien last year and signed Tavierre Thomas in free agency, but their secondary as a whole needs more takeaways, which is where Smith comes in. His four interceptions in 2023 were tied for the third most in the SEC. He was also one of three FBS players with four or more interceptions and two or more sacks in 2023 alongside Michigan's Mike Sainristil and UNLV's Cameron Oliver.
NFL Absolutely Not Fake News: Ribs. This man loves ribs. Cannot get enough ribs!
Round 3, Pick 92 - Jalen McMillan, WR, Washington:
NFL: A smooth-moving slot or outside receiver, McMillan returned from injury to help the Huskies make it all the way to the national title game. He has big mitts, good hands and more juice than he's sometimes given credit for. This is a really nice weapon to add to the Bucs' WR room.
CBS Sports: B+. Crafty, complete wideout with a trademark trait. Runs quality routes. Adequate separation. Not a burner. Not slow. Tracks it with good concentrations. Not a huge YAC type nor someone who thrives when leaping for the football in traffic. Robert Woods type with a bit more juice.
ESPN: The Bucs declined No. 3 wide receiver Russell Gage's option this year, and he was released. Mike Evans will also be 31 and Chris Godwin enters the third and final year of his contract, worth $20 million per year. McMillan can line up inside or outside but 33 of his 45 receptions came out of the slot in 2023, and he caught six passes out of the backfield. He's also a master of the post route. His six touchdown catches on post routes since 2022 are tied for the most in the FBS, while his 253 receiving yards on post route concepts since 2022 are the 10th most in the FBS.
NFL Absolutely Not Fake News: Still willing to try and get the band back together.
Round 4, Pick 125 - Bucky Irving, RB, Oregon:
NFL: Bucky to the Bucs keeps the run on Ducks going. He's not terribly fast but can get up to max speed quickly and might end up as a decent complement to Rachaad White, even if they do similar things well.
CBS Sports: A. Bad testing figures - - despite reasonable speed - - but one of the most elusive, hard-to-corral RBs over the last few drafts. Smaller stature. Decent contact balance too. Weapon in the receiving game, and of course, out in space. Fun addition.
ESPN: The Bucs have had the league's worst rushing attack over the last two seasons (82.9 yards per game) and wanted to bolster competition. Irving is 5-9 and 192 pounds and ran a 4.55 40-yard dash at the NFL combine -- 14th among 20 running backs. While his testing was not great, the tape shows production. He topped 1,000 rushing yards in each of his two seasons at Oregon, including 1,180 with 11 touchdowns in 2023. He broke or evaded an FBS-high 144 tackles since 2022, and he had 896 rushing yards between the tackles in 2023, averaging 7.1 yards per rush. His 56 receptions last season led all FBS running backs.
NFL Absolutely Not Fake News: He once ate an 8 layer peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Round 6, Pick 220 - Elijah Klein, OG, UTEP:
NFL: With 55 college starts and good length, Klein has a chance to make it in Tampa. He's stiff and might be an inside-only blocker, however.
CBS Sports: C. Smooth operator at guard. Quality run-blocking abilities. Opens the gate too soon in pass pro and not ultra experienced there. Not many true sets in college.
ESPN: The Bucs didn't re-sign Matt Feiler or Aaron Stinnie, who both started at left guard last season. Along with Cody Mauch, they finished with a combined 70.2% run blocking win rate among guards -- 16th in the league last year. None of them finished in the top 50 in pass block win rate either. The Bucs did sign free agent Sua Opeta from the Philadelphia Eagles, and Klein will compete with those two. Klein allowed 1.3% pressures at UTEP and in 45 games, he allowed four sacks with a 1.6% blown run block rate. In 2023, he allowed one sack all season.
NFL Absolutely Not Fake News: Always wondered how Raymans hands worked if he doesn’t have arms.
Round 7, Pick 246 - Devin Culp, TE, Washington:
NFL: Culp shocked a few people when he ran a 4.47-second 40-yard dash, but his 230-pound frame figures to limit his role quite a bit. Even so, Culp improved each college season and has some unrealized potential as an H-back.
CBS Sports: B+. Smaller, speedster H-back TE type. Was very underutilized at Washington but flashed when given the opportunity. Made some impressive snags in traffic. Not much YAC-wise but can run away from second-level defenders if given space.
ESPN: The Bucs' 502 combined yards from tight ends last year was third worst, and they needed to bolster competition at the position. At 6-3 and 231 pounds, Culp ran a 4.47s 40-yard dash at the scouting combine, which was the fastest among tight ends this year. But he'll need to improve as an in-line blocker, which is where his size is a concern. He's also had some drops with six (8.8% drop rate) in 28 games.
NFL Absolutely Not Fake News: Has soft hands… both ON and OFF the field.

This is the final arc! Yippee, hooray, and other such exclamatory remarks. Will Billy finally get to have a well-deserved rest? Is his mental health ever going to recover? There’s only one way to find out.
The first arc is here.
The second is here.
And the third is here.
Next
Content Warning: Suicidal thoughts and contemplation
You know the drill: credit to SpacePaladin15 for the universe.
Thank you JulianSkies for proofreading.
Memory Transcription Subject: Billy Marsh, Human Trash
Date [Standardized Human Time]: March 26, 2142
There was a parade on the main street, meant to honor everyone who fell during the war against the Federation. Some cheered, some cried, some just smiled and remembered. It was a day of remembrance, but also healing, of recognizing the past and moving forward from it. It was another one of the many holidays that had come about as a result of the war, another day of connecting to others who had experienced tragedies during the first eight months that Humanity existed on the galactic scene.
And where was I? Sitting in a shitty apartment, drinking myself to death trying to forget. How ironic.
It had been like this for about a year now. The military was the only thing holding my life together, once my contract was up and they didn’t accept my reapplication I knew it was over. They set me up with an apartment, some benefits for my service, and a job, thinking I could handle it from there. I couldn’t, and now I’m jobless, benefitless, and rotting in a cheap apartment. All it took was one year for me to ruin it.
I lifted the bottle, not even tasting the foul Venlilian alcohol anymore. It didn’t matter what it tasted like, all that mattered was it let me forget. I couldn’t live with the memories, but every part of me reminded me of them. My arm, my legs, my scars, my face, my eyes, not a single cell of my body was without memories. I’ve tried to tear out my bionics more times than I can remember now, but for some reason, I always stop just before they finally release their grip on me.
I went back for another drink. I had pushed everyone away from me, they shouldn’t have to worry about me. I had bothered them enough already, taking up time they could be used for better things. Why should they spend their time trying to help a piece of trash like me? They shouldn’t, they just didn’t realize it, so I decided for them. I acted angry and distant, but switched my attitude on a dime when I was visiting my assigned therapist. No one should have to worry about me, I didn’t deserve their concern.
I lifted the bottle again, but stopped as I realized it was empty. I check the floor around me, finding countless more empty bottles before finally sighing and standing from my seat. I slogged my way to the kitchen, only to find all of the reserves there dry as well.
I didn’t have the mental energy to slam the door, though if I did I would most likely rip it off its hinges with my bionics. Instead, I just left it open, like a trap without any bait. I’d get the bait soon, but first I wanted to at least look Human. I didn’t want anyone else to have to deal with me, they had their own busy lives and didn’t want to deal with some drunkard veteran, so I’ll at least try and cover the stench of booze with some cheap body spray.
I stepped out of the apartment looking, smelling, and feeling like shit, because I was, but not enough of a shit to make people care. I just looked like someone who didn’t know how to take care of themselves, not a veteran who is contemplating suicide.
I winced as the sun hit my eyes, a throbbing hangover barely held back by the over-the-counter headache meds I had been religiously taking every day. I barely ate food anymore, just ibuprofen and alcohol. It was all I needed, it’s not like I moved around anymore. I only walked to the fridge, to the store, and back to my seat. I didn’t mind it, I deserved it.
I blocked out the festivities around me as I entered the liquor store, a new one this time. My last one had cut me off for clearly drinking too much, all that succeeded was making me walk a little more. I gathered the highest-proof drinks I could find and made my way to the counter.
As the cashier rang me up, she tried to make small talk. “So, you’re a fan of the alien stuff. Couldn’t get into it myself, too strong.”
I didn’t respond, earning me an awkward sigh from the clerk. She finished scanning all of my items without another word, not even asking for me to pay as I placed my card on the counter before she could ask.
I picked my drinks up and headed for the door. She tried one more time to get me to speak. “Have a good day.”
I paused for a split second, before stepping out fully and letting the door close behind me. I wanted to explain to her exactly why I was never going to have a good day again, but then I would be making my problems her problems. I’ve caused enough problems for enough people, I’m done with that.
Once again, the streets and buildings passed in a blur and only began to retake shape once I was in my apartment. I stepped inside and dumped everything on the counter before I shut the door. I didn’t bother locking it anymore, no one was going to rob my home unless they were looking for empty bottles or cans. I took what I wanted and stuffed the rest into the fridge, now to return to what I was doing.
I sat in the stained, dented, misshapen, and honestly ugly chair and popped the tab on the first drink. I took two deep gulps before returning to staring at the wall in front of me. The day continued like that for an unknown amount of time, all the way until the sky began to glow orange and festivities were finally dying out.
With another empty bottle in hand, I looked out of the singular window in my apartment. In a flash, memories came rushing back. Memories of the Cradle, of my naivety and ignorance of just how the universe worked, of how cruel and unjust it was, and how idealists were chewed up and spit out.
Next, the Battle of Earth appeared in my mind. I had become much more cold, but I still cared enough to be considered Human. I could vividly remember the clean, metallic halls of the Federation bomber as we rushed down them, and also the stale smell of the cabin in the woods. I tried to hate the aliens that were occupying the cabin with us, but deep down I wasn’t that kind of person. In the end, I became that person.
Then I thought of Sillis and the constant rain making even our water-resistant suits damp. Those were the last days I could call myself something resembling a Human. I was consumed by hatred, but there was still something left deep down. Even if I acted distant, I still cared. I tried to hide it, but I couldn’t fight my nature. That was until I lost everything.
I took another deep drink from the bottle, trying to fight the memory of my allies. But they wouldn’t leave, they clawed their way to the front of my mind. I missed them, I missed them so much my heart broke. I failed them all, they all died because of me.
If Owen and Brandon were here, they would be talking about the weather or their favorite sports team while Ryan and Joshua shot jokes at each other about anything they could think of. James would be silent but not absentminded, listening intently even if he wasn’t looking at the conversation. Even Ueli would be grumbling along as we made the motions through the street, putting up a front of anger to hide his sorrows.
Gabriel and Jared, the two brothers would be comforting each other, supporting one another through hard times while Valya would be stoically listening to Jack and Teguh argue back and forth. Of course, Max and Sam would be shaking their heads back and forth as the argument grew louder and louder.
Blake would be making constant sarcastic remarks to every joke Kelly told, and the duo constantly playfighting with one another. Liam and Simmons would be checking their equipment, meticulously reviewing every aspect countless times to ensure everything was as it should be. And of course, Cody would be chatting it up with me, pointing out little details in the environment to comment on.
Before I knew it, I was crying. Alone, in a dim apartment, drinking poisonous alcohol, I cried my eyes out. I slid out of my chair and curled up in a ball on the floor, trying to comfort myself but only ending up making myself look more pitiful. I was Human trash, lower than even the germs and mold growing in the corners of my house.
This needed to end. I had been rotting in this room, gorging myself on liquor for far too long. I was just sucking up air, giving nothing in return. I’m a fucking parasite, and there’s only one way to deal with parasites.
Bottles clattered around me as I stood, some of them spilling what little was left in them onto the hardwood floor. I dragged my feet through the piles of trash, not caring enough to avoid making even more of a mess. I left the front door wide open, it’s not like it’s going to matter anyway. I’m not coming back.
I made my way to the roof, climbing the stairs with what little determination I had left to complete my final task. The afternoon sky was bright orange in the west, slowly fading into darkness to the east. There were no stars in the coming night sky, however, the only light in the dark was the artificial light of the city.
I made my way to the nightside and stared off over the city. New York was once a wasteland, but now it was one of the most important cities in the entire galaxy. People built the city back stronger than ever and turned the now water-filled creator into a memorial site. People came from all over, from other planets to visit the monuments erected in the name of the countless people lost that day and of the countless soldiers that were killed in the needless war. Every soldier who died on an alien planet, in space, or on some moon was remembered and with a field of statues that surrounded the crater.
I stepped onto the ledge, looking down to the street below. I was easily high enough to die, all it would take was one more step. One more step to put a guaranteed end to the memories, to the suffering. Just a small step and nothing would hurt anymore. I wouldn’t have to live with the fact that I was the single lowest form of life around.
So why couldn’t I do it? I had come up here countless times now, but I couldn’t do it. What was stopping me? It’s right there, it’s easy, it’s painless, why couldn’t I take the final step? Was there something left, some final action in the back of my mind that was stopping me?
I slowly lifted my eyes to the horizon once again, spotting what I had left to do. The memorial, I had never gone to. That was it, I’ve never visited my fallen comrades. The final act I had a duty to complete, once that was done I could do it.
I made a promise to myself, that once I visited the memorial I would finally take the step.
I returned to my shitty apartment and made my way to my room, finding a pen and paper. Then and there, I wrote my plan for the next day, down to an exact time.

Lifetime - Staked: 892.4u, Profit/Loss: +12.04u, ROI: 1.35%, Parlay Suggestions: 171-67 Dog of the Week: 13-16
2024 - Staked: 245.3u, Profit/Loss: -21.32u
As always, scroll down for UFC Vegas 92 Breakdowns. The following is just a recap of last event’s results.
~UFC St. Louis (PREVIOUS CARD)~
Staked: 15.75u
Profit/Loss: -15.75u
Parlay Suggestions: 3-3
I’m not really sure how to write a review of a card where you go 0-11 in bets and lose 15.75u. All I know is I’m currently going through an awful year and results have been shocking, and mentally it’s becoming quite taxing. The records are cool and all, but I’m obviously losing money here also and suffering that much of a loss just doesn’t sit well. Mentally I’ve taken a bit of a hit, I can’t lie. Thankfully I’d done most of my research for this upcoming card before UFC STL took place so it shouldn’t cloud my decision making too much. Grateful we’ve got a break week coming up, I need some time to lick my wounds after this one.
I’ll save characters and just direct you to last week’s post if you’d like to see the disasterpiece that was my betting slate for that card.

~UFC Vegas 92~
Bang average card, and even worse from a betting perspective from the looks of these money lines! Honestly I don’t even know why anyone would read this from someone who just took as many consecutive Ls as I just did, but thanks for sticking around if you did. It probably won’t be a massive slate for me here anyway.
(also all breakdowns were written before UFC STL so the self-loathing stops here)

~Edson Barboza v Lerone Murphy~
Full disclosure, all my betting life I have been very keen to fade British fighters, despite being from the UK myself. The talent pool is just objectively smaller, the lack of combat sports in our school curriculum means fighters have less overall experience and years in competition, as well as the media’s and the UFC’s infatuation with hyping up any fighter from this country overall means that fading has been a net positive investment over the years. When it comes to betting lines, the oddsmakers in this country always hang the UK fighters out at slightly shorter prices too, because obviously that’s where the money is almost always going to go. I know I always did that.
Whilst we’re talking about betting, I’ll take the opportunity to get in a quick victory lap about Edson Barboza, who I confidently bet as an underdog to Sodiq Yusuff. The reads I made in for that fight almost looked like I’d seen it before, and it was probably my best bet of 2023 from a pure analytical perspective. Good times.
Edson Barboza has managed to turn incredibly underrated in recent years, mostly due to the fact he’s old and has been mauled a few performances lately. The blueprint to beat him is very clear - you either to go balls to the wall, crowd/pressure him and finish him early, or you cardio-wrestle him for 15/25 minutes.
It sounds quite simple, but both of those lanes require quite specific skillsets. They are obviously skillsets that Khabib, Tony Ferguson, Bryce Mitchell, Kevin Lee and Gaethje possess naturally, which explains 5 of his eight losses in recent years. The losses to Dan Ige and Paul Felder were scored terribly and should have been wins for Edson…and the remaining loss was to Giga Chikadze, which is the only time I think he’s been outclassed in what could be called an “even” fight on paper. Another key thing to note is that Edson is so explosive and dangerous that he has also managed to still score wins against fighters that do fit the stylistic blueprint to be able to make life difficult for him. People like Benny Dariush, Shane Burgos and Billy Quarantillo. But he finished all three of them. Another thing to note is that the calibre of every single name mentioned is very high.
So how does Lerone Murphy measure up against these blueprints? Well right off the bat his record shows he’s capable of a KO win, but it’s not a super reliable method and isn’t particularly process driven (IE it doesn’t come from him smothering his opponent with suffocating pressure early). In fact, his finish of Ricardo Ramos came from some surprisingly effective ground and pound, and the knee against Amirkhani was a fortuitous impact, in a fight where he was expected to find the finish against a guy with the ‘1 round of resilience’ curse.
So how about the wrestling/top control route? Well as previously mentioned Murphy showed some dangerousness in the way he finished Ramos in a grappling position, and his performance against Josh Culibao also shows that it’s his best chance of beating Edson. I have been impressed with his grappling ability in the UFC so far. He’s not a pure takedown artist though, and has averaged just 1.29 takedowns per 15 minutes inside the UFC. In that Culibao fight he was keen to clinch up, but took advantage of Culibao turning his back in the second. The third round was dominant for Murphy in regards to the grappling, but it all stemmed from him landing a body shot that pretty much compromised Culibao and turned him into a ragdoll for more than three minutes in the round. If all you do is look at UFCStats for that fight, then Murphy looks like Khabib…but the tape shows a very different story. He also probably should have gotten the finish there if we’re being critical!
I understand that Lerone Murphy is undefeated (although if you ask me he lost that Tukhugov debut, not that it matters), and has shown good moments from top position, but does doing that against a compromised Josh Culibao and Ricardo Ramos really justify you being the favourite against Edson Barboza? Edson’s fought the cream of the crop in the UFC since day one – his three most underwhelming results were losses to Jamie Varner, Donald Cerrone and Michael Johnson…that’s how ELITE the competition he’s faced has been. And even though he’s a bit long in the tooth he’s showing that he can still hang with guys at this level, like he did with Sodiq. Personally I think Yusuff is a more dangerous fighter for him than Lerone, who doesn’t appear to have that kind of imposing and dangerous striking style.
I think this betting line is putting so much unwarranted faith in Lerone Murphy. Yes, he could turn out to be a great prospect that enters the top 5 of the division one day, but we have not seen him show anywhere near the level of competence to be expected to beat Barboza more times than not. Stylistically, he doesn’t have anything that gives an immediate advantage against Barboza (at least nothing I could trust him to lean on for 25 minutes), the only angle there is age. Yes Barboza is getting a bit old and shopworn, but he’s still beating younger guys consistently. Also, whilst we’re talking about intangibles, Barboza is very experienced in five round fights, and the extra two rounds allow him back into the fight should his weakness towards early pressure show itself.
I’d say Edson should be around -150 here. The line available feels unsubstantiated and purely based on the age dynamic, as I have not seen anything from tape that implies Lerone Murphy is up to the task. He barely got past Gabriel Santos last year.
I had a great time betting Barboza as a dog last time, so I’m doing it again. 1u on Edson Barboza to Win at +125 or better. The line looks to be moving in Lerone’s favour at the moment so I will wait to bet this.
How I line this fight: Edson Barboza -150 (60%), Lerone Murphy +150 (40%)
Bet or pass: 1u Edson Barboza to Win (+XXX)
Prop leans: None

Khaos Williams v Carlston Harris
Pretty awful Co-Main Event. It’s a fun fight but neither man is really considered one-to-watch and they’ve barely fought once each in the last year. You telling me they couldn’t have found a better fight to go on the poster for this one?
Anyway, both men are a little bit wild on the feet, but Harris is clearly the less technical and defensively sound of the two.
Williams kind of forged his path in the UFC with KO victories, but when forced to be technical across 15 minutes he gives a decent enough account of himself (I’ve tried to fade him twice in that type of bout, against Randy Brown and Matt Semelsberger). He’s clearly going to look much better when he can find finishes, but I think I still expect him to be the more eye-catching fighter if this one is a 15 minute kickboxing affair.
But that’s the problem here…Carlston Harris’ grappling game is the strongest skillset that either man possesses, and it’s whether or not he can get it going that will likely determine who wins this one. Unfortunately, we have only seen Williams taken down twice in the UFC, both times by Michel Pereira (who isn’t even much of a wrestlegrappler himself). To make matters worse, they both came in the 14^th and 15^th minutes of the fight and we barely got to see anything, so they really are low quality examples.
I’ve been watching MMA long enough to know that a guy like Khaos Williams probably isn’t a particularly amazing grappler, but of course that’s still a huge assumption to make. With no knowledge of how Khaos is going to fare working off his back, I really do not think this fight is one that you can have any degree of confidence in. The books had initially lined it around a pick’em, which could well imply that they feel the exact same way. It’s unfortunately a pass from me, because a Williams with great TDD and process on bottom could end up being -300…but white belt Williams could look +300.
How I line this fight: Impossible to line with any confidence, so a pick’em is fine.
Bet or pass: Pass
Prop leans: None

~Angela Hill v Luana Pinheiro~
After chasing it for quite some time, MMA bettors finally managed to catch the fade on Luana Pinheiro. When she entered the UFC she was discredited for her exclusively R1 finishes, with people predicting her cardio would not be up to scratch. Things got worse when she took the coward’s way to a win against Jessica Penne – seemingly blowing her gas and then milking the extent of the damage done from an illegal strike and winning by KO. As we know from the MMA community, doing stuff like that will make you one of the most hated fighters on the roster. She then moved to 2-0 with a split decision win as a favourite against Michelle Waterson…which many people think she lost. Basically, not a very impressive stint in the UFC so far.
Finally she went up against Amanda Ribas, who went on to expose that dodgy cardio of Pinheiro, melting her in the third round with a beautiful wheel kick when Pinheiro was death gassed. Now we know it’s possible, the third round of Pinheiro’s fight against Waterson-Gomez makes a bit more sense, seeing as Waterson took over and clearly won it.
Nothing kills a hype train quicker than realising that a fighter has bad cardio, and it’s safe to say that whatever hype there was on Luana (minimal) is dead…because she’s a +125 underdog to Angela Hill here.
In my opinion, Angela Hill has been an incredibly underrated fighter for such a long time and absolutely deserves her flowers as one of WMMA’s most respected journeywomen. She’s had 24 UFC fights, and she’s still showing up better than fighters much younger than her and doesn’t appear to even be slowing down.
The blueprint on Hill has been pretty clear for some time – if you want to beat her relatively easily, you take her down. Otherwise, you’re going up against technically impressive striker that has the durability, a sneaky bit of power and seemingly limitless cardio to keep you honest. Really, if you manage to have success against Angela Hill on the feet, the best thing you can really hope for is about 55% of dominance (typically where two judges score one way, and another goes the opposite).
As I often say, statistics for MMA are best used when comparing WMMA strikers, and the figures here are quite eye-opening. Hill’s strike differential is vastly superior, and their defensive rates are very close. In short, if they stay on the feet for 15 minutes I think Hill should be expected to out-volume her opponent. When you factor in Pinheiro’s cardio deficiencies, that’s even more likely.
Therefore, Pinheiro has two routes to success here in my opinion – her typical R1 finish, or by going the grappling route. Firstly, Hill has never been finished via (T)KO in 29 professional fights (most of which have come at a high level), so I think it’s fair to say she deserves trust in being able to stay safe. She’s also quite an intelligent fighter, so I assume she’s going to be aware that her success will come in the latter half of the fight.
In terms of the grappling, Pinheiro landed five takedowns in the opening round against Markos, and that’s what forced her to gas out…so I don’t really think she’s going to be comfortable enough to lean on that skillset for 15 minutes straight. Hill is defensively quite sound on the mat as well, so as long as she can avoid getting stuck in a position I think she’ll be fine.
So in short, the only skillset I think Luana Pinheiro deserves credit for at this level is her R1 explosiveness, and Angela Hill is one of the worst opponents to pit that style against. Hill’s last victory proves that, as she survived the early barrage of another R1 finisher and took over in R2/3. I think the exact same mission statement applies here, and I think Angela Hill should definitely be trusted to do that. I’d personally line Hill somewhere like -175 to -200 here, so the -137 available at the time of writing was an easy bet to make. Let’s go Angie! 2u Angela Hill to Win at -137.
How I line this fight: Angela Hill -188 (65%), Luana Pinheiro +188 (35%)
Bet or pass: 2u Angela Hill to Win (-137), 0.25u Angela Hill to Win by Decision (+125 or better)
Prop leans: Hill couldn’t finish her dinner, so the decision prop will be one to look out for.
Live Betting Leans: If Pinheiro wins R1 and goes a bit crazy in trying to find a finish, betting Hill on the stool before R2 is a good move as the cardio fall-off could be live.

~Adrian Yanez vs Vinicius Salvador~
This feels like a weird mismatch and I don’t know why it’s happening.
Adrian Yanez is a classy and technical striker that I feel has become a bit overrated. The fans love him and put him on a pedestal as some sort of elite fighter’s fighter – I get that he’s fun to watch and a good boxer, but I’d argue he’s had more underwhelming performances than good in the UFC. He got styled on by Font and Martinez, was competitive against Davey Grant and lost more minutes than he won against Randy Costa. There’s not much shame in that and I’m not trying to say Yanez is bad, but I don’t think those performances warrant him being regarded as one of the most popular unranked fighters on the roster.
He faces Vinicius Salvador, who looked like an exciting fighter from his DWCS victory, but there was always a suspicion that he would have very little to offer outside of barn burners and very early KOs. The UFC pissed away the chance for a fan-friendly prelim guy by putting him up against two of the scrappiest and most durable guys at Flyweight – Victor Altamirano and CJ Vergara. The path to victory for both men was very clear there, and they grinded out long-distance victories after Salvador had nothing to offer after five minutes.
The UFC should have instantly viewed Salvador the same as they do Trevor Peek. Someone who is hilariously flawed but scrappy and entertaining to watch nonetheless. His striking style is unorthodox and weird, which looks great when he’s the hammer but awful when he’s the nail. Against a fighter as scrappy and technical sound a boxer as Yanez, this obviously seems like a tall order.
But ironically, whilst this is the toughest opponent Salvador has faced so far in his career, it’s probably his most winnable fight too. Yanez will oblige him in providing a war for the fans, which will give Salvador his chance to land that early KO. Yanez also been pieced up twice in a row so durability could also be a bit more questionable. Yes there is a massive gap in technique and overall skill…but one clean right hand can trump all of that, and Yanez can be hit by one.
Yanez is a -350 favourite here, which is a very easy way to put that final nail in the coffin of considering betting him. Whilst I do think he probably deserves to be close to that number in terms of his overall winning probability, it really won’t take much for the tables to turn massively here, so risking -350 seems like a terrible idea.
A bet on Salvador on the return is too ugly to stomach though, because he could also get absolutely styled on. It’s an easy pass all round.
How I line this fight: Adrian Yanez -250 (71%), Vinicius Salvador +250 (29%)
Bet or pass: Pass
Prop leans: FDGTD very likely but doubt the price is at all playable.

~Oumar Sy v Antonio Trocoli~
We’re all jealous of Antonio Trocoli, AKA Mr Mackenzie Dern. I’ve probably got more to say about her than I do about this fight.
I’m obviously not going to do any tape for this fight, so the only thing of note from their records is that Trocoli has regional loses to Dhiego Lima (pre-UFC) and Jacob ‘Christmas’ Volkmann (post-UFC), both of which are pretty concerning losses. He also popped for steroids on DWCS, so who knows how good he actually is when he’s clean.
Sy is a terrifying specimen of a man, with a 9-0 record by KO/SUB/DEC. I suppose this is a good time to remind you that William Knight also looked like a god.
Why would you bet this fight? Just pass and take the info we get here into their next appearances.
How I line this fight: I’d have more confidence in my ability to hook up with Mackenzie Dern than my ability to accurate cap this fight.
Bet or pass: Pass
Prop leans: Over 1.5 Mackenzie Dern sightings (-200)

~Emily Ducote v Vanessa Demopoulos~
Two very middle-of-the-road WMMA fighters that I am quite familiar with.
Demopoulos got to the dance via her grappling and submission ability, but has spent time honing her skills on the feet that she actually seems to have abandoned a grappling based approach entirely, having landed an average of 0.49 takedowns per 15 mins in her UFC/DWCS career so far. On the feet, she’s scrappy and actually does hit kind of hard, but the technique is still very much a work in progress. She makes up for the lack of finesse with pure enthusiasm and grit, and will stay in her opponent’s face and swing until the final bell. She’s also pretty durable too, having never lost by finish in 15 fights with striking that’s that sketchy.
Emily Ducote is kind of the polar opposite. She’s a dedicated striker that has decent enough grappling defence. She has little to no power in her hands, but she’s reliable to rack up decent volume and can keep it up across 15 minutes. She has landed 100+ significant strikes in 3 of her 4 UFC bouts, but she’s also absorbed 100+ in 3 too.
The summary of this one is that Ducote is just the cleaner striker of the two, but I think this -330 price tag is a bit ridiculous. Yes, comparing the stats makes it seem that Ducote will win easily, but Demopoulos has faced quite a few opponents that have wanted to grapple her, and her Strikes landed per minute figures are skewed as a result. Given that Ducote absorbs a similar number to what she lands, I think Demopoulos’ enthusiasm should see her land far more than she has done before. Also, Demopolous’ fight metrics are often inferior to her opponents in all of the fights she loses, so the stats do her a major disservice to how competitive she can be.
I always say that there’s a real ceiling in regards to how much you can favour a striking based WMMA fighter if they have no power or finishing ability. The judges do not score technique, so the 50+ pitter patter punches they land can easily be trumped by any instance where it looks like they get hurt on the return, so in this instance I think Vanessa’s power and forward pressure could be enough to make rounds closer than the odds suggest they should be.
In short, Ducote price is nuts but she should probably win so definitely deserves to be favoured. I wouldn’t bet anything here other than FGTD, which could be a decent parlay piece anywhere less than -400. I’d be interested to see what Ducote by Decision looks like because I do rate Demopolous’ durability and see it going the distance quite frequently…so +100 or better would get my money.
How I line this fight: Emily Ducote -250 (71%), Vanessa Demopoulos +250 (29%)
Bet or pass: 1u Emily Ducote to Win by Decision (+100 or better)
Prop leans: See above

~Ramiz Brahimaj v Themba Gorimbo~
Stylistically this is a very funny fight, because it’s between two guys whose strengths and weaknesses are exactly the same. They’re both aggressive grapplers with average to bad striking, and they’ll hunt for the finish from the opening bell…and fall off a cliff at the halfway point if they can’t find it.
Themba Gorimbo is unfortunately completely unbettable at this stage in his career, I think. He’s obviously got this narrative with The Rock going on, and it’s somehow managed to turn him from a sub-par, barely UFC quality fighter that can’t beat AJ Fletcher, to someone whose fame actually manages to transcend MMA a little bit. Just goes to show how important those post-fight interviews can be! That popularity obviously swells his betting line as he’s likely to garner more money and attention from bettors, whereas Brahimaj is a nobody unless you’re a hardcore with a good memory. Couple that with the fact Themba’s style is not sustainable across 15 minutes, and you’ve got a fighter with a very limited path to victory that you can rely on, who comes with an eye-watering price tag.
Whilst Brahimaj’s betting line would lean towards the value side due to Thema’s popularity, this is the first time we have seen him compete in over two years. He was a fighter that came in during COVID times, and immediately got thrown into the deep end when matchmaking was difficult. I bet Max Griffin against him due to Max’s durability (IE my bet was ‘Max to survive and turn the tables’), and it resulted in Griffin slicing Ramiz’s ear in half with an elbow (one of the more gruesome moments we have ever seen in the cage). Ramiz managed to hit is PTV against Micheal Gillmore (the runt of the litter in a season of TUF who had no right competing in the UFC. The only interesting thing about him was that his parents couldn’t even spell his own name ), as well as Sasha Palatnikov. When facing a veteran grappler like Court McGee, I also won a bet backing the experience and durability of a guy like Court (which is ironic given I’ve bet on Court to be KO’d in his last two).
So basically, my summary here is that Thembo deserves to be favoured simply by being more proven and in the better recent form. He’s got good enough grappling all round to be able to stop Ramiz from being so dominant as a round one buzzsaw, and unless Brahimaj has made some major changes in the two years off, Themba’s probably got the slightly superior cardio (by a bit) and therefore should still be around once his opponent fades.
The -275 betting line is absurd though, as I mentioned earlier, because there’s a likelihood that Themba gasses out himself too, and it could easily be Brahimaj that’s fresher in the latter stages, should we get there. Therefore, it’s a very easy pass. I will take a look at the round props as there could potentially be an angle on some sort of combination, but we will see.
How I line this fight: Themba Gorimbo -200 (67%), Ramiz Brahimaj +200 (33%)
Bet or pass: Fight to End in Rounds 2 or 3 (price dependent), or something like that
Prop leans: See above

~Tom Nolan v Victor Martinez~
I’m bored of saying it, but Jesus Christ the calibre of a ‘UFC Fighter’ is just so low these days. Tom Nolan just got knocked out in 63 seconds as a -350 favourite to Nikolas Motta (shoutout to me for sort of predicting that), and Victor Martinez’s UFC debut saw him get knocked out cold by JORDAN LEAVITT.
So what do you do, bet at -350 on an unproven fighter who shat the bed at the exact same price tag last time? Or trust a guy who got put to sleep by the hands of Jordan Leavitt?
Obviously, you pass. If I see a single parlay screenshot with Nolan in it this weekend I will lose all hope.
How I line this fight: I like my chances of pulling Mackenzie Dern for a second time, more than I like my chances of lining this fight accurately.
Bet or pass: Pass
Prop leans: See above

~Abus Magomedov v Warlley Alves~
Abus Magomedov needs to fire his manager. He started off his UFC career with a highlight reel KO inside 20 seconds, and had the world at his feet. Then he gets a main event spot against Sean Strickland. Fair enough taking an opportunity, but trying to speed run the rankings is a terrible idea when you consider all they want to do these days is play monopoly and generate stars. It’s much better to KO bums in the prelims and get paid a 50k bonus a few times than do what he did against Strickland…because look who he got for his third fight after losing in embarrassing fashion - Caio Borralho, who is lowkey one of the best prospects in the UFC at the moment in my opinion. Abus basically went from prospect to fodder when he lost to Strickland, and I wouldn’t expect him to stick around in the UFC for too much longer if he doesn’t start delivering early KOs again.
He should be able to get the better of Warlley Alves though. Alves looks hella old and shopworn, despite only being 33 years old somehow. He has ridden the coattails of having a win against Colby Covington on his record for his entire career, because he’s done nothing remarkable with it since. His loss to James Krause was the fight where it was apparent Alves was on the decline, and a ‘loser leaves town’ win against the equally old and frail Sergio Moraes was the only thing keeping him afloat. He scored a shock upset KO via body kicks against Mounir Lazzez (who turned out to be a bit of a fraud anyway), but the writing has been on the wall for Warlley for some time. Fast forward a few years and he's on a threefight losing streak again, having been beaten down pretty badly and finished in under 1.5 rounds in four of his last five losses.
That’s a key piece of info for this one, because we know Abus’ limitations revolve around him being a great early fighter with terrible and unsustainable levels of cardio. When looking at Abus’ fights, you need to decipher the chances of him winning early, and that will explain the rest.
Given Alves’ frailty, I think this is a pretty generous fight for Magomedov – possibly the most appropriate and tailor-made matchup they could have found for him!
His winning probability relies heavily on doing work early, so naturally betting Abus R1/2 KO would be the obvious go to. I’m not sure there will be any value on that prop though, because it’s a pretty obvious angle that everyone’s going to try and take. However, I’ve long known that Bet365’s Bet Builder product is broken when combining Winner + Total Rounds, especially before they release the rest of the props as it’s completely out of context…so Backing Abus to Win and Under 1.5 Rounds at the right time could produce a valuable price before it gets corrected. That’s all I’ll be looking to play for this fight, assuming those early Abus props are rubbish. Be careful what price is available if you’re considering this, it’s going to be much shorter than normal and it’s a very limited window to be betting on.
How I line this fight: Abus Magomedov -250 (71%), Warlley Alves +250 (29%)
Bet or pass: Abus Magomedov to Win & Under 1.5 Rounds (+125 or better)
Prop leans: See Above
Live Betting Leans: I’d take a look at Alves on the stool after R1, but I don’t think I could trust him really.

~Piera Rodriguez v Ariane Carnelossi~
Ariane Carnelossi returns after two years on the sidelines. I’ve always jokingly been a fan of her, because that fight against Na Liang (the first UFC Fight back with fans after COVID) was genuinely one of the highlights of 2021 and it was such a fun fight with a crazy energy. Also helps that I bet her heavily in that.
Carnelossi’s a decent striker that actually hung with Angela Hill back in the day, but her wrestling defence is a clear weak point. She got absolutely ragdolled in one of the best UFC performances I can remember when she faced Loopy Godinez, and even Na Liang had some success in that opening round. She’s not a fish off her back or anything, but if you can’t defend takedowns and your opponent has the cardio and ability to chain takedowns together…you’re going to struggle.
Piera Rodriguez is a pretty well-rounded fighter, she’s decent enough in the striking realm and has a diverse arsenal with kicks and a whole lot of feints, but she’s also a decent enough grappler that can commit to that multiple takedown approach. She’s landed three or more in each of her UFC/DWCS victories and just generally does a good job of showcasing herself to be a well-rounded mixed martial artist. My biggest criticism of her is that she does look to have slight signs of bad cardio, as her third rounds against both Hughes and Hansen were a bit laboured and slow.
So initially this fight was lined as a clear pick’em, which I didn’t agree with at all. Whilst Carnelossi should be able to show some competitiveness, her inability to defend takedowns should see her on the back foot for a fair bit of this fight, and her desire to land the knockout with every punch she throws could even see her lose moments on the feet to Piera’s kicking game and more technical style. Carnelossi does have a bit of a cardio advantage though, which Piera will have to navigate, but other than that I think the Venezuelan should be given the nod as a moderate favourite, probably around -175. Considering I got Piera at -120, I thought that was worthy of a 2u bet. If the line continues to move though, I may arb out as I think -175 is a very fair number.
How I line this fight: Piera Rodriguez -175 (64%), Ariane Carnelossi +175 (36%)
Bet or pass: 2u Piera Rodriguez to Win (-120)
Prop leans: Probably a decision win for Piera, Carnelossi is dedicated and Piera not much of a finisher.

~Alatengheili v Kleydson Rodrigues~
I write the same synopsis for Alatengheili because the guy never changes. Here’s a paragraph from his last fight that I wrote:
Alatengheili is one of the most frustrating talents I’ve seen in MMA in recent years. He was once the number three freestyle wrestler in China and looks to actually have a really promising wrestling game…but he just doesn’t fight like it! In his UFC debut, he faced a clearly superior striker and waited until round 3 to start shooting religiously (no attempts in R1 or 2, 7 attempts in R3). After that, he did exactly the same again in a split decision win against Ryan Benoit (1 TD attempt in R1, none in R2, and 12 in R3). He then faced Casey Kenny, who is a great defensive grappler…and decided not to attempt a takedown. Then he faced Gustavo Lopez, who took HIM down three times from eight attempts, and none from Alatenheili. He went on to beat Kevin Croom in under a minute on the feet, then went back to his regular style of waiting until R3 for takedowns when he beat Chad Anheliger. In the Gutierrez fight that followed, he attempted four takedowns and landed two. These all came in – you guessed it- round three.
So I think it’s fair to assume that we can’t call Alatengheili much of a wrestler anymore. When he’s striking on the feet, he’s clearly got some power in a big wind up shot, but other than that it’s quite flat footed and low volume stuff. Those aren’t particularly good qualities, as he’s hardly demonstrating a clear killer instinct that makes up for bad minute winning fundamentals.
Kleydson Rodrigues is a guy I was quite excited about when he got to the UFC. He looked great on DWCS, but immediately had a tough test against CJ Vergara in his debut. I do personally think he won that fight, but CJ’s pace, pressure and tenacity got the better of him down the stretch and made that fight close. He returned and obliterated Shannon Ross, before being steamrolled on the mat by Farid Basharat. A real mixed bag of results, overall.
The thing is, I don’t exactly think that the losses Rodrigues suffered are directly relevant here, as Farid’s topside grappling is way way better than Alateng’s. The Mongolian also doesn’t have the forward pressure or pace of CJ Vergara, due to how flat footed he is.
On the flipside, Alatengheili has struggled against fighters who technically outclass him on the feet, or those with good takedown defence. The Mongolian has proven to be a tough fighter to put away, which should give him a chance to take over at the midway point.
Comparatively, I think Kleydson Rodrigues has shown himself to be a higher calibre striker than Alatenheili, and clearly the more diverse one. Kleydson also throws a lot of low kicks, which are a key weapon when trying to nullify the grappling threat of the already flat footed power puncher.
In conclusion, I just think Kleydson Rodrigues outclasses Alatengheili in the striking, whereas I don’t think the Mongolian outclasses him anywhere on the return. The Mongolian has proven he is keen to stay on the feet for the majority of fights, which should leave the door wide open for Kleydson to win minutes. The cardio advantage does lie with Alateng, but I don’t think he pushes enough of a pace in the grappling or striking department to make Kleydson fade like he did against CJ (who is one of the more suffocating guys in the division). Also, Alateng’s grappling threat in R3 may well be nullified by the 10 minutes of leg kick investment that Kleydson has already made.
So as you can probably tell, I favour Kleydson Rodrigues in this one. I personally thought he should be a -200 favourite, so I was expecting to pass on this one…but it looks like the BetOnline moneyline is moving towards -150. For some strange reason the fight is barely available in the UK for now, but I’m hoping that -150 would be available for me to bet for 2u.
How I line this fight: Kleydson Rodrigues -200 (67%), Alatengheili +200 (33%)
Bet or pass: 2u Kleydson Rodrigues to Win (-160 or better)
Prop leans: None
Live Betting Leans: If it’s 1-1 going into the third and there’s been a pace…I’d recommend betting Alatengheili.

~Tamires Vidal v Melissa Gatto~
Melissa Gatto is a competent and well-rounded fighter. She went to competitive decisions with Tracey Cortez and Ariane Lipski. She is UFC quality.
Tamires Vidal is a plodding fighter that doesn’t appear to be very good at defensive grappling. She went to a competitive decision against Montserrat Rendon. She is not UFC quality.
Gatto is -400. It’s a very steep price to pay but I don’t think it’s too far off where it ought to be – she should be able to point strike on the feet and have very decent grappling success, where she can definitely fish for a submisison. I’d be interested in seeing what the price on Gatto by Submission is though, so I may be looking to play that.
How I line this fight: Tamires Vidal +300 (25%), Melissa Gatto -300 (75%)
Bet or pass: Xu Melissa Gatto to Win by Submission (+300 or better)
Prop leans: See above

Bets (Bold = been placed)
2u Edson Barboza to Win (+130)
1.6u Themba Gorimbo to Win (-137)
0.3u Themba Gorimbo to Win by Submission (+650)
0.3u Themba Gorimbo to Win in Rounds 2/3 (+380)
0.1u Themba Gorimbo to Win by Submission in Rounds 2/3 (+1150)
2u Angela Hill to Win (-137)
2u Piera Rodriguez to Win (-120)
2u Kleydson Rodrigues to Win (-150)
2u Abus Magomedov to Win & Under 1.5 Rounds (+130)
0.5u Melissa Gatto to Win by Submmission (+225)
0.25u Parlay Pieces (+699)
Parlay Pieces: Angela Hill, Emily Ducote, Abus Magomedov, Kleydson Rodgriguez, Melissa Gatto
Dog of the Week: Edson Barboza

Hello there I (21f) have a questionable relationship with my sister (26f). For some context my family is not the touchy feely type, and when we fight it’s goes on for months. So my sister we’ll call her Jess. Jess has always been mostly absent from the family since she was 18 years old. Granted our childhood wasn’t the best but we had food and clothes and a good home. So with that background. She always has a on and off again bf (25m) we’ll call him Chad for this story it fits him. So Jess and Chad needed a place to stay this last December. I had just lost my job and needed some help with rent. I don’t have a lot of room so three people in a one bedroom gets well yk not the best. So I told her she could stay with me but she’s was going to have to help with rent since I just lost my job. So I’d keep my apartment and she’d have somewhere to stay. Win win. So Chad he did not have a job. So my sister was the bread winner for about a month. I cleaned and cooked everyday I made her lunches for work and dinner when she came home. I cleaned her car I was basically a house wife for her. Which again fair she’s paying my rent I should be helping her out as much as I can. So things get rocky with her and Chad.. and they fight when I slept. I have one rule when they moved in. No yelling or fighting so that outside my house I’d like to keep my peace in my space coming from a huge family space and peace are super important. I finally got a job a month after they got here so in about January I got a job and I told Jess she didn’t have to pay the full amount anymore. So the next month rolls around I can see they’re getting lazy. Not doing dishes while I’m working Jess is working less hours saying work isn’t giving me hours I have no idea why. But yet last week they gave her 20 extra hours so I let it go. This goes on for months I just got her out of my apartment like two months ago. Since I live in a one bedroom they had my living room. So I wasn’t allowed to leave at night. If I was going to a friends and was going to be out late. I was told to not show up till about 5 in the morning so I didn’t wake her coming home. I wasn’t allowed to have any friends over cuz she wanted to relax and didn’t know them. After living by myself for 6 months coming and going as I please. To going to not allowed to go anywhere. So I wasn’t the happiest about that at all but fair she’s sleeping in my living room so makes sense the door would be loud and wake her up. But then it got to no one doing the dishes at all and then her saying my showers are too long I need to stop taking long showers. I have short hair okay. This is for later. I take maybe max ten mins in the shower. Her and her bf would take 45 mins to an hour showers. And Id have to deep clean the bathroom everyday. The hair. Was the worst part. Ik most of you can understand that yes hair gets a lot of places it shouldn’t. I’m not used to that it grosses me out. Especially since it’s not my hair I’m cleaning everyday. So I had enough of it. Enough of my place being dirty everyday and my food being gone and no one getting food for me. They’d always get food but never got any for me knowing I’d be home. So I’d vent to my dad about Jess and Chad. He said to kick her out cuz he would. The night before I do this. Chad and Jess get into a huge fight. And Chad steals her car. Takes her keys and the car and then smashes his phone so she can’t track him. We end up finding him she gets the car back feels bad and buys him a new phone. And says she’s done with him. I said okay since Chad is gone you can stay for a little longer. So she does and it keeps getting worse I feel bad for her cuz her 7 year relationship ended so I don’t kick her out. But then she starts to lie to me about who she’s seeing then I see she takes him home to my apartment and I can see it on my cameras. So I tell her she’s got to go she refuses to leave. So I dropped her stuff off at my dad’s house and took my key back. Since then she hasn’t said a good thing about me at all. I had to get her out for my own mental health it was getting horrible. Losing my job at the same time and trying to get myself back in my feet. Idk why I let it go as long as I did. Now my sister lives with dad. Jess hates that I go over there epically with my dog ace she hates him for some reason I have no idea she’s the one who found him for me. So my parents love my dog calls him their grandson. So I go over like once a week. She still doesn’t talk to me and only says bad things about me. This isn’t the first time Jess has been like this. Not the last. So I changed my phone number and my socials cuz I’m done with her apparently my parents didn’t hear how she treated me and my apartment. Especially since she was skipping out on me since I got a job on rent. She never gave me a dime again for rent. So I had to pull out a loan on month to pay it so she could stay. My parents are livid. They’re about to kick her out and never talk to her again. Idk if it’s just cuz she’s doing the same to them lying and being lazy and not cleaning up after herself ever. But yeah now my parents want her gone completely and all my siblings are behind me on this she’s done everyone in the family wrong so many times.

SATURDAY 11 MAY 2024 (GMT +7)
Fulham vs Manchester City
The Citizen is unbeaten in their last 20 games in the Premier League (W16 D4) and they will travel to Craven Cottage with such momentum and confidence to help them overtake the top position from Arsenal who trailed them by only one point having played one more game than Pep Guardiola’s side. Scoring 11 goals in their last three victories over Brighton, Nottingham Forest, and Wolves, Manchester City will pose a real threat to Fulham in this match. Moreover, Manchester City has won their last 15 meetings with Fulham across all competitions so it will be a tough challenge for Fulham who doesn’t have much to play for in the remaining 2 games in the competition. Marco Silva’s side is currently 13^th in the league with 44 points collected from 36 games. They are without a win in their last three games and just recorded two consecutive draws in the league against Crystal Palace and Brentford. Worryingly, Fulham has also failed to win any of their last three home games at Craven Cottage, drawing once while losing the other two. However, Marco Silva doesn’t have any injury concerns in any of his players for this match against the Citizen so he will be able to field his strongest XI from the start of the match. The same can also be said for Manchester City’s squad as Ederson, Phil Fode, and Ruben Dias have recovered well and the former even started the game against Wolves last week. In the Citizen’s current form, I believe it will be difficult for any team in the league to stop them and with no disrespect for Fulham I just can't see them stopping the visitor to claim all three points in this match.
Prediction: 45 – 55
Bournemouth vs Brentford
Without a win in their last six meetings with Brentford in the league (D2 L4), Bournemouth will be determined to end that poor run of record when the two sides face each other at Vitality Stadium tomorrow. Bournemouth finished 15^th last season and this season they look likely to finish in the top half under their new manager Andoni Iraola. They picked up 48 points from 36 games and with two games to go they can still finish as high as 7^th. Meanwhile, Brentford has failed to perform this season having collected only 36 points from 36 games. They are currently 16^th but they are mathematically safe from relegation so they will keep playing in the Premier League next season. Thomas Frank’s side finished 9^th last season so it’s been a disappointing campaign for them. They come into this match on the back of a 0-0 draw against Fulham at home last week. Their performance away from home is far from impressive as they picked up only four wins on the road this season (D2 L12). Interestingly, Bournemouth is unbeaten in their last six home Premier League games (W4 D2), their joint-longest run without a defeat at home in the competition. Bournemouth with be without Milos Kerkez who is out suspended while Luis Sinisterra, Marcus Tavernier, and Ryan Fredericks are out due to injury. Tyler Adams, Lloyd Kelly, and Chris Mepham will be assessed ahead of kickoff. For Brentford, Josh Dasilva, Rico Henry, Ben Mee, and Aaron Hickey will remain on the sidelines through injury while Mathias Jensen and Kristoffer Ajer are both injury doubts for this one. In what will be their final home game of the season, Bournemouth would love to finish on a high in front of their supporters and I think they can send their supporters home happy with a win to mark a very solid season for the Cherries.
Prediction: 55 – 45
Everton vs Sheffield United
Sean Dyche’s side has been excellent recently with three wins and one draw recorded in their last four games in the Premier League. They have a good opportunity to continue their momentum when they welcome the visit of Sheffield United to Goodison Park tomorrow. After recording three straight wins in the Premier League, Everton was held to a 1-1 draw on their visit to Luton last week. Dominic Calvert-Lewin opened the scoring with a penalty in that game before being cancelled out by Elijah Adebayo's leveller in the 31^st minute. After confirming their relegation to the Championship Division two weeks ago, Chris Wilder’s side suffered another defeat at home against Nottingham Forest last time out. They got beaten 1-3 in that game and that is their fifth defeat in a row. Their centre-back Anel Ahmedhodzic was shown a red card in that game and he will not be available for this game alongside Mason Holgate who is ineligible to face his parent club and also the likes of Max Lowe, John Egan, Chris Basham, George Baldock, Oli McBurnie, Rhys Norrington-Davies, Tom Davies, and Daniel Jebbison whom all remain in the treatment room. As for Everton, Vitalii Mykolenko, Nathan Patterson, and Dele Alli will remain on the sidelines through injury. Interestingly, Sheffield United holds a positive record over Everton where they won five of their last seven away league games against the Toffees. But with the two teams currently in such contrasting form, I believe Everton will get the victory in this one.
Prediction: 60 – 40
Newcastle United vs Brighton
The Magpies are getting the momentum to help them secure a European qualifying spot next season after claiming five victories in their last seven games in the Premier League (D1 L1). They recorded a very impressive 4-1 victory over Burnley on their visit to Turf Moor last week. In just a week before, they also recorded a big 5-1 triumph over Sheffield United so now Newcastle United has scored 9 goals across two games and next, they will face a test from Brighton who they always beat at St. James’ Park over last two games there. Revenge would also be high on the agenda of the Magpies as in the reverse fixture earlier this season the Seagulls won 3-1 at American Express Community Stadium. Roberto De Zerbi’s side comes into this match fresh after ending their six-game winless run in the competition (D2 L4) by beating Aston Villa 1-0 at home. The only goal from Joao Pedro in the 87^th minute of the game became the only difference between the two sides. The Brazilian has now scored 20 goals for Brighton across all competitions and will be a threat to Newcastle United’s defence here. Unfortunately, Brighton will still have a lot of players injured at the moment with Evan Ferguson, Solly March, Jack Hinshelwood, Pervis Estupinan, Kaoru Mitoma, Tariq Lamptey, James Milner, Adam Lallana and Jan Paul van Hecke are all out injured. On the other side, Eddie Howe will rely on Aleksandar Isak who has 20 goals to his name in the Premier League and also Callum Wilson and Anthony Gordon who are all raring to go to try to get called up to the England national team for Euro. Miguel Almiron and Nick Pope are back in training already and might also get involved here. So that leaves only Fabian Schar, Sven Botman, Jamaal Lascelles, Joe Willock, Matt Targett, and Lewis Miley on the sidelines for the Magpies here. With the Magpies on a momentum and the game will be played at St. James’ Park, I’ll go for a comfortable win for the home side here.
Prediction: 55 – 45
DISCLAIMER:
1. This prediction content comes from a third party and is for reference only. I am not responsible for any wins and losses generated by members using these tips.

You guys can add on to this list if you want but here’s a general idea of who we are probably going to see
• Someone from Bachelor nation- I wish dwts would take a break from the bachelor(ette) franchise and maybe even cast someone from a different romance reality tv show, but because they both run through abc, I fully expect to see a contestant from there. Because we just had two girls, my guess is probably Joey or Gerry (or possibly a “fan-favorite” from Jenn’s upcoming season). If we get a girl, my guesses are probably Maria, daisy, or Kelsey a • An Olympian- the Olympics are this year, and they happen right before DWTS airs, so they will probably get an Olympian, don’t know for what sport, probably an ice skater or female gymnast, but I’m hoping they get someone for a different sport • A singer- they usually have a musician of some sort, so I expect to see someone in the music industry join, could see someone like Jesse mccartney since he did masked singer and Deena Katz casts for that show too I think • an “older” actoactress- ive noticed they have been casted older actors/actresses that are kinda known for one or two major roles (Melora, Mira, Barry, Martin kove, Kate flannery, etc.) so I’d expect they would be casting an older contestant, someone like Jennifer love Hewitt maybe • Reality contestant- whether it’s a housewives person, bravo person, they are bound to be cast. I’d also add a dance moms girl because they just had their reunion special in may, hoping Chloe Lukasiak gets cast, or maybe even a mom, like Christi or Kelly • controversial contestant- I wish we wouldn’t cast anybody controversial so I don’t have to get a headache when they are on my screen, but unfortunately, someone like that is gonna be cast. I’m unsure if a person in politics would get cast since it’s an election year, but I wouldn’t throw that idea away since Sean spicer was on in 2020. I know Gypsy rose has been asked and declined, but she’s chilling in Hollywood right now, so maybe she might change her mind • Social media influencestar- with Rylee’s success on social media and social media recent success in general, we will probably have social media stars on for quite a while. I’d say Alix Earle or Livvy dunne, but I could see maybe a YouTuber as well, may pay just retired, so he could be a possibility. Maybe a sturnilio brother? • NFl/NBA/MLB player (retired)- we usually get someone from one of those leagues, so I wouldn’t be shocked if we saw an athlete on, I don’t know who’s retired that wouldn’t be considered too big, Jason kelce is probably too big, considering the swiftie army, idk if he would do it and I might be biased because I’m a saints fan, but drew brees, he’s not too big because he’s been retired for a few years, but he has a great track record

This is a long read.
TL;DR: Drake is a creep with a clear pattern of predatory behavior towards many minors and I have the receipts to back it up.
INTRODUCTION
This is a comprehensive post regarding Drake's extremely questionable behavior regarding minors and young women in general. There's more than 70 links in this post to various sources and over 30.000 characters.
If you want to repost, make a YouTube video, an article, a TikTok or Twitter thread then do it - I do not need credit, I do not care - I only want this information to be spread.
This post will serve as an archive that people can refer back to or use as a source to back up their claims.
Let me be clear - I do not like Drake. I've thought the guy was a creep ever since the Millie Bobby Brown video and I despise him - but I'll still try to remain as objective as possible here, you know my bias now though.
This thread is partly based on this thread from 2022
Read this comment for edits I've made to the post.
OVERVIEW
This post is divided into sections:

• The 17 year old at a show
  
• Millie Bobby Brown
  
• Billie Eilish
  
• Kylie Jenner
  
• Hailey Baldwin (Now Bieber)
  
• Cydney Christine (Lil CC)
  
• Aaliyah
  
• Unconfirmed rumors
  
• Lyrics, references, tweets, pictures, ties
  
• (Dis)honorable mention
  
• Final Note
  

THE 17 YEAR OLD AT A SHOW
Drake is performing at a show in Ogden, Denver where he calls a girl up on stage. I really encourage you to watch this yourself, but since I know the majority of you won't watch it, I've described it for you below.
Video starts with her on stage, he asks her name, where she is from, asks the crowd to welcome her to the stage and tells her she looks great. He then asks her to give him two seconds because "I gotta be ready for you".
He wipes off his sweat with a towel and proceeds to take her hand, put it on his shoulder, his hand on her hip/back and they slow dance for a few seconds. He spins her around and stop her with her back facing him. This is when it starts to get.. really weird.
Drake says "I told you I like your hair, right, what is it, like herbal essence or something?" while he's caressing her shoulder and smelling her hair. He says something I can't hear properly, puts the mic down and exposes her upper back and neck by pulling her shirt collar down. The crowd goes wild. He then starts kissing her shoulder and neck, putting her arms around her and fondle her breast.
A few seconds later he picks up the mic again and says "you can't have me carried away again before I get in trouble - how old are you?" She responds "17". The crowd has a mixed reaction - Drake says something that is hard to make out, because of the crowd but when it's clear he says "I can't go to jail yet, man - 17? Why do you look like that? You thick - look at all this!"
It's hard to make out exactly what he says afterwards because of the poor quality (2011 zoomed video at a concert, it's bad..), but he says something about it bringing them (the 17 year old and Drake) to a close and follows it up with "I got one question for you (...) I just want to know if (something about women in Colorado), I should just take one opportunity to take one home?"
The girl nods "As a Colorado woman you'd enjoy that?" "Well, listen 17, I had fun - I don't know if I should feel guilty or not, but I had fun. I liked the way your breasts felt against my chest. I just want to thank you." He then puts the mic down again, grabs her hand and kisses it. You might think that was a little over the top, but he then immediately follows it up by putting his hand on her chin and kissing both of her cheeks, her forehead and then on her fucking lips.
I think he asks her to walk off stage, it's hard to make out, but then he says "It's okay. I'm only 23, I can do shit like that. It's all good, you know what I'm saying" and the video ends.
Addition: I know this girl has said she was not offended, violated, whatever you want to call it, but that's not the point. And I do not mean to sound like a complete dick, but it's not about her - it's about Drake and proving his pattern of behavior over many instances. If you stopped here because she denied it, you completely missed the point.
Drake's age: 23
MILLIE BOBBY BROWN
Now this video was what really made me do a double take on Drake. Now, there's one very important fact to establish here and that is that Millie Bobby Brown at the time of this interview (18. September 2018) is 14 (Born 19. February 2004). I'll quickly transcribe the interview here:
Interviewer:

What about your relationship with Drake, tell me about your friendship, how did this all come about?

Millie Bobby Brown:

I love him. I met him in Australia and he's honestly so fantastic and a great friend and a great role model. You know we text - we just texted each other the other day and he was like "I miss you so much" and I was like "I miss you more". He's coming to Atlanta, so I'm definitely gonna go and see him and I'm so excited.

Interviewer 2:

You and Drake? That's awesome. That's awesome..

Interviewer:

What advice does he give you? What does he say?

MMB:

About boys he helps me, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah he's great. He's wonderful, I love him.

Interviewer:

What's his advice with boys?

MMB:

Ehm, you know.. That stays in the text messages.

I'm sure it's obvious what is wrong here and I don't need to spell it out for any of you, but I do have one thing to add. If Drake is giving advice about boys and telling her "I miss you so much" they must have talked for a while. It's not something you say after knowing a person for a week. We are talking months at least. There's 7 months between her birthday and the interview - did Drake already start talking to her when she was 13? It would make sense that Drake was in Australia during their summer (Dec-Feb) for festivals/concerts/vacation.
Millie has only commented on this once which was a few days later in a story on Instagram
I don't want or mean to infantilize her, but she was 14. She would have no chance of knowing if Drake actually was grooming her. There's not a chance that she could understand the dynamic at play and why it's wrong at that age.
Drake also defended their friendship on the song Another Late Night when he raps:

Weirdos in my comments talkin' 'bout some Millie Bobby, look
Bring them jokes up to the gang, we get to really flockin'

Ironically enough that very same song is also connected to the next person
Drake's age: 33
BILLIE EILISH
The year after the Millie Bobby Brown controversy Drake gets caught texting a minor again and this time it's Billie Eilish. She does a yearly interview with Vanity Fair, and in the 2019 version she's asked who's her most famous contact in her phone. That's when she reveals she's been texting with Drake and that he's so very nice to her. Billie is at the time of the interview (released 25. November 2019) 17 (born 18. December 2001).
Billie did defend Drake and their texting in an interview with Vogue ~3 months later:

“The internet is such a stupid-ass mess right now,” says Eilish, who quit Twitter in 2018. “Everybody’s so sensitive. A grown man can’t be a fan of an artist? There are so many people that the internet should be more worried about. Like, you’re really going to say that Drake is creepy because he’s a fan of mine, and then you’re going to go vote for Trump? What the fuck is that shit?”

On the song Another Late Night where Drake mentions Millie Bobby Brown, Lil Yachty is featured (one of Drake's gho.. co-writers) and he raps the line:

I let her go, she fine as hell but baby wasn't stylish (Yeah)
She had big tits like Billie Eilish but she couldn't sing (Drip)

Now - I know this is not Drake, I just thought it was a 'funny' coincidence that these two women are connected through their shared experiences with Drake and this song. On another note some might say that Drake should have asked Yachty to omit this line if he really was a friend of Billie Eilish since she has been quite vocal about sexualization of herself and women in general.
Drake's age: 34
BELLA HARRIS
This one is pretty fucking bad in my opinion. Bella Harris is the daughter of Jimmy Jam who's a record producer, songwriter etc. and has been very successful. Through him she's been in and around the entertainment/music business her whole life and met Drake that way.
There's an archive of photos posted here that contains the old IG posts she had with Drake. The first one was on May 5th, 2016 - Bella Harris is born 20. April, 2000. She had just turned 16 at the time.
Objectively I think they are defendable since they are all music related - Rihanna concert, Summer Sixteen Tour (ironic name..) and the American Music Awards, but then two years later they reportedly start dating and that makes it really difficult to believe, especially with the last archived photo of them in 2018. Also the same photo that is referenced in this article talking about Drake renting an entire restaurant for an intimate dinner between them.
Note that E! have confirmed it and are not backing down on their claim despite Harris denying it on Instagram.
Her father liked this post on Instagram about the whole situation. It's not particular to the restaurant or previous potential dating it's more so a general declaration of support for Drake, but that includes the PDF-file allegations.
Him supporting Drake made me search for more information, because I wanted to find whether or not he had spoken about it at the time. That led me to this article where her mother, Lisa, is being asked a few questions regarding Bella.

I was surprised Jimmy Jam hasn't introduced Bella to Drake, Rihanna or anybody else in the music world she is interested in meeting.
"No," said Lisa. "She loves Rihanna, she loves Beyoncé. [Bella has met Bey; her brother Max has met Ri-Ri.] She hasn't met Drake. Too old."

Lisa Harris about a photo of Bella (included in the article) - Bella is 14, almost 15 at the time.

I think Drake would behave himself around a child, even one dressed like this, to wit: Mom doesn't think this photo is too sexy, in all its legginess?
"SHE'S WEARING A BATHING SUIT and a coat!" said Lisa. "Sexy? What? My point is it's a body business, so I don't look at it [that way]. It's a posed picture. She has a one-piece bathing suit on. It's artistic."

Drake's age: 29-31
KYLIE JENNER
Ever since the Kanye (also fuck Kanye for the record) vs. Drake beef we (or I at least) became aware of the fact that Drake has had a long relationship with the Kardashians/Jenners and known them for many, many years. In fact Drake performed at Kylie's sweet 16 back in 2013. You know what that Sweet 16 was specifically remembered for as well? Drake kissing Kylie on the cheek in front of everyone, including her then boyfriend Jaden Smith.
That's not out of the ordinary and would be 'normal', if it wasn't for the clear pattern that is going on here, because guess what - 6 years later Drake and Kylie reportedly start dating, well.. dating/fucking/whatever you wanna call it. Admittedly this article is easily dismissed as paparazzi journalism and clickbait, but what if I told you that Drake has rapped this:

Yeah, I’m a hater to society/Real shit, Kylie Jenner that’s a side piece/Yeah, I got 20 muthafuckas in’ Kylies.

You probably wouldn't have heard it, since it was on an unreleased track played on an Instagram Live back in 2020, but it does make it seem pretty likely that he did actually hook up with her, especially considering the response Drake posted

“A song that mark ran last night on night owl sound live set shouldn’t have been played,” he wrote, “It’s a song that leaked 3 years ago and got scrapped shortly after. He was just going too deep in the drake/future catalogue. Last thing I’d want to do is wake up having any friends of mine feeling disrespected so I just had to say that to start off the day.”

Kylie was 22 at the time they reportedly hooked up.
Drake's age at Kylie's Sweet 16: 26
Drake's age when they hooked up: 33
HAILEY BALDWIN (NOW BIEBER)
In 2016 there were reports that Hailey and Drake were dating. Apparently they hooked up at a party that Drake hosted, where another attendee is also mentioned that seems oddly relevant:

Drake and Hailey weren't the only ones getting close, with Kylie Jenner and rumoured new boyfriend PartyNextDoor were seen "making out" at the party.
"It was almost like she was trying to make a statement," an insider added.

Now again - there's nothing illegal in a 11 year age difference and dating a 19-year old as 30. It's weird, yes. But again we come back to the pattern. Why do Drake know Hailey? Through their similar friends and friend group (Kardashians/Jenners). How long has Drake known Hailey? Well, when Hailey was 19, she said they had known each other for a long time.
We can actually get even closer with certainty since we know that Hailey attended Kylie's Sweet 16 in August, 2013. Hailey is born 22. November 1996, so she was also 16 at the time. So it's another girl that Drake has known since she was a minor and started dating when he got the opportunity. This is not normal.
Another pattern that Drake also seem to follow is that likes to hook up with his friends girl. We know for a fact that he hooked up with Lil Wayne's girlfriend while he was in prison. He not only rap about it, but also admit it in an interview. It's not really hard to believe that he did the same with Bieber.
Drake's age at Kylie's Sweet Sixteen: 26
Drake's age when they hooked up: 29
CYDNEY CHRISTINE (LIL CC)
Cydney Christine is a beatmaker and model - she produced the Drake song Money In The Grave and in a Complex interview/roundtable she talks about it and Drake.

Really the only artist I reached out to is Drake. I'd never met him, never spoke to him, I don't know why, but he has been following me for the past like 6 years. I don't know why..

This interview was uploaded 17. December 2019, Cydney Christine's is born 21. July, 1997, meaning she was 22 at the time of the interview and 15-16 when Drake started following her. This is somewhat innocent but strange since Drake is 27 at the time. That's not what is really weird though.
In March 2023, Lil CC is on the No Jumper podcast and here she speaks about Drake and having her debut beat being a Drake single.
Lil CC: I played basketball, right, so he really was a fan or not a fan, sorry, supported one of my teammates at the time um..
Adam 22: And this is when you are in high school?
Lil CC: Yeah, in high school. So he was a fan of women's basketball - high school basketball - I was her teammate so he followed me because of her, and I was like "oh shit, bitch, you got Drake to follow me, like what the hell? Like that's so crazy". So he followed me and I lost it - I have to meet Drake, I love Drake, I've always loved Drake, still love Drake.
There's more to the conversation, but the relevant part is here is that it's just very, very strange for Drake to be a women's high school basketball fan. They are 16 at the time. He's a supporter of a 16 year old female high school basketball player as a 27 year old grown adult man. He has not hooked up with her, dated or anything of the sorts that we know of or that she has told - for the record.
Drake's age: ~27
AALIYAH
It's not like I have whole section for this, but his obsession with Aaliyah is just another part of the pattern. I don't have a lot to contribute here, but if you don't know Aaliyah's story I'd recommend reading her Wikipedia and specifically the section about her personal life. If you think that 'obsession' is too strong a word for how much Drake admires her, I think you should take a look at this Complex article from 2018 and reconsider.
UNCONFIRMED STORIES
(I will continuously update it whenever I find or get sent new information to add here.)

• Back in 2021 Drake was being exposed on TikTok for his 'private Tinder' where one of his guys would go out and the hottest girls in town, interview them and find the one that Drake would like the best.

“He finds the girls and then he interviews them, and out of all the girls he interviews, he picks the one that he thinks is the best,” she continued. “Then, he drives her to Drake’s place, Drake has sex with her, and then he drives her home. So, basically, Drake has his own private Tinder.”

• This girl explaining how her friend was invited by Drake's crew and she was brought along as a +1. No ID check, very young girls. Worth a watch: https://www.tiktok.com/@simonestrauss/video/7365696116085591304
  
• This reddit post - yes I know this is 'so easy to just say', but I think the poster was very right by pointing this out:
  

I'm sure you guys won't believe me, but this is the type of situation where someone vanishing and telling you is the best you'll get.

• This YouTube comment about a girl claiming to be a victim of trafficking in Toronto in 2015 and that Drake had ties in all these circles.
  
• This article from 2016, where Drake and his buddy get aggressive with an amateur photographer for taking pictures of Drake and two women. This isn't strange in and of itself, but then there's this post from 2018
  

From the article:

The mystery women were dressed identically in matching white parkas, skinny tan pants, tan boots and ponytail hairstyles.

From the post:

Maybe this foreign born one named A+ list singerapper should have told the whole story about his split with a fellow foreign born A+ lister. How she caught him more than once with another woman and his fascination for watching porn involving women wearing pigtails.

• This post

This foreign born A+ list singerapper asked for all kinds of photos from not only the 18 year old he is dating but at least two other 18 year old females and he didn't make sure they were 18 before he started asking.

• This post

That teen, who was topless in the dressing room of this foreign born A+ list singerapper last night was nowhere in the ballpark of being legal.

• This one is fucking WEIRD - some guy was jerking off and noticed something. Now there's plenty of reasons as to why they would do this, it's porn and they need a story. But then there's this post from 2017:

This one named foreign born A list rapper is going around telling porn stars he is starting his own porn company. It is just his excuse to have sex with them all and not pay.
Drake

• This Twitter post/video of UK rapper Potter Payper calling out Drake for messaging 'bare young girls in England'.
  
• This entire thread is weird to say the least. More CDAN rumors as well. Read the thread, it's too much to paste and explain here.
  
• Drake paid out $350K to sexual assault accuser - Drake initially filed a lawsuit against Layla Lace/Laquana Morris for civil extortion, fraud, defamation, abuse of process and intentional infliction of emotional distress strongly implying he's innocent - but why pay someone $350.000 then?
  

The former stripper and Instagram model wrote: "Drake forced me to perform oral on him. It wasn't your ordinary oral it was more so a fetish." She then describes how he told her to spit into a cup "until he had measured it."

• This comment about a model claiming Drake 'made girls puke in dog bowls for him'. Now that's a typical thing you can dismiss as a rumor, but the same guy commented 16 days ago and said this:

If Kendrick mentions anything about dog bowls or birthday parties in Toronto, then shit is more serious than we thought

• This interview of Aya (Born 24. April 2007) (a 'dancer' in Ice Spice - Deli and probably known for other things I just don't know her) where she's asked about having sex with Drake. She said she can't speak on it because of 'court'.
  
• This Tweet of a guy talking about his experiences in high school and the hottest girls posting from Drake's mansion and being followed by him "every single time".
  
• The Instagram page of Exclusive Artists Agency is strange and related to Drake. A dude on TikTok went in-depth on it and this is creepy in more than one way.
  

The woman who had a Twitter thread similar to this post that ended up deleting her account made an entire YouTube video out of it you can find here.
LYRICS, REFERENCES, TWEETS, PICTURES, TIES
(Again - Feel free to share with me and I'll add it.)

• On the song Nice For What Drake raps:

You got a baby Benz, you got some bad friends
High school pics, you was even bad then

• This Tweet

"If amazing was a young bitch I'd be going to jail...cause I'm fucking amazing" - Me

• This image of Drake and Malone from Drake's Instagram that's been deleted now. Malone is infamous for impregnating a 13 year old when he was 20.
  
• On the song The Heart Part 6 Drake raps:
  

Just for clarity, I feel disgusted, I'm too respected
If I was fucking young girls, I promise I'd have been arrested
I'm way too famous for this shit you just suggested

• Also on the song The Heart Part 6 Drake raps:

Only fuckin' with Whitneys, not Millie Bobby Browns, I'd never look twice at no teenager

• His connection to Baka Not Nice who Drake is very close with.

In 2014, Baka was arrested and charged with forcing a 22-year-old woman into prostitution and taking her money. In 2015, he pleaded guilty to assaulting the woman and an unrelated weapons charge.

• Adel Nur who has very close business ties to Drake. He's executive producing the show Euphoria together with Drake and they co-own some shady companie(s). Another user went in-depth on their connection here.
  
• J Mulan who's an entrepreneur and close with Drake. This entire thread about her being a trafficker - and especially OP's comments are worth reading .
  
• DJ Eric who's the owner of Area 29, a strip club in Houston. Drake shouts him out in songs and is allegedly also trafficking for Drake.
  

(DIS)HONORABLE MENTION
I know people say Jorja Smith, and I do agree that dating a 19-year old as a 30-year old man is weird and rather pathetic, but every other girl mentioned is related to minors. Their relationship if you can call it that was for sure toxic, and it seems like Drake was a piece of shit abusing the power dynamic between them. This is taken from the Drizzy subreddit, but I can't provide the source since that gets the post blacklisted as it's temporarily banned because of brigading.

In “Summer Games” Drake also says ”I kept it decent, even the secrets, kept it between you and I”. What secrets exactly? Well in Jaded, Drake says this woman “told him all her insecurities”.
It’s also interesting that the song “Summer Games” is about a woman who broke up with Drake right at the beginning of the summer. Drake and Jorja were dating in April of 2017 which is right before the summer starts and only lasted a couple weeks.

But that's all there is to it. I can't dig up anything else, so unless someone have something credible with sources, I don't think there's good enough reason to add her to the list further up.
FINAL NOTE
I know there's very real questions about the reliability of CDAN and that he was exposed, but in the very same article The Daily Beast refers back to one of their old articles on the subject which definitely confirms that he had/have industry ties and do know a lot. Another reddit user dove further in and made some compelling arguments, but remember to take it with a (big) grain of salt.
If you have anything to add, please post it in the comments and if credible/sourced I'll put it in the post. If I got anything wrong please correct me and I'll edit it. If you have sources that contradict anything in the post, please also share them with me and I'll include them.
Please share this anywhere you want. I don't care about credit. If any media outlets wants to use it for their article or whatever, please do - feel free. You do not need to ask permission.

Teams are out everyone so it’s time for our weekly giants chat about the upcoming game.
FB: Connor Idun, Sam Taylor, Harry Perryman
HB: Lachie Whitfield, Jack Buckley, Lachie Ash
C: Nick Haynes, Josh Kelly, Finn Callaghan
HF: Brent Daniels, Aaron Cadman, Toby Bedford
FF: Toby Greene, Jesse Hogan, Harvey Thomas
RR: Kieren Briggs, Callan Ward, Stephen Coniglio
Interchange: Darcy Jones, Tom Green, Harry Himmelberg, Jake Riccardi, Conor Stone
Ins: Stephen Coniglio, Nick Haynes, Conor Stone Outs: James Peatling, Jacob Wehr (omitted), Callum Brown (suspended)
Emergencies: James Peatling, Jacob Wehr, Max Gruzewski
We bring in Cogs 🙏, Haynes and Stone 🗿To play the bombers in Melbourne.
A game that we have to win if we want to right the ship. We play an undermanned bombers who go with out Draper and Duursma, not including their extensive injury list from the rest of the season.
It’ll be a big game for the midfield who will have to prove they have what it takes to win defensively against the best statistical midfield in the competition.
Keen to hear everyone’s thoughts on the key matchups for this game.
I have :
Jones v Idun as a big one, idun will need to work hard to keep the dangerous jones under wraps.
Briggs vs Goldstein: Briggs is on watch in my book as he hasn’t recaptured his form from last year quite yet, and will be faced with a touch task against cunning vet Goldstein.
Cadman v Laverde: with Brown out of the side it’s Cadders time to shine. He’s been very spotty this year and I want to see more from him.
Carn Giants!

Introduction
In 1909, Sigmund Freud was invited to give a series of lectures at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. On the way there from Vienna his cabin steward was reading The Psychopathology of Everyday Life, an event Freud claimed was the first indication he ever had that he was going to be famous. In the United States, the philosopher and psychologist William James and many other leading American intellectuals turned out to hear Freud talk, giving psychoanalysis official recognition, as Freud saw it, for the first time. He later wrote about what the Clark lectures meant to him: “In Europe I felt as though I was despised; but over there I found myself received by the foremost men as an equal. As I stepped onto the platform at Worcester to deliver my Five Lectures upon Psychoanalysis it seemed like the realization of some incredible daydream: psychoanalysis was no longer a production of delusion, it had become a valuable part of reality.”
Little did Freud know how his intellectual discoveries would transform America, which he dismissed as an “anti-paradise” or a “gigantic mistake.” Though he feared that Americans would enthusiastically “embrace and ruin psychoanalysis” by popularizing it and watering it down, he already suspected that his theories would in some way shake the country to the core. While watching the waving crowds from the deck of his ship as it docked in New York, turned to his fellow analyst Carl Gustav Jung and said, “Don’t they know we’re bringing them the plague?”
Well before the hedonism of the 1920s, a Freud-inspired revolution in sexual morals had begun. Greenwich Village bohemians, such as the writers Max Eastman and Floyd Dell, the anarchist Emma Goldman, who had been “deeply impressed by the lucidity” of Freud’s 1909 lectures, and Mabel Dodge, who ran an avant-garde salon in her apartment on Fifth Avenue, adapted psychoanalysis to create their own free-love philosophy. In the radical journal The Masses, Floyd Dell warned that “sexual emotions would not be repressed without morbid consequences.” Eastman, one of America’s first analysands, wrote a book comparing Freud and Marx: “Weren’t all forms of repression evil?” he asked rhetorically. Dell’s left-leaning analyst, a Shakespeare scholar called Dr. Samuel A. Tannenbaum who treated many of Greenwich Village artists, argued that it was healthier for young men to frequent prostitutes than to practice abstinence or masturbation.
Together they fashioned a cult of the orgasm - Mabel Dodge even went so far as to call her dog Climax. However, as Dell later admitted, their experiment was an isolated one, like that of the Oneida Community in the nineteenth century and a handful of other “obscure but pervasive sexual cults.” It was only after the Second World War that the idea of sexual liberation would permeate the culture at large.
When Wilhelm Reich, the most brilliant of the second generation of psychoanalysts who had been Freud’s pupils, arrived in New York in late August 1939, exactly thirty years after his mentor and only a few days before the outbreak of war, he was optimistic that his ideas about fusing sex and politics would be better received there than they had been in fascist Europe. Despite its veneer of Puritanism, America was a country already much preoccupied with sex - as Alfred Kinsey’s renowned investigations, which he began that same year, were to show. Reich could be said to have instigated “the sexual revolution”; a Marxist analyst, he coined the phrase in the 1930s in order to illustrate his belief that a true political revolution would only be possible once sexual repression was overthrown, the one obstacle Reich felt had scuppered the efforts of the Bolsheviks. “A sexual revolution is already in progress,” he declared, “and no power on earth will stop it.”
Reich was a sexual evangelist who held that the satisfactory orgasm made the difference between sickness and health. “There is only one thing wrong with neurotic patients,” he concluded in The Function of the Orgasm (1927): “the lack of full and repeated sexual satisfaction” (the italics are his). The orgasm was the panacea to cure all ills, he thought, including the fascism that had forced him to leave Europe. Reich sought to reconcile psychoanalysis and Marxism, thereby giving Freudianism an optimistic gloss, arguing that repression, which Freud came to believe was an inherent part of the human condition, could be shed. This would lead to what his critics dismissed as a “genital utopia” (they mocked him as “the prophet of bigger and better orgasms”). His ideas became influential in Europe, which Henry Miller, finding a new sense of purpose through sex, characterized as “the Land of Fuck.” Reich was a figurehead of the vocal sex reform movement in Vienna and Berlin before the Anschluss, after which the Nazis, who deemed it part of a Jewish conspiracy to undermine the continent, crushed it. His books were burned in Germany along with those of the German sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld and Freud.
Soon after he arrived in the United States, Reich invented the orgone energy accumulator, a wooden cupboard about the size of a telephone booth, lined with metal and insulated with steel wool - a box in which, it might be said, his ideas came almost prepackaged. Reich considered his orgone energy accumulator an almost magical device that could improve its users’ “orgastic potency” and by extension their general, and above all mental, health. He claimed that it could charge up the body with the life force that circulated in the atmosphere (a force which he christened “orgone energy”) - mysterious currents that in concentrated form could not only help dissolve repressions but also treat cancer, radiation sickness, and a host of minor ailments. As he saw it, the box’s organic material absorbed orgone energy, and the metal lining stopped it from escaping, so the box acted as a greenhouse; and, supposedly, there was a noticeable rise in temperature in the box.
Reich persuaded Albert Einstein to investigate the machine, whose workings seemed to contradict all known principles of physics, but after two weeks of tests Einstein refuted Reich’s claims. Nevertheless, the orgone box became fashionable in America in the 1940s and 1950s, when Reich rose to fame as the leader of the new sexual movement that seemed to be sweeping the country. Orgone boxes were used by such countercultural figures as Norman Mailer, J. D. Salinger, Paul Goodman, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and William Burroughs - who claimed to have had a spontaneous orgasm in his. At the height of his James Bond fame, Sean Connery swore by the device, and Woody Allen parodied it in the movie Sleeper, giving it the immortal nickname “Orgasmatron.” Bohemians celebrated the orgone box as a liberation machine, the wardrobe that would lead to utopia, while to conservatives it was Pandora’s Box, out of which escaped the Freudian plague - the corrupting influence of anarchism and promiscuous sex.
Because of his radical past, Reich was placed under surveillance almost as soon as he arrived in the United States (his FBI file is 789 pages long). In 1947, after Harper’s Magazine introduced Reich to Americans as the leader of “a new cult of sex and anarchy,” the Food and Drug Administration began investigating him for making fraudulent claims about the orgone accumulator, and in 1954 a court ruled that he must stop leasing and selling his machine. When he broke the injunction he was sentenced to two years in prison. The remaining accumulators, along with thousands of copies of the journals and eleven books Rich self-published in America (including copies of The Sexual Revolution), which were thought to constitute “false advertising” for them, were incinerated.
In the ideological confusion of the postwar period, when the world was trying to get its head around what came to be called the Holocaust and intellectuals disillusioned with communism were abandoning the security of their earlier political positions, Reich’s ideas landed on fertile ground. With his tantalizing suggestion that sexual emancipation would lead to positive social change, Reich seemed to capture the mood of this convulsive moment. People sat in the orgone box hoping to dissolve the toxic dangers of conformity, which, as Reich had eloquently suggested as early as 1933, bred fascism. The literary critic Alfred Kazin wrote in his journal, “Everybody of my generation had his orgone box…his search for fulfillment. There was, God knows, no break with convention, there was just a freeing of oneself from all those parental attachments and thou shalt nots.”
In his essay “The New Lost Generation,” James Baldwin described how that generation crystallized around Reich’s thinking in the later 1940s and early 1950s:
It was a time of the most terrifying personal anarchy. If one gave a party, it was virtually certain that someone, quite possibly oneself, would have a crying jag or have to be restrained from murder or suicide. It was a time of experimentation, with sex, with marijuana, with minor infringements of the law. It seems to me that life was beginning to tell us who we were, and what life was - news no one has ever wanted to hear: and we fought back by clinging to our vision of ourselves as innocent, of love perhaps imperfect but reciprocal and enduring. And we did not know that the price of this was experience. We had been raised to believe in formulas.
In retrospect, the discovery of the orgasm - or, rather, of the orgone box - seems the least mad of the formulas that came to hand. It seemed to me….that people turned from the idea of the world being made better through politics to the idea of the world being made better through psychic and sexual health like sinners coming down the aisle at a revival meeting. And I doubted that their conversion was any more to be trusted than that. The converts, indeed, moved in a certain euphoric aura of well-being. Which would not last…There are no formulas for the improvement of the private, or any other, life - certainly not the formula of more and better orgasms. (Who decides?) The people I had been raised among had orgasms all the time, and still chopped each other with razors on Saturday nights.
“There was, God knows, no break with convention”; “the least mad of the formulas that came to hand” - both Kazin and Baldwin saw their bewildered peers breaking out of one ideological prison only to find themselves in another. Theirs was a generation teetering on a new kind of brink - full of optimism about the possibility of change, they were unsuspecting accomplices in the authorship of more insidious forms of control.
I first learned about Reich’s orgone energy accumulator in 1993 when I visited Summerhill, the “free” school in Suffolk, England, founded in 1921 by A. S. Neill. I was an anthropology student at Cambridge University and, when I asked whether I could stay for a while as a participant-observer, I was offered a large tepee as a place to sleep. I like the idea of living in it: a wigwam seemed a suitable home for a backyard anthropologist. However, everything at Summerhill - where lessons are voluntary and the pupils invent their own laws - is put to a vote, and the children decided they wanted to keep the tepee for themselves. So for that summer I lived in a bed-and-breakfast in Leiston. All the other guests worked for the nuclear power station Sizewell B: every piece of crockery and all the towels and cutlery were stamped with the nuclear power station’s logo. The owner of the B&B had been given a free pullover after a random Geiger counter inspection had determined that his own, hung out on the clothesline, harbored dangerously elevated levels of radiation.
A.S. Neill met Reich in Oslo in 1936 and soon afterward became his analysand, fitting in a dozen sessions with him one a return trip. Reich had by that time been expelled from the International Psychoanalytic Association (he had once been considered Freud’s heir apparent, but his attempts to reconcile psychoanalysis and Marxism ended up alienating practitioners of both), and pioneered a new form of analysis called “vegetotherapy,” a repudiation of the talking cure. Reich’s third wife, Ilse, described it as “doing away with the psychoanalytic taboo of never touching a patient,” and replacing it with “a physical attack by the therapist.” Reich would relax the patient’s taut muscles with deep breathing exercises and painful massage, until he or she broke down in involuntary convulsions, which Reich called the “orgasm reflex.”
Though his school had already been running for fifteen years, Neill found in Reich’s work its ideological justification, and he once referred to himself as Reich’s “John the Baptist.” His many books are littered with references to Reich’s concepts of “character-armor” and “self-regulation.” For his part Reich saw Neill’s project as a practical test of his ideas, and he sent his own son, Peter, to Summerhill for a while. He once threatened to give up his research and come and teach at the school, but Neill laughed and declined his offer, saying that Reich would frighten the children. Neill did, however, ask him to be the legal guardian of his daughter, Zoe. Reich invited Neill to start an orgonomic infant research center at his research institute in Maine and encouraged him to replace his Summerhill staff with people schooled in Reichian practice. Neill rejected both suggestions, but continued to read aloud from Reich’s books at staff meetings.
Reich and Neill shared a belief in the redemptive power of unconstricted development in children. For Reich this had an urgent political significance: he thought that only when children were raised free would it be possible to lay the foundations of a utopia. Neill thought that a radical reform of the education system was an essential preliminary to the creation of a better world. Both men believed that children were inherently good: it was an authoritarian, sexually repressive upbringing that corrupted them. Summerhill was designed to offer children a sanctuary from the moral contamination of the world, where they could live out their desires without the fear of punishment and play without the pressure of indoctrination: “We set out to make a school in which we would allow children freedom to be themselves,” Neill wrote. “In order to do this we had to renounce all discipline, all direction, all suggestion, all moral training, all religious instruction.” The school’s motto continues to be “Giving children back their childhood.”
By the summer of 1944, Neill had begun to practice Reich’s analytic technique on his pupils at Summerhill. “I have given up teaching and am doing only veg.-ther. analysis,” he wrote to Reich. “The more I see the results with adolescents the more I consider that bloody man Reich a great man…Marvelous how patients weep so easily when lying on their backs. Some do so in the first hour. Why?” One former student remembers being instructed to lie down and “breathe deeply, as though you’re having sexual intercourse,” while Neill prodded her stomach (she was too young to know what sex was, so she just panted). “The repressed ones have stomachs like wooden boards,” Neill wrote to Reich of his pupils’ resistance, “but children begin to loosen up very quickly, and at once begin to be hateful and savage.”
The philosopher Bertrand Russell, like Neill, preached the benefits of an unconstrained childhood and campaign for new sexual mores. Neill said that Russell’s On Education (1926) was the only book on the topic he’d read without uttering an expletive. Russell spent a week at Summerhill in 1927 before opening a school of his own, Beacon Hill, based on similar principles. He was soon disillusioned, however, and left the school after five years. The children in his care, Russell wrote, were “sinister,” “cruel,” “destructive.” The effect of giving them their freedom “was to establish a reign of terror, in which the strong kept the weak trembling and miserable.” Russell’s own children, for whom Beacon Hill was partly created (it had only twelve pupils), were, like their father, traumatized by their time at the school. “I learned to get along inside a shell,” Kate Russell said, “fending off physical and emotional assaults from others and trusting nobody.” But for Neill, the monstrous behavior of children was a stage long the path to liberation: if they were “hateful and savage” it was only because they were sloughing off the final carapace of their repressions.
The accumulator that Reich gave Neill arrived in England on the Queen Elizabeth in April 1947, along with a smaller “shooter” box with a protruding funnel for directing orgone energy rays at infections and wounds. “I sit in the Accumulator every night reading,” Neill wrote appreciatively, “re-reading the Function of the O. while I sit in the box.” Neill soon became convinced of the machine’s effectiveness: “We used the small Accu on a girl of 15 with a boil on her leg,” he said. “It cleared up in three days, and we are to have her in the big box next term.” The effects apparently defied scientific explanation: “When Lucy had a new lump on her face under the operation scar, she applied the small Accu and it went in a fortnight,” Neill marveled. He bombarded Reich with questions: Was it safe to keep an accumulator in one’s bedroom? Did you have to be naked inside it? Would it be effective in the damp English climate? How long could his daughter safely sit in the box?
Neill’s daughter, Zoe Readhead, has run Summerhill since 1985. Neill was sixty-four when his only child was born; when she was two, Picture Post ran a story saying that of all the children in Britain, she had the best chance of being free. “I remember the orgone accumulator vividly,” she told me. “It was quite chilly in there because of the zinc.” As a child Readhead was prescribed half an hour a day in the device; she recalls the red plastic cushion she sat on and the funnel or “shooter” she was encouraged to position over her ear to try to cure a recurrent earache. She also remembers that as she grew up Neill lost interest in the machine (he thought he’d been mistaken in putting an extra layer of asbestos around it), and moved it to a corner of the garage.
By the time Reich died, in 1957, he and Neill were no longer communicating. In December 1954 Neill wrote, “It gave me a great shock to find you believing in visits from other planets. No, I said, it can’t be true; Reich is a scientist and unless he sees a flying saucer he won’t accept it as reality. I can’t understand it.” Reich, whose sanity had long been an open question (Sandor Rado, who analyzed Reich for a few months in 1931, said that he was “schizophrenic in the most serious way”), had started to suffer from paranoid delusions about the world being under attack by UFOs. The armor-clad orgone box was always something of a protective shield, illustrative of Reich’s sense of being besieged, but he now built a “cloudbuster,” an orgone gun that was designed not only to influence the weather - diverting hurricanes and making it rain in the desert - but to be the first line of defense against an alien invasion. It was a kind of orgone box turned inside out, so that it could work its therapeutic magic on the cosmos.
Reich initiated the break with Neill; his young son, Peter, who was spending the summer at Summerhill, told Neill that the American planes passing over the school had been sent to protect him, or so his father said. Neill replied that this was nonsense (there was a large U.S. air base nearby), and when Reich heard of Neill’s response he wrote to his remaining supporters that Neill was no longer to be trusted. In the American edition of Neill’s Summerhill: A Radical Approach to Childhood, published in 1960, all references to Reich were deleted because the publisher considered him too controversial. (The book sold two million copies in the United States.) But Neill never turned his back entirely on his friend’s philosophy, and long after Rich’s death he persuaded Zoe to go to Norway to have vegetotherapy with another of Reich’s disciples, Ola Raknes.
Reich died of a heart attack in Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary in 1957, eight months after being sentenced. If Reich’s claims were no more than ridiculous quackery, as the FDA doctors who refuted them suggested, and if he was just a paranoid schizophrenic, as one court psychiatrist concluded, then why did the U.S. government consider him such a danger? What was happening in America that led Reich to become an emblem of such a deep fear?
The critic Louis Menand described Arthur Koestler, with whom Reich shared a Communist cell in Berlin, as “a slightly mad dreidel that spun out of Central Europe and across the history of a bloody century.” Reich’s story traces a similarly erratic path, and looking back at his era can help to shed new light on it. Through the history of Reich’s box it’s possible to unpack the story of how sex became political in the twentieth century, and how it encountered Hitler, Stalin, and McCarthy along the way . Reich created the modern cult of the orgasm and, influentially, held that ecstasy was a point of resistance, immune to political control. Of course, the birth control pill - licensed by the FDA in 1957 (the year Reich died) for treating women with menstrual disorders - ultimately provided the technological breakthrough that facilitated the sexual liberation of the following decade. But Reich, perhaps more than any other sexual philosopher, had already given the erotic enthusiasm of the 1960s an intellectual justification, and laid the theoretical foundations for that era.
His ideas rallied a new generation of dissenters, and his orgone box, however unlikely an idea it may now seem, became a symbol of the sexual revolution. In January 1964, Time magazine declared that “Dr. Wilhelm Reich may have been a prophet. For now it sometimes seems that all America is one big Orgone Box”:

• With today’s model, it is no longer necessary to sit in cramped quarters for a specific time. Improved and enlarged to encompass the continent, the big machine works on its subjects continuously, day and night. From innumerable screens and stages, posters and pages, it flashes the larger-than-life-sized images of sex. From countless racks and shelves, it pushes the books which a few years ago were considered pornography. From myriad loudspeakers, it broadcasts the words and rhythms of pop-music erotic. And constantly, over the intellectual Muzak, comes the message that sex will save you and libido make you free.

Time called this new “sex-affirming culture” the “second sexual revolution” - the first having occurred in the 1920s, “when flaming youth buried the Victorian era and anointed itself as the Jazz Age.” In contrast, the children of the 1960s had little to rebel against and found themselves, Time commented, “adrift in a sea of permissiveness,” which they attributed to Reich’s philosophy: “Gradually, the belief spread that repression, not license, was the great evil, and that sexual matters belonged in the realm of science, not morals.”
In 1968 student revolutionaries graffitied Reichian slogans on the walls of the Sorbonne, and in Berlin they hurled copies of Reich’s book The Mass Psychology of Fascism at police. At the University of Frankfurt 68er (as they were called in German) were advised, “Read Reich and act accordingly!” According to the historian Dagmar Herzog, “No other intellectual so inspired the student movement in its early days, and to a degree unmatched either in the United States or other Western European nation.” In the 1970s, feminists such as Shulamith Firestone, Germaine Greer, and Juliet Mitchell continued to promote Reich’s work with enthusiasm.
However, even in his lifetime, Reich came to believe that the sexual revolution had gone awry. Indeed, his ideals seemed to run aground in the decade of free love, which saw erotic liberation co-opted and absorbed into what the historian of psychoanalysis Eli Zaretsky calls a “sexualised dreamworld of mass consumption.” Herbert Marcuse, another emigre who became the hero of a younger generation, provided the most rigorous critique of the darker side of liberation. After his initial enthusiasm for a world characterized by “polymorphous perversity,” Marcuse became cynical about it, and he ended his career with a series of brilliant analyses of ways in which the establishment adapted all these liberated ideas (the “intellectual Muzak” of the time) into an existing system of production and consumption. Reich had propagated an expressive vision of the self, but his sexualized politics of the body soon dissolved into mere narcissism as consumers sought to express themselves through their possessions. In the process, as Marcuse was early in detecting, sex and radical politics became unstuck.
It is a testament to the popularity Reich once had that his name is still remembered at all - so many of his colleagues have been forgotten. But he is now known more for his mad invention rather than for the sexual radicalism that box contained. Reich’s eccentric device might be seen as a prism through which to look at the conflicts and controversies of that era. Why did a generation seek to shed its sexual repressions by climbing into a closet? And why were others so threatened by it? What does it tell us about the ironies of the sexual revolution that the symbol of liberation was a box?

Hello!
I hope everyone here is doing well!
I know this is a Thursday release, which is probably an oddity to my new readers, but I usually only upload the posts on Thursdays, i've only been doing Wednesdays due to excitement and timing, but this week has been unusually busy, as might next week, so expect next week to have the same post day of Thursday.
We did relatively well last week, we hit 10/13 correct, so i'm reasonably happy about that, and my Tapology 2024 Predictions have hit 65.1%, which is my last personal best!
Onwards to the write up. Took it easy this week, no gifs due to the time constraints and having to do so much other shit this week lol.
(c) - Champ
D/DWCS - Debut/Dana Whites' Contender Series
FLS - Fight Lose Streak
FWS - Fight Win Streak
NS - No Streak
(#x) - Rank in Division
x/3 - Confidence Levels
Prelims
Women’s Flyweight
JJ Aldrich (+115) (13-6-0, 2 FWS) v Veronica Hardy (-135) (8-4-1, 2 FWS) - This is a decent start for this pretty fun card. Aldrich is coming off two great wins against Montana De La Rosa and Na Liang, and is looking to continue that streak this weekend against Hardy. Aldrich is a little bit standard with her skillset, she’s relatively well rounded with a stronger wrestling base than striking base, and it shows, she doesn’t exactly strike that effectively, her footwork is very clunky but that is mostly due to the way she throws punches, it’s always power and short bursts of action. However, I believe that Aldrich still has major openings in the defensive aspects of her striking, she has a major tendency to close her eyes a lot when something is coming her way, which makes her both susceptible to punches and easy to push back towards the cage, and all of these things are things that Hardy and her great corner can utilise to take control of the fight the longer this fight goes on. Aldrich shouldn’t be too underestimated here, her southpaw stance could present some unique problems for Hardy, and she does have a little bit of a threat in the clinch where she almost always throws up a left knee, so she’s actively looking for damage both in the clinch and in the blitz. Hardy on the other hand looks like the much more active-style fighter, always using a lot of lateral movement and quick footwork to find angles and lure out an attack from her opponent, in which she usually counters fairly well. Hardy has had a bit of a good return to the UFC, with wins over Horth and Miller. Hardy is going to have a very obvious speed advantage in this fight, I fully expect her to dance circles around Aldrich whilst Aldrich frustratingly marches her down with not a lot of effectiveness. The problem with this style is that in order to defeat Aldrich, her opponent needs to be actively moving forward, aggression is the key, and I have not seen Hardy be an active, aggressive fighter, she’s always been a counter puncher with a bit of a traditional style of in and out blitzes, similar to what you would see Stephan Thompson do. I have a feeling that Hardy is going to look to wrestle in this fight, just to catch Aldrich off guard only because Aldrich herself doesn’t have a great wrestling base, I mean, she can wrestle, it’s probably her best asset, but she doesn’t have that takedown defence that counteracts a better wrestler, and in this case, Hardy doesn’t need to be the better wrestler, only the better Mixed Martial Artist. With that said though, Hardy is still someone I’m kind of trying to figure out, she looks great and is very coachable, but is she still that same Hardy (Melo) who didn’t do that well prior to her return? I think Aldrich is the perfect opponent to see if she’s ready for the proper fighters of the Flyweight division. This could go either way, Aldrich is a solid underdog to take, but I just don’t trust her a lot to make this fight as interesting as Hardy does.
Hardy via UD - (1/3)
Welterweight
Jared Gooden (+185) (23-9-0, NS) v Kevin Jousset (-225) (10-2-0, 5 FWS) - Gooden is coming off a strong submission win against Wellington Turman, and whilst he faced some adversity on the feet, that submission was pretty damn slick. Gooden carries a lot of power in his hands, but the problem is his stance, his stance leaves him open for very quick strikes and that’s absolutely something Jousset is going to do effectively in this fight. Gooden is going to have to rely on his power in this fight because I don’t see him being the faster puncher in this fight, I see him looking for that powerful right hand that could end the fight, but I just think that’s his only way to win, a flush knockout through his powerful, albeit slow boxing. Gooden might have gotten a submission in his last fight, but he is by no means a submission artist, he is mainly a knockout seeking fighter who has a heavy reliance on his hands. Jousset comes from City Kickboxing, a team typically recognised for their brilliant fighters although they’ve been a touch silent since Adesanya is no longer a champ. I bring this up simply because they recognise what their opponents do well and do badly, and considering that Gooden won his last fight simply by the luck that Wellington would swing back wildly, I see them ensuring that Jousset does not get into that position, I think the style that Jousset will employ during this fight is stick and move. Disrupt any rhythm or pattern that Gooden is trying to set and frustrate him. Jousset is only two fights deep into his UFC career, but so far he has been very impressive, with a recent win against Song Kenan, I see him being an interesting addition to the roster. Now, Jousset is not someone who loves violence, he is very tactical on the outside, feinting a lot and throwing a lot of leg kicks at a fairly defensive range, allowing him to glide out of the way, but I do notice that he sometimes does tend to get hit, he doesn’t circle away as much as he should. This could be from training alongside violent fighters like Dan Hooker who is known to not be defensive and stand his ground, but I don’t think it’s a smart idea for Jousset to just accept the punches coming his way, avoidance is key here and I hope it’s drilled by his camp. Jousset has the right tools and style to make this a slow enough fight for Jousset to be ahead in the scorecards, I believe that Jousset is going to tear the legs of Gooden apart in the first round, then employ his boxing, primarily his jab cross, in the second and third. He does this a lot, slowing down his opponents with the leg kicks, it seemingly is a City Kickboxing signature, amongst other things he does. To conclude, Jousset’s defence is his jab, if Gooden can get past that jab through the blitz or from eating one to throw out a few, then Gooden’s chance of winning skyrockets. But I think this will be a clean fight, albeit a slow one due to that being the only way to deal with a heavy hitter with a longer reach like Gooden.
Jousset via UD - (1/3)
Flyweight
Jake Hadley (-170) (10-2-0, NS) v Charles Johnson (+145) (14-6-0, NS) - This is a fascinating one. Hadley is coming off a tough loss against Cody Durden in which Durden pretty much outwrestled him for three rounds. Hadley is someone who thrives on the feet, the more violent, the better, he wants to land his quick punches and deal a lot of significant damage, and he could certainly overwhelm Johnson on the feet in this fight. However, he does have a bit of a fallback plan and that’s to grapple, although I don’t think that’s going to be necessary since both Johnson and Hadley are comfortable fighting on the feet. I can see Johnson’s body being a particular target for Hadley, given that Hadleys body punches are beautifully placed. In terms of technique, I think Hadley has the advantage here, he seems to think through his attacks before launching them, everything is seemingly well timed and placed, whereas with Johnson, he tends to freestyle it a bit I think, he is very quick and hard to read, but it seems a bit messy and chaotic almost. Hadley’s grappling is only going to be prevalent if Johnson leaves openings, and considering how many times Johnson has been taken down during his UFC career, there will be moments where Hadley will attempt a takedown, I feel like that’s a guarantee whenever Johnson fights. Now, Johnson has always been a bit difficult to predict due to his ability to mix it up well on the feet and to adapt extremely well to his opponents style, and that is a word that I will always use to explain Johnson’s style, he adapts to everything his opponent does, which usually results in him losing that first round because he is getting both a feel for his opponent and their gameplan, as well as some expert corner advice which Johnson uses as a catalyst for improvement throughout the fight. You can absolutely say he still loses a lot of his fights, but I feel like this is his first fight in which he isn’t facing a heavy wrestler, so he has a bit more of a chance to showcase his striking in this fight. Now, Johnson has a bit of a problem with pressure, he succumbs to it a bit too easily and I think if Hadley and his team noticed that, we’ll see Johnson circle around the octagon for most of this fight due to Hadley turning up the pressure. Hadley does utilise pressure when he fights but he’s not exactly a “walk you down and strike” fighter, he’s smart and often uses blitzes to pressure, so that pressure and aggression is incremental somewhat. This is honestly a tough fight for both warriors, and whilst I do think Hadley has a chance to win here, Johnson is an odd one to figure out, and if Hadley and his camp haven’t formulated a solid plan to overwhelm Johnson with aggression and volume, I think this is going to be a tough night for Hadley. This is a 50/50, I can somewhat see an upset happening, but I just don’t have a lot of faith in Johnson, as much as I do with Hadley, if that makes sense. It would be smart to take the o1.5 (or R3 starts) here.
Hadley via UD - (1/3)
Welterweight
Trey Waters (-160) (8-1-0, 2 FWS) v Billy Goff (+135) (9-2-0, 7 FWS) - This is a fascinating fight between two very entertaining prospects. Waters is coming off a very competitive fight against Quinlan in which he used his reach advantage to slowly tear apart Quinlan, he is outstanding at countering as well as being offensive with his long attacks, there is little doubt in my mind that Waters is going to look incredible at range. Range is his best friend when it comes to fighting, he doesn’t play around in the pocket a lot, it would be a bit silly to do that, and that’s what Quinlan tried to do during their fight, he tried to enter the pocket but Waters was just too quick and light on his feet. The slower this fight is, the better it is for Waters because there is only so much you can back up until your back is against the wall. It will be absolutely imperative for Goff to blitz quickly, use his speed and explosiveness to enter the pocket and land his punches, that is his only way to win this fight, there is very much no other way I can see Goff win this fight. Now, to criticise Quinlan, you know, me, a non-professional fighter, to criticise a professional fighter like I'm some kid on twitter… Quinlan didn’t string anything together, he is a power puncher, and being only a power puncher is a recipe for failure when fighting someone like Waters. I believe Goff throws a lot more volume and is a lot more “violent” with his combinations. Waters also has a tendency to have his left foot turned inwards, and for someone who has a heavy reliance on standing his ground to pop his shots off, that left leg will be very, very open to leg kicks, as Quinlan has demonstrated when they fought, the only problem with Quinlan though is he didn’t exactly follow up with anything else, as Dominick Cruz said so expertly well during the commentary. In fact, I think if Goff and his team implemented whatever Cruz said about Waters’ into their training camp, we could see some brilliance from Goff, although that’s perhaps a far call, I am not in his corner, nor in his team, this is all speculation. Goff is coming off a very quick KO win against Kinoshita, a highly dangerous, first round finisher, and to stand toe to toe. Goff gets hit a lot, his defences aren’t exactly great, especially when coming up against a dangerous ranged fighter like Waters, but the key difference between Goff and Quinlan is the activity, he just throws more. I have yet to see his ability to blitz though, he tends to kind of meet his opponent in the pocket instead of forcing a pocket exchange. Now, Goff does dip his head a lot, he uses so much head movement that I cannot help but predict that Waters launches a knee up the middle to take away that head movement of Goff. Goff also has better boxing than Quinlan, so I am interested to see how Waters handles that kind of style, although I guess that range is still going to be a key challenge for Goff. Now, what Goff does really well, which could trouble Waters’ ability to track and fire at him with his jabs and crosses, is the head movement, he is so erratic with his movement and angles, and whilst it’s very true that he gets caught a lot of times when he fights, I do think that Goff is capable of overwhelming and catching Waters in the pocket, and I only say this because Waters’ defence is his offence, and if you can get past all of that long ranged attacks, you can land some substantial damage, and that’s exactly what Goff can produce. This is a glorious fight between two prolific finishers, so whilst I don’t suggest placing a bet on either fighter (ML), I do think that this fight doesn’t hit the scorecards. This is going to be chaos, and I would be genuinely surprised if this goes to the judges here, this has “finish” written all over it.
Goff via KO R2 - (1/3)
Women’s Strawweight
Tabatha Ricci (#11) (-145) (9-2-0, NS) v Tecia Pennington (Torres) (#14) (+115) (13-6-0, NS) - I don’t know how Tecia is still a ranked fighter (at least ranked in Tapology) after two years of inactivity. Ricci is coming off a very tough loss against Godinez, and despite the “L” on her record, it was a highly competitive bout in which both fighters effectively countered each others wrestling and most of the fight took place on the feet, with Godinez edging out the scorecards due to volume and effectiveness of striking. Now, the clearest way for Ricci to win this fight is to take it to the ground, she needs to rely on her guns in this one otherwise she could be potentially overwhelmed on the feet by a fighter who is very known for overwhelming people on the feet. Ricci has been a fairly dangerous fighter for anyone, even for very high level grapplers like Gillian Robertson, and I just think that Pennington is going to be facing serious challenges in the wrestling and grappling departments. Pennington is coming into this fight with one main question surrounding her. How active has Pennington been with training considering her status as a mother? We have seen a few times now that being a new parent, especially a mother, can somewhat hamper training a little bit, not that it’s a bad thing, motherhood is a beautiful thing, but she’s coming right back into a tough fight against a very good BJJ and Judo specialist. Now, that’s all speculative, because if Pennington was still working on her skillset and doing all that training during those vital moments as a new parent, then we are going to see the very same fiery Tecia that we all love to see. Although, I am genuinely curious to see if her takedown defence has improved substantially due to the fact that her takedown defence prior to this time away wasn’t too great, and Ricci is great at getting the fight to the ground. Torres is very physically strong, she can probably power her way out of bad positions, but how many times can she power out of positions before her cardio gets sapped? This fight has a lot of questions surrounding it, and whilst I do understand a lot of people just want to, by default, pick Ricci, this is ultimately a fight between a grappler versus striker, and depending where the fight goes, and who initiates and maintains their game plan better. Additionally, for Ricci, I do think her takedown and trip arsenal is going to be problematic for Pennington due to the fact that Pennington hasn’t fought a Judo specialist, the hip tosses are very different to defend against compared to traditional single or double leg takedowns, it’s more weight manipulation rather than sprawl or underhooks, and that’s going to be a fascinating challenge for Pennington to try to work around, which makes this one of the highlight fights for this event. This is most likely going the distance, so depending on what odds look better, either go for o2.5 or goes the distance. I for one am looking forward to seeing Pennington again, she’s always been an exciting fighter and I just wonder if she has that takedown defence to take over this fight.
Ricci via UD - (1/3)
Lightweight
Terrance McKinney (+160) (15-6-0, 2 FWS) v Esteban Ribovics (-190) (12-1-0, NS) - Oh this is going to be outstanding. McKinney is coming off back to back first round finishes against, surprise surprise, no-name fighters in Breeden and Barotte. This is basically what McKinney tends to do well, he has quick finishes against some not quite great fighters, then as soon as he fights someone who is at least talented, and the fight hits the second round, all of that talent that McKinney has falls out the window. Now, McKinney is a phenomenal first round fighter, he thrives in that round, he is explosive, fast, able to string together very solid combinations and when needed, wrestle to his hearts content, however, by some form of mythic curse, once the second round occurs, he dwindles fast and that’s when the tides turn. McKinney should always be a fighter you bet on to finish in the first round, because it could absolutely happen. I think he can make Ribovics second guess himself early, overwhelm him and, whilst not finish him, at least deal a significant amount of damage. Now, McKinney loves to throw his left knee, he is a very tall and long fighter so he has the confidence that his knee will land, he also has the athleticism to let that knee go at ridiculous speeds and heights, but that’s all it is, he is a powerful striker with very damaging attacks, but its mostly single attacks or a short combination of big attacks, nothing is calm or technical, in fact I could argue that on the feet, McKinney fights like someone who hasn’t been trained before, but has watched a lot of UFC and learnt from there. I would love to see McKinney fight in a three round battle, it would honestly help me so much because whilst he has fought quite a lot, there is not a lot of unique tape of him out there shows improvement, he still loses after the second round, he still has powerful first round moments, and he still is a dangerous fighter to deal with, and as an underdog, he’s even got a crapload of value on his side. Ribovics is a visceral fighter who is coming off one hell of a fight against Kirk, he looked absolutely incredible during that fight, his boxing was very solid, his aggression was ridiculous and he seemed to thrive in that chaotic environment. Ribovics needs to survive that first round, that’s all he needs to do, it’s like a video game where you see conditions on a mission like “Don’t get detected” (Sorry, been playing those old Assassin Creed games lol), this is one of those conditions to winning against McKinney, survive the first round. Ribovics has much crisper boxing than McKinney, he has the cardio and pace to absolutely run through McKinney. Ribovics loves to use the standard straight combos, or a one-two-one high right roundhouse, and I think as long as he strings those combinations together after the first round against McKinney, then he should be able to land some potentially fight-ending shots. The problem is him being too overzealous in the first round, we have seen him get controlled by Kirk during their fight, and whilst I don’t think McKinney is a better submission artist than Kirk, it is still a precarious position to be in, especially when McKinney locks in a triangle and chases that RNC. This fight is not going the distance, if you want to place individual bets on each fighter, either McKinney R1 KO or Ribovics KO R2 or 3, that’s about as basic as I can put it. As for my prediction, I love McKinney, I think he’s a fun dude, but Ribovics is dangerous.
Ribovics via KO R2 - (1/3)
Lightweight
Chase Hooper (+150) (13-3-1, 2 FWS) v Viacheslav Borshchev (-180) (7-3-1, NS) - This is a wild fight. Hooper is seemingly the polar opposite of Borshchev, he’s a pure submission specialist, he’s not a kickboxer, he wants absolutely nothing more than to drag Borshchev down to the ground and climb around him to get into a submission position, that’s his game, that’s his whole deal. Now, that’s great and considering how much Borshchev gets taken down in his fights, one might assume that he will get taken down this weekend by Hooper and submitted, that’s a fair assessment. However, Hooper is not a wrestler, he is someone who knows how to wrestle, there is a very fine difference there, and I want to point this out because I know there will be people trying to compare the takedowns of Sadykhov to the takedowns and wrestling of Hooper, there is a severe difference. I do think that Hooper can maybe drag Borshchev down via a body lock, but I also think that Borshchev is too quick on the feet to fall for that, he is quick to dig underhooks these days and has the ability to power away from positions. Still, any exchange on the ground will all be in Hoopers favour, as long as the fight goes to the ground, he has a very solid chance to win, he’s like Mackenzie Dern, not quite great on the feet, but outstanding on the ground. Borshchev is a dangerous kickboxer who is stupendously good on the feet, he absolutely rocked and socked Sadykhov during their fight, it was a brilliant display of kickboxing, but the main thing that I want to point out regarding Borshchev is his ability to continuously work out of negative positions on the ground, there have been so many fighters who tend to just hug and hold their opponents on top of them in hopes to get the fight back to the feet, or just to survive until the next round, but Borshchev is constantly looking for butterfly hooks, looking for activity in the guard, shrimping out of danger and overall looking really good at trying to get back to the feet. This is dangerous though as the moment Hooper has his hooks into his opponent, he simply glides around them. The trick here for Borshchev is to not let Hooper collide with him, don’t let any clinch situations happen, he needs to get into the pocket, land a few punches, then circle the hell away. I believe this is about as classic as you can get with this match up, a grappler with not so great striking versus a kickboxer with bare minimum to non-existent grappling. Whenever I try to picture this fight going down in my head, I either see a RNC with Borshchev tapping out in the first or second round, or Borshchev rocking Hooper early and maybe finishing with some ground and pound, with some risk to Hooper recovering and taking a leg. This is such a 50/50 fight, so take this prediction with a grain of salt, because I would not be surprised if it’s wrong.
Borshchev via KO R2 - (1/3)
Main Card
Heavyweight
Waldo Cortes-Acosta (+145) (11-1-0, 2 FWS) v Robelis Despaigne (-170) (5-0-0, 5 FWS) - This is probably going to be a short prediction, but knowing me I’ll find a way to make it long and unreadable. Cortes-Acosta is coming off back to back wins against Arlovski and Brzeski, and whilst he may seem like a dangerous opponent for Despaigne, who is still finding his footing in the UFC, heck, in the whole damn sport, I do think Cortes-Acosta needs a whole style change at this rate. Cortes-Acosta is a powerful striker who has serious knockout power, but my only concern when it comes to him is his somewhat inability to make the fight dangerous, he isn’t exactly marching down his opponents throwing heavy attacks and looking for a knockout as you would expect a heavyweight to typically do. He is a lot more placated to just touching up his opponent slowly, not urgently throwing everything into his attacks, and this could be a dangerous style to utilise if you’re facing someone who is as anomalous as Despaigne. Cortes-Acosta has a very quick jab, it’s deceptively fast and very accurate, and he could counter any kick that Despaigne throws with that quick jab or more possibly, his thunderous right hand, his right hand is actually his main attack, he wants to go for it and land it over and over, and since Despaigne is primarily a kicker, I do think that Cortes-Acosta has a very solid chance on the feet as long as he is the aggressor. Still, this is a weird fight to predict, Cortes-Acosta is very dangerous and would have a punching advantage here, and that alone makes him a bit of a valuable underdog, but boy, there is something special about Despaigne. Despaigne is someone who I don’t exactly want to talk about, not because I hate the guy, but there is nothing major to talk about that is not already said either in my last write up about him, or pretty much whatever anyone else has said. Despaigne is a massive Heavyweight, he is gigantic for the division and he carries the athleticism of a Taekwondo fighter, which typically means light on the feet and quick with the kicks, and that’s all he is, really. Sure, you could say he punches a fair bit, but that’s only because he can and his opponents have never been able to have an answer for it because the fight ends really, really quick. I do think his striking defence is going to be exploited one day, and whilst it might not be by Cortes-Acosta (in my opinion, the likelihood is high), it certainly will be the more he climbs the ranks. The only smart choice for this fight in regards to your bets is u2.5 or u1.5, whichever one is available, I don’t see it hitting the second round, and if it does, its due to Cortes-Acosta’s unwillingness to fight and try to put Despaigne away. I’m gonna have a little bit of fun with this one, Despaigne isn’t a lock, this will be a low confidence pick, but fuck it, let me on this hype train.
Despaigne via KO R1 - (1/3)
Featherweight
Alex Caceres (+160) (21-14-0, NS) v Sean Woodson (-190) (11-1-1, 2 FWS) - Boy this is going to be fantastic. Caceres is coming off a tough loss against Giga Chikadze, and it was a fairly competitive fight for the most part, with Caceres showing off his classic light footwork and unorthodox attacks. This is the foundation of his style, he likes to almost dance in his fights, everything he throws comes from many different looks and set ups, often feinting with practically every part of his body, his primary goal when it comes to striking is to overwhelm the mind before inflicting damage physically, and he is outstanding at doing that. However, whilst his offensive output is magnificent to watch, that unorthodox style is incredibly dangerous to use against Woodson, a sniper who has displayed ridiculous accuracy and timing with his attacks. The trick to dealing with Caceres is to never let him be first, if you shut down his offensive attacks, you get a rather timid or not as dangerous Caceres who is more reactionary than someone who flows, and this is most likely going to be Woodson’s gameplan coming into this fight considering how well Woodson marches down his opponent. In terms of grappling, Caceres doesn’t exactly grapple that much, but he can be a bit difficult to deal with on the ground as he does know how to lock in submissions, but he mostly prefers to keep the fight standing where he can switch stance and blitz with incredible speed. Woodson has one main unique advantage in this fight, he is much taller and longer than Caceres which not only compliments his own style of absolute cleanliness and accuracy, but it also gives him an effective additional reaction time to deal with Caceres blitzes and entrances to the pocket, where Caceres is going to have to be in order to deal damage. Woodson is a phenomenal boxer who has dangerous fundamentals that he has mastered, he is so damn slick at distance, and if he is a little bit aggressive in this fight, he is going to most likely shut down the offensive capabilities of Caceres. Caceres is a game opponent though and he doesn’t wilt, so whilst I do think this could be a very long and drawn out fight, I have a feeling that Caceres isn’t going to make this an easy fight for Woodson with some potential of an upset. Woodson used to be only a boxer who used his long ranged punches to deal damage, but nowadays he has become a lot more comfortable striking in the pocket, digging to the body often. This would be an important attack to slow down Caceres, and a slower Caceres is a far less dangerous one. Not only has Woodson been playing around in the pocket a lot more, but he’s also been wrestling here and there, and that addition to his wide arsenal of striking attacks could be enough to overwhelm Caceres and shut down his entire style. Now, in terms of how this fight is going to go, I think Woodson is going to try and keep this a clean fight, stay out of dangerous situations, and just use his long attacks at range to slowly chip at Caceres. Caceres could certainly make this a very interesting fight, but Woodson is so damn clean and accurate on the feet. I got Woodson winning this one, with the large possibility of this fight hitting round 3 or being over 2.5 rounds.
Woodson via UD - (2/3)
Lightweight
Diego Ferreira (+215) (18-5-0, NS) v Mateusz Rebecki (-265) (19-1-0, 16 FWS) - This is absolutely going to be a fun fight. Ferreira has serious knockout power, as he displayed last May when he knocked out Johnson with a devastating overhand right. Ferreira is a dangerous opponent to deal with on the feet, but most importantly, he’s very good on the ground, albeit by the looks of his style, he’s best on his opponents back than anywhere else, and I just don’t think Rebecki is going to let Ferreira anywhere near the back control. Ferreira’s three consecutive losses prior to that win against Johnson is important to look at because all of those opponents he lost to had a very similar game plan and style to Rebecki, they wrestle, and wrestle exceptionally well. I honestly don’t see this fight going any differently, I don’t know how much Ferreira has improved with his takedown defence, there is a solid chance that he could attack the guillotine more or at least pull guard to at least have some semblance of control with a raging polish fighter on top of him, but other than that, I just don’t think he has the tools to defeat Rebecki. His best chance would be on the feet, using his heavy attacks to just damage or stint the wrestling aggression of Rebecki, but on the flip side, it is possible for Ferreira to be too overzealous with the striking and leave him open for takedowns, and all it would take it one takedown from Rebecki for Ferreira to be stuck on the ground for the remainder of the round. Rebecki is a glorious addition to the Lightweight division, and boy has he ran through his competition, winning all three of his fights, three different ways, a decision, a KO and a submission. The most important thing about all of those three methods he won, is they all came from ground work, that’s his bread and butter, he wants nothing more than to push forward like a wrecking ball and get the fight to the ground, and given that Ferreira is more of a grappler than wrestler, Ferreira is going to simply accept that takedown because it leads right into the skill set of Ferreira. This all sounds like i’m still leaning on Ferreira to win, but I just don’t think that one dimensional skillset is going to be enough to deal with Rebecki. There have been countless times where a wrestler has absolutely dominated on the ground against a BJJ specialist, Tsarukyan/Oliveira is the last one that is still somewhat relevant, and I can’t help but see a similar situation this weekend when Rebecki takes on Ferreira. There is a big size difference here but I think that falls into the favour of Rebecki even more, sure, he will probably eat a lot of knees or kicks, but as long as Rebecki gets into a clinch position against Ferreira, it’s effectively over for Ferreira, he’s going for a ride. I got Rebecki winning this one, I absolutely love watching Rebecki work his magic, and it would be a joy to see him fight this weekend.
Rebecki via KO R2 - (3/3)
Light Heavyweight
Alonzo Menifield (#13) (15-3-1, 2 FWS) v Carlos Ulberg (-210) (9-1-0, 5 FWS) - Oh this is going to be good. Both fighters were scheduled to fight back on that Blanchfield v Fiorot card, so i’m glad to see the fight finally happen. Menifield is coming off back to back wins against Crute and Jacoby, and it’s that Jacoby fight that best imitates what we could potentially see in this fight against Ulberg. Menifield is a power puncher, that’s his main attraction as a fighter, he is otherworldly with his power and if he could knock down Jacoby, there’s little doubt that he can test the chin of Ulberg, although there’s a few differences in styles between Ulberg and Jacoby which I would love to see Menifield try to have an answer for. Menifield’s power is going to be massively dangerous to Ulberg, because it has been quite some time since Ulberg has faced someone who has insane power, as well as some semblance of technique. Menifield is explosive and quick, especially early, but his attacks have a lot of action and movement before the attack, if that makes sense? Like, he is very readable, everything he throws has big actions behind them, there’s no small, quick attacks, they’re all huge and frankly easy to read, and the only reasons Jacoby got caught during that fight was due to the length of Menifields attacks, he really lunges into them and it doesn’t take a lot of effort for his power to show. However, technique is terrible when it comes to Menifield, he’s just powerful and sometimes that’s enough, but is it enough considering how well trained Ulberg is, with an expert kickboxing corner behind him including Eugene Bareman? Ulberg is on a mean streak at the moment, but his winning streak has been against relatively bad fighters, at least in comparison to Menifield. I have a firm belief that speed and athleticism will be all on Ulbergs side here, but will his defensive network be enough to avoid or mitigate the damage of Menifield’s ridiculously heavy punches? Ulberg is outstanding at range, he starts off a lot of his first rounds with beautifully timed leg kicks at range, and he has the footwork and speed to stay out of range for the most part. From his first loss to Nzechukwu to his most recent win against Da Un Jung, we have seen a complete transformation from a heavy finisher to someone who doesn’t rush as much, someone who takes his time and knows that every fight could go three rounds, so he knows to pace himself. Ulberg’s defensive footwork is going to be imperative in this fight, because Menifield does not throw a lot of combinations, they’re all singular, powerful, fight ending punches and whilst that’s awesome to watch, its not going to be too effective in the long run against someone like Ulberg. I am not saying that Ulberg is not getting knocked out, there’s a large possibility of that happening, in fact it should be a general rule of thumb to sprinkle something on Menifield getting a knockout, but the way I see this fight going is Ulberg using his footwork, long jabs/hooks and leg kicks to just chip away at Menifield until Ulberg see’s an opening to land more heavier shots. This is a fantastic fight, you bet your ass I’ll be putting a Menifield KO as an alt bet, but Ulberg should have this one.
Ulberg via KO R3 - (1/3)
(FIRST COMMENT DOWN BELOW FOR CO-MAIN AND MAIN)

After having some time to think about it and reading a bunch of others posts, in my head it would make the most sense for Season 50 to have 2 players from every season in it, which would total at 20 players for the season. This would extend the season like many fans have been asking for and give us some representation from every season. It would also make sense to not have a former winner return and to instead crown a brand new winner for this special season, meaning no winners from the 40s in my predictions. With that being said, here's who I think would make the most sense to return:

1. Danny & Xander; Danny is a really underrated player even though he's a fan favourite, he still has a lot left in him if he were to return. Xander is an odd pick, but someone who could do a lot better than in his first season, but in general there's not a lot of amazing picks to make from this season, and my scouting report says Xander is a sleeper pick.
   
2. Jonathan & Omar: Just two really liked players who are each dominant in their own way. They're almost guaranteed to return eventually.
   
3. Cody & Cassidy: Boy a lot of players from this season who I can easily see return, but I've narrowed it down to these two. Cody is a very big personality and I personally feel like he's more entertaining than Jesse, which is why I picked him. Though I wouldn't be upset with either. Cassidy and Karla, but I think Cassidy would have a more interesting route in such a season seeing as she seems like an odd pick.
   
4. Carolyn & Danny: This pick was easy. Both are really fun characters and most people would love to see them return. Carolyn is definitely a lock so there's no questions about that. Danny is just a likeable and entertaining guy, just beats out Carson and Frannie for this spot.
   
5. Drew & Kaleb: Kaleb is also another player that's almost certainly a lock for this season. Drew plays a villain archetype really well, even though I don't see him as one myself, and he fills the quota of having a nerd archetype on the season too. He's also just super entertaining.
   
6. Q and Hunter. The season isn't over yet and barring the rare chance that Q wins, he's definitely a lock. He's too chaotic and entertaining not to have back. Hunter is another pick that will be a sleeper. I think if he returned and learnt from his mistakes, he could very easily win this season, and he's also a big fan favourite for the casual audiences so that is a plus.
   

Then also two players from seasons 47, 48 and 49 which would add the total up to 18, meaning there are two picks left for anyone from the forties. While the next few seasons could have amazing characters, I've gone on to make those picks regardless, being Emily (45) & Venus (46) as I think they'll only make this cast even better. Venus would bring even more chaos and Emily will do really well having a fresh start. What do you think? Who would you change? This is all just my opinion and nothing factual so don't send any hate please. This is all just in good fun. Thank you!

This is a long read.
TL;DR: Drake is a creep with a clear pattern of predatory behavior towards many minors and I have the receipts to back it up.
INTRODUCTION
This is a comprehensive post regarding Drake's extremely questionable behavior regarding minors and young women in general. There's more than 60 links in this post to various sources and it contains almost 30.000 characters.
If you want to repost, make a YouTube video, an article, a TikTok or Twitter thread then do it - I do not need credit, I do not care - I only want this information to be spread.
This post will serve as an archive that people can refer back to or use as a source to back up their claims.
Let me be clear - I do not like Drake. I've thought the guy was a creep ever since the Millie Bobby Brown video and I despise him - but I'll still try to remain as objective as possible here, you know my bias now though.
This thread is partly based on this thread from 2022
OVERVIEW
This post is divided into sections:

• The 17 year old at show
  
• Millie Bobby Brown
  
• Billie Eilish
  
• Kylie Jenner
  
• Hailey Baldwin (Now Bieber)
  
• Cydney Christine (Lil CC)
  
• Aaliyah
  
• Unconfirmed rumors
  
• Lyrics, references, tweets, pictures, ties
  
• (Dis)honorable mention
  
• Final Note
  

THE 17 YEAR OLD AT A SHOW
Drake is performing at a show in Ogden, Denver where he calls a girl up on stage. I really encourage you to watch this yourself, but since I know the majority of you won't watch it, I've described it for you below.
Video starts with her on stage, he asks her name, where she is from, asks the crowd to welcome her to the stage and tells her she looks great. He then asks her to give him two seconds because "I gotta be ready for you".
He wipes off his sweat with a towel and proceeds to take her hand, put it on his shoulder, his hand on her hip/back and they slowdance for a few seconds. He spins her around and stop her with her back facing him. This is when it starts to get.. really weird.
Drake says "I told you I like your hair, right, what is it, like herbal essence or something?" while he's caressing her shoulder and smelling her hair. He says something I can't hear properly, puts the mic down and exposes her upper back and neck by pulling her shirt collar down. The crowd goes wild. He then starts kissing her shoulder and neck, putting her arms around her and fondle her breast.
A few seconds later he picks up the mic again and says "you can't have me carried away again before I get in trouble - how old are you?" She responds "17". The crowd has a mixed reaction - Drake says something that is hard to make out, because of the crowd but when it's clear he says "I can't go to jail yet, man - 17? Why do you look like that? You thick - look at all this!"
It's hard to make out exactly what he says afterwards because of the poor quality (2011 zoomed video at a concert, it's bad..), but he says something about it bringing them (the 17 year old and Drake) to a close and follows it up with "I got one question for you (...) I just want to know if (something about women in Colorado), I should just take one opportunity to take one home?"
The girl nods "As a Colorado woman you'd enjoy that?" "Well, listen 17, I had fun - I don't know if I should feel guilty or not, but I had fun. I liked the way your breasts felt against my chest. I just want to thank you." He then puts the mic down again, grabs her hand and kisses it. You might think that was a little over the top, but he then immediately follows it up by putting his hand on her chin and kissing both of her cheeks, her forehead and then on her fucking lips.
I think he asks her to walk off stage, it's hard to make out, but then he says "It's okay. I'm only 23, I can do shit like that. It's all good, you know what I'm saying" and the video ends.
Addition: I know this girl has said she was not offended, violated, whatever you want to call it, but that's not the point. And I do not mean to sound like a complete dick, but it's not about her - it's about Drake and proving his pattern of behavior over many instances. If you stopped here because she denied it, you completely missed the point.
MILLIE BOBBY BROWN
Now this video was what really made me do a double take on Drake. Now, there's one very important fact to establish here and that is that Millie Bobby Brown at the time of this interview (18. September 2018) is 14 (Born 19. February 2004). I'll quickly transcribe the interview here:
Interviewer:

What about your relationship with Drake, tell me about your friendship, how did this all come about?

Millie Bobby Brown:

I love him. I met him in Australia and he's honestly so fantastic and a great friend and a great role model. You know we text - we just texted each other the other day and he was like "I miss you so much" and I was like "I miss you more". He's coming to Atlanta, so I'm definitely gonna go and see him and I'm so excited.

Interviewer 2:

You and Drake? That's awesome. That's awesome..

Interviewer:

What advice does he give you? What does he say?

MMB:

About boys he helps me, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah he's great. He's wonderful, I love him.

Interviewer:

What's his advice with boys?

MMB:

Ehm, you know.. That stays in the text messages.

I'm sure it's obvious what is wrong here and I don't need to spell it out for any of you, but I do have one thing to add. If Drake is giving advice about boys and telling her "I miss you so much" they must have talked for a while. It's not something you say after knowing a person for a week. We are talking months at least. There's 7 months between her birthday and the interview - did Drake already start talking to her when she was 13? It would make sense that Drake was in Australia during their summer (Dec-Feb) for festivals/concerts/vacation.
Millie has only commented on this once which was a few days later in a story on Instagram
I don't want or mean to infantilize her, but she was 14. She would have no chance of knowing if Drake actually was grooming her. There's not a chance that she could understand the dynamic at play and why it's wrong at that age.
Drake also defended their friendship on the song Another Late Night when he raps:

Weirdos in my comments talkin' 'bout some Millie Bobby, look
Bring them jokes up to the gang, we get to really flockin'

Ironically enough that very same song is also connected to the next person
BILLIE EILISH
The year after the Millie Bobby Brown controversy Drake gets caught texting a minor again and this time it's Billie Eilish. She does a yearly interview with Vanity Fair, and in the 2019 version she's asked who's her most famous contact in her phone. That's when she reveals she's been texting with Drake and that he's so very nice to her. Billie is at the time of the interview (released 25. November 2019) 17 (born 18. December 2001).
Billie did defend Drake and their texting in an interview with Vogue ~3 months later:

“The internet is such a stupid-ass mess right now,” says Eilish, who quit Twitter in 2018. “Everybody’s so sensitive. A grown man can’t be a fan of an artist? There are so many people that the internet should be more worried about. Like, you’re really going to say that Drake is creepy because he’s a fan of mine, and then you’re going to go vote for Trump? What the fuck is that shit?”

On the song Another Late Night where Drake mentions Millie Bobby Brown, Lil Yachty is featured (one of Drake's gho.. co-writers) and he raps the line:

I let her go, she fine as hell but baby wasn't stylish (Yeah)
She had big tits like Billie Eilish but she couldn't sing (Drip)

Now - I know this is not Drake, I just thought it was a 'funny' coincidence that these two women are connected through their shared experiences with Drake and this song. On another note some might say that Drake should have asked Yachty to omit this line if he really was a friend of Billie Eilish since she has been quite vocal about sexualization of herself and women in general.
BELLA HARRIS
This one is pretty fucking bad in my opinion. Bella Harris is the daughter of Jimmy Jam who's a record producer, songwriter etc. and has been very successful. Through him she's been in and around the entertainment/music business her whole life and met Drake that way.
There's an archive of photos posted here that contains the old IG posts she had with Drake. The first one was on May 5th, 2016 - Bella Harris is born 20. April, 2000. She had just turned 16 at the time.
Objectively I think they are defendable since they are all music related - Rihanna concert, Summer Sixteen Tour (ironic name..) and the American Music Awards, but then two years later they reportedly start dating and that makes it really difficult to believe, especially with the last archived photo of them in 2018. Also the same photo that is referenced in this article talking about Drake renting an entire restaurant for an intimate dinner between them.
Note that E! have confirmed it and are not backing down on their claim despite Harris denying it on Instagram.
Her father liked this post on Instagram about the whole situation. It's not particular to the restaurant or previous potential dating it's more so a general declaration of support for Drake, but that includes the PDF-file allegations.
Him supporting Drake made me search for more information, because I wanted to find whether or not he had spoken about it at the time. That led me to this article where her mother, Lisa, is being asked a few questions regarding Bella.

I was surprised Jimmy Jam hasn't introduced Bella to Drake, Rihanna or anybody else in the music world she is interested in meeting.
"No," said Lisa. "She loves Rihanna, she loves Beyoncé. [Bella has met Bey; her brother Max has met Ri-Ri.] She hasn't met Drake. Too old."

Lisa Harris about a photo of Bella (included in the article) - Bella is 14, almost 15 at the time.

I think Drake would behave himself around a child, even one dressed like this, to wit: Mom doesn't think this photo is too sexy, in all its legginess?
"SHE'S WEARING A BATHING SUIT and a coat!" said Lisa. "Sexy? What? My point is it's a body business, so I don't look at it [that way]. It's a posed picture. She has a one-piece bathing suit on. It's artistic."

KYLIE JENNER
Ever since the Kanye (also fuck Kanye for the record) vs. Drake beef we (or I at least) became aware of the fact that Drake has had a long relationship with the Kardashians/Jenners and known them for many, many years. In fact Drake performed at Kylie's sweet 16 back in 2013. You know what that Sweet 16 was specifically remembered for as well? Drake kissing Kylie on the cheek in front of everyone, including her then boyfriend Jaden Smith.
That's not out of the ordinary and would be very normal, if it wasn't for the clear pattern that is going on here, because guess what - 6 years later Drake and Kylie reportedly start dating, well.. dating/fucking/whatever you wanna call it. Admittedly this article is easily dismissed as paparazzi journalism and clickbait, but what if I told you that Drake has rapped this:

Yeah, I’m a hater to society/Real shit, Kylie Jenner that’s a side piece/Yeah, I got 20 muthafuckas in’ Kylies.

You probably wouldn't have heard it, since it was on an unreleased track played on an Instagram Live back in 2020, but it does make it seem pretty likely that he did actually hook up with her, especially considering the response Drake posted

“A song that mark ran last night on night owl sound live set shouldn’t have been played,” he wrote, “It’s a song that leaked 3 years ago and got scrapped shortly after. He was just going too deep in the drake/future catalogue. Last thing I’d want to do is wake up having any friends of mine feeling disrespected so I just had to say that to start off the day.”

Kylie was 22 at the time they reportedly hooked up.
HAILEY BALDWIN (NOW BIEBER)
In 2016 there were reports that Hailey and Drake were dating. Apparently they hooked up at a party that Drake hosted, where another attendee is also mentioned that seems oddly relevant:

Drake and Hailey weren't the only ones getting close, with Kylie Jenner and rumoured new boyfriend PartyNextDoor were seen "making out" at the party.
"It was almost like she was trying to make a statement," an insider added.

Now again - there's nothing illegal in a 11 year age difference and dating a 19-year old as 30. It's weird, yes. But again we come back to the pattern. Why do Drake know Hailey? Through their similar friends and friend group (Kardashians/Jenners). How long has Drake known Hailey? Well, when Hailey was 19, she said they had known each other for a long time.
We can actually get even closer with certainty since we know that Hailey attended Kylie's Sweet 16 in August, 2013. Hailey is born 22. November 1996, so she was also 16 at the time. So it's another girl that Drake has known since she was a minor and started dating when he got the opportunity. This is not normal.
Another pattern that Drake also seem to follow is that likes to hook up with his friends girl. We know for a fact that he hooked up with Lil Wayne's girlfriend while he was in prison. He not only rap about it, but also admit it in an interview. It's not really hard to believe that he did the same with Bieber.
CYDNEY CHRISTINE (LIL CC)
Cydney Christine is a beatmaker and model - she produced the Drake song Money In The Grave and in a Complex interview/roundtable she talks about it and Drake.

Really the only artist I reached out to is Drake. I'd never met him, never spoke to him, I don't know why, but he has been following me for the past like 6 years. I don't know why..

This interview was uploaded 17. December 2019, Cydney Christine's is born 21. July, 1997, meaning she was 22 at the time of the interview and 15-16 when Drake started following her. This is somewhat innocent but strange since Drake is 27 at the time. That's not what is really weird though.
In March 2023, Lil CC is on the No Jumper podcast and here she speaks about Drake and having her debut beat being a Drake single.
Lil CC: I played basketball, right, so he really was a fan or not a fan, sorry, supported one of my teammates at the time um..
Adam 22: And this is when you are in high school?
Lil CC: Yeah, in high school. So he was a fan of women's basketball - high school basketball - I was her teammate so he followed me because of her, and I was like "oh shit, bitch, you got Drake to follow me, like what the hell? Like that's so crazy". So he followed me and I lost it - I have to meet Drake, I love Drake, I've always loved Drake, still love Drake.
There's more to the conversation, but the relevant part is here is that it's just very, very strange for Drake to be a women's high school basketball fan. They are 16 at the time. He's a supporter of a 16 year old female high school basketball player as a 27 year old grown adult man. He has not hooked up with her, dated or anything of the sorts that we know of or that she has told - for the record.
AALIYAH
It's not like I have whole section for this, but his obsession with Aaliyah is just another part of the pattern. I don't have a lot to contribute here, but if you don't know Aaliyah's story I'd recommend reading her Wikipedia and specifically the section about her personal life. If you think that 'obsession' is too strong a word for how much Drake admires her, I think you should take a look at this Complex article from 2018 and reconsider.
UNCONFIRMED STORIES
(I will continuously update it whenever I find or get sent new information to add here.)

• Back in 2021 Drake was being exposed on TikTok for his 'private Tinder' where one of his guys would go out and the hottest girls in town, interview them and find the one that Drake would like the best.

“He finds the girls and then he interviews them, and out of all the girls he interviews, he picks the one that he thinks is the best,” she continued. “Then, he drives her to Drake’s place, Drake has sex with her, and then he drives her home. So, basically, Drake has his own private Tinder.”

• This girl explaining how her friend was invited by Drake's crew and she was brought along as a +1. No ID check, very young girls. Worth a watch: https://www.tiktok.com/@simonestrauss/video/7365696116085591304
  
• This reddit post - yes I know this is 'so easy to just say', but I think the poster was very right by pointing this out:
  

I'm sure you guys won't believe me, but this is the type of situation where someone vanishing and telling you is the best you'll get.

• This YouTube comment about a girl claiming to be a victim of trafficking in Toronto in 2015 and that Drake had ties in all these circles.
  
• This article from 2016, where Drake and his buddy get aggressive with an amateur photographer for taking pictures of Drake and two women. This isn't strange in and of itself, but then there's this post from 2018
  

From the article:

The mystery women were dressed identically in matching white parkas, skinny tan pants, tan boots and ponytail hairstyles.

From the post:

Maybe this foreign born one named A+ list singerapper should have told the whole story about his split with a fellow foreign born A+ lister. How she caught him more than once with another woman and his fascination for watching porn involving women wearing pigtails.

• This post

This foreign born A+ list singerapper asked for all kinds of photos from not only the 18 year old he is dating but at least two other 18 year old females and he didn't make sure they were 18 before he started asking.

• This post

That teen, who was topless in the dressing room of this foreign born A+ list singerapper last night was nowhere in the ballpark of being legal.

• This one is fucking WEIRD - some guy was jerking off and noticed something. Now there's plenty of reasons as to why they would do this, it's porn and they need a story. But then there's this post from 2017:

This one named foreign born A list rapper is going around telling porn stars he is starting his own porn company. It is just his excuse to have sex with them all and not pay.
Drake

• This Twitter post/video of UK rapper Potter Payper calling out Drake for messaging 'bare young girls in England'.
  
• This entire thread is weird to say the least. More CDAN rumors as well. Read the thread, it's too much to paste and explain here.
  
• Drake paid out $350K to sexual assault accuser - Drake initially filed a lawsuit against Layla Lace/Laquana Morris for civil extortion, fraud, defamation, abuse of process and intentional infliction of emotional distress strongly implying he's innocent - but why pay someone $350.000 then?
  

The former stripper and Instagram model wrote: "Drake forced me to perform oral on him. It wasn't your ordinary oral it was more so a fetish." She then describes how he told her to spit into a cup "until he had measured it."

• This comment about a model claiming Drake 'made girls puke in dog bowls for him'. Now that's a typical thing you can dismiss as a rumor, but the same guy commented 16 days ago and said this:

If Kendrick mentions anything about dog bowls or birthday parties in Toronto, then shit is more serious than we thought

• This interview of Aya (Born 24. April 2007) (a 'dancer' in Ice Spice - Deli and probably known for other things I just don't know her) where she's asked about having sex with Drake. She said she can't speak on it because of 'court'.
  
• This Tweet of a guy talking about his experiences in high school and the hottest girls posting from Drake's mansion and being followed by him "every single time".
  
• The Instagram page of Exclusive Artists Agency is strange and related to Drake. A dude on TikTok went in-depth on it and this is creepy in more than one way.
  

LYRICS, REFERENCES, TWEETS, PICTURES, TIES
(Again - Feel free to share with me and I'll add it.)

• On the song Nice For What Drake raps:

You got a baby Benz, you got some bad friends
High school pics, you was even bad then

• This Tweet

"If amazing was a young bitch I'd be going to jail...cause I'm fucking amazing" - Me

• This image of Drake and Malone from Drake's Instagram that's been deleted now. Malone is infamous for impregnating a 13 year old when he was 20.
  
• On the song The Heart Part 6 Drake raps:
  

Just for clarity, I feel disgusted, I'm too respected
If I was fucking young girls, I promise I'd have been arrested
I'm way too famous for this shit you just suggested

• Also on the song The Heart Part 6 Drake raps:

Only fuckin' with Whitneys, not Millie Bobby Browns, I'd never look twice at no teenager

• His connection to Baka Not Nice who Drake is very close with.

In 2014, Baka was arrested and charged with forcing a 22-year-old woman into prostitution and taking her money. In 2015, he pleaded guilty to assaulting the woman and an unrelated weapons charge.

• Adel Nur who has very close business ties to Drake. He's executive producing the show Euphoria together with Drake and they co-own some shady companie(s). Another user went in-depth on their connection here.
  
• J Mulan who's an entrepreneur and close with Drake. This entire thread about her being a trafficker - and especially OP's comments are worth reading .
  
• DJ Eric who's the owner of Area 29, a strip club in Houston. Drake shouts him out in songs and is allegedly also trafficking for Drake.
  

(DIS)HONORABLE MENTION
I know people say Jorja Smith, and I do agree that dating a 19-year old as a 30-year old man is weird and rather pathetic, but every other girl mentioned is related to minors. Their relationship if you can call it that was for sure toxic, and it seems like Drake was a piece of shit abusing the power dynamic between them. This is taken from the Drizzy subreddit, but I can't provide the source since that gets the post blacklisted as it's temporarily banned because of brigading.

In “Summer Games” Drake also says ”I kept it decent, even the secrets, kept it between you and I”. What secrets exactly? Well in Jaded, Drake says this woman “told him all her insecurities”.
It’s also interesting that the song “Summer Games” is about a woman who broke up with Drake right at the beginning of the summer. Drake and Jorja were dating in April of 2017 which is right before the summer starts and only lasted a couple weeks.

But that's all there is to it. I can't dig up anything else, so unless someone have something credible with sources, I don't think there's good enough reason to add her to the list further up.
FINAL NOTE
I know there's questions about the reliability of CDAN and that he was exposed, but in the very same article The Daily Beast refers back to one of their old articles on the subject which definitely confirms that he had/have industry ties and do know a lot. Another reddit user dove further in and made some compelling arguments.
If you have anything to add, please post it in the comments and if credible/sourced I'll put it in the post. If I got anything wrong please correct me and I'll edit it. If you have sources that contradict anything in the post, please also share them with me and I'll include them.
Please share this anywhere you want. I don't care about credit. If any media outlets wants to use it for their article or whatever, please do - feel free. You do not need to ask permission.

The biggest on Tuesday was a fractured forearm for Willson Contreras, which will sideline him for 6-8 weeks. It's just the latest in what's been an onslaught of injuries so far, but if there's a silver lining to this one, it's that it frees up at-bats for Ivan Herrera, an up-and-comer who has put up impressive exit velocity readings in a part-time role.
While we've lost Contreras, we've regained three other players of real consequence in Fantasy Baseball. Cody Bellinger returned from a fractured rib to go 3 for 4 with his sixth home run in 101 plate appearances. That's an even better home run pace than a year ago, making those preseason bust claims harder to justify. Meanwhile, Paul Sewald was back from an oblique injury and worked the ninth inning, though not for a save. You can expect him to return to closing duties right away. Finally, TJ Friedl was back as the Reds' starting center fielder and leadoff hitter. He's somehow rostered in only 56 percent of CBS Sports leagues.
[11:47 AM]
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Wednesday, May 8, 2024
Scott White here. With Chris Towers on vacation for the next couple weeks, I'll be filling in with a daily roundup of the most significant developments from around baseball.
The biggest on Tuesday was a fractured forearm for Willson Contreras, which will sideline him for 6-8 weeks. It's just the latest in what's been an onslaught of injuries so far, but if there's a silver lining to this one, it's that it frees up at-bats for Ivan Herrera, an up-and-comer who has put up impressive exit velocity readings in a part-time role.
While we've lost Contreras, we've regained three other players of real consequence in Fantasy Baseball. Cody Bellinger returned from a fractured rib to go 3 for 4 with his sixth home run in 101 plate appearances. That's an even better home run pace than a year ago, making those preseason bust claims harder to justify. Meanwhile, Paul Sewald was back from an oblique injury and worked the ninth inning, though not for a save. You can expect him to return to closing duties right away. Finally, TJ Friedl was back as the Reds' starting center fielder and leadoff hitter. He's somehow rostered in only 56 percent of CBS Sports leagues.
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Sandoval strikes
The unlikely pitching standout of the day was Patrick Sandoval, who threw seven shutout innings at the Pirates, striking out seven and walking one. He struck out 10 over five innings in his last start and has been much more effective since ditching his four-seamer, heretofore his most-thrown pitch, for more changeups and sliders. The ERA estimators all like him, too. He's deserving of some looks, but I still prefer Cristopher Sanchez, who bounced back from a couple shaky outings to allow just one run in seven innings. Kyle Harrison did one better, allowing no runs in seven innings at Colorado, but he struck out only two and is still lacking a quality secondary offering to go with his fastball.
[11:47 AM]
Now seems like a good time to sell on him.
[11:48 AM]
Digging a bit deeper into the numbers, Sandoval delivered 17 swinging strikes on 103 pitches -- nine on his changeup, four on his slide, three on his sinker and one on the curveball for a 37% called swinging strike rate. He allowed just six hard hits and an 82.5 average exit velocity against. He has completely ditched his four-seamer over the last three starts and actually lead with his changeup in this one. Perhaps the most impressive improvement has been the fact that Sandoval has walked just three batters over his last three starts. He's 37% rostered with a start at Texas next week.
[11:49 AM]
Prospects Report
There's not much more I enjoy than unpacking prospects, but not every prospect story takes a happy turn. In the case of Max Meyer, it might be time to move on. Here's what I wrote about Meyer in my recent prospects report update:
I'm not saying he isn't one of the top 10 prospects to stash, but this article only concerns itself with the top five. And even after a recent flurry of call-ups, I don't see how he fits anymore.
[11:50 AM]
The biggest reason is that he's no longer next in line for the Marlins. Roddery Munoz is, having recently been sent down to make way for Braxton Garrett . Granted, Muñoz is no great shakes, but there's a reason why the Marlins turned to him before Meyer: They're not actually looking to win right now. They just traded their most celebrated hitter, Luis Arraez, to the Padres for a handful of quasi-prosects. So even though Meyer has already proven to be one of their five best starting pitchers, they've given every indication that they intend to keep him down for developmental reasons.
The biggest of those reasons is innings preservation. The Marlins said when they sent Meyer down that he would throw three innings once a week, and they've more or less stuck with that plan. It's not even clear he'd be able to handle a starter's workload if he were to get the call now, and the truth is he hasn't been pitching well anyway.
[11:50 AM]
But that's strange isn't it? After all, he put together a 2.12 ERA and 0.82 WHIP in his three major-league starts. Yeah, but he relied on his slider 49 percent of the time in them. The Marlins are having him emphasize his changeup at Triple-A because, again, they're prioritizing development over performance.
Nothing that they're doing with Meyer right now would suggest a return to the majors is even in the discussion, which is why I'm looking elsewhere for my ...
Five on the verge
Paul Skenes, SP, Pirates
Junior Caminero, 3B, Rays
Jackson Holliday, 2B, Orioles
Coby Mayo, 3B, Orioles
Orelvis Martinez, 2B, Blue Jays
[11:51 AM]
News and Notes
Gerrit Cole completed his second bullpen session on Tuesday and is expected to throw another this weekend. He appears on track to return at some point in June.
Cody Bellinger was activated from the IL. It was Alexander Canario who was optioned back to Triple-A not Pete Crow-Armstrong. Bellinger went 3-4 with his 6th HR in his return.
Grayson Rodriguez feels much better and hopes to be reinstated once he becomes eligible on May 15. He's on the IL with right shoulder inflammation.
Kodai Senga is scheduled to throw another bullpen later this week.
Seiya Suzuki will begin a rehab assignment at Triple-A on Wednesday.
Paul Sewald was activated from the IL. Kevin Ginkel could be dropped right?
Sewald was thrown right back out there on Tuesday, got the 9th inning with a five-run lead, gave up a solo homer and struck out one.
[11:52 AM]
Brayan Bello will return from the IL Sunday against the Nationals.
Cristian Javier will return from the IL this weekend to face the Tigers.
Lane Thomas took batting practice on the field Tuesday, his first time doing so since he went on the IL with a MCL sprain in his left knee.
TJ Frield was activated and hit leadoff for the Reds against the righty Zac Gallen. Friedl finished 0-4 with a strikeout
Jasson Dominguez is about two weeks from beginning a rehab assignment. He's 48% rostered, big prospect, lots of upside, not sure he'll just get called up to the Yankees when he's ready. The outfield is full with Verdugo, Judge, Soto and then you have Stanton at DH.
Tylor Megill will make another rehab start at Triple-A on Sunday.
Jack Leiter is likely to make his second career start Wednesday against the A's (second game of a doubleheader).

The Undraftables: Week 5 Update (Going into/during Week 6)
I initially undertook this challenge with the NBA and decided to extend it to MLB as well. The rules are simple: I cannot select any player who has an Average Draft Position (ADP), regardless of how high or low it may be. Even if a player's ADP is 250+, they are off-limits if they have any average draft position. My draft took place on Sunday, April 7th. Admittedly, this was after the start of the season, but my focus had been primarily on the NBA season, leaving me with limited time to prepare for baseball. Nevertheless, I managed to squeeze in most of my MLB prep work within a few days/week. This is a standard 12 team head to head category league on yahoo with 6 adds per week. The buy-in was lower than my usual, but not free (inactivity and too easy).
Here was the draft results:

1. (6) Lance McCullers Jr. (HOU - SP)
2. (19) Drew Rasmussen (TB - SP)
3. (30) Dustin May (LAD - SP)
4. (43) Ronel Blanco (HOU - SP,RP)
5. (54) Brady Singer (KC - SP)
6. (67) Paul Blackburn (OAK - SP)
7. (78) Cody Bradford (TEX - SP,RP)
8. (91) Chad Green (TOR - RP)
9. (102) Steven Matz (STL - SP,RP)
10. (115) Tanner Houck (BOS - SP)
11. (126) Tyler Anderson (LAA - SP)
12. (139) Spencer Turnbull (PHI - SP)
13. (150) Connor Joe (PIT - 1B,OF)
14. (163) José Caballero (TB - 2B,SS)
15. (174) Gio Urshela (DET - 1B,3B,SS)
16. (187) Will Brennan (CLE - OF)
17. (198) Jake McCarthy (AZ - OF)
18. (211) Jorge Mateo (BAL - SS)
19. (222) Dairon Blanco (KC - OF)
20. (235) Jacob Young (WSH - OF)
21. (246) Bubba Thompson (CIN - OF)
22. (259) Trevor Williams (WSH - SP)
23. (270) Reese McGuire (BOS - C)

Recent Additions from This Week (since last update from WED):

• Jackson Merrill (1 FAAB)
• Esteury Ruiz
• Kodai Senga (1 FAAB)

Recent Drops This Week:

• Bailey Falter
• Nolan Jones (because I have Yandy)

Trades that I performed since my last update from WED:

• Traded away Ronel Blanco and Kevin Ginkel, Received Chris Sale

Current Roster and why I choose to own them:

• C: Luis Campusano (for AVG, sorta Runs?)
• 1B: Yandy Diaz (Runs, AVG) (even though he struggled so far)
• 2B: Ahmed Rosario (SB, AVG)
• 3B: Maikel Garcia (SB, Runs, maybe AVG, somehow RBI?)
• SS: Jose Caballero (SB, maybe AVG)
• OF: Jacob Young (AVG, SB, maybe R cuz leadoff?)
• OF: Jake McCarthy (AVG, SB)
• OF: Sal Frelick (Runs, AVG, SB) (batting 7th now?)
• UTL: Jackson Merrill (AVG mostly, mid SB, mid R)
• UTL: Esteury Ruiz (SB)
• SP: George Kirby (Ace)
• SP: Kevin Gauseman (Ace)
• RP: James McAurthur (closer)
• RP: Kirby Yates (closer)
• P: Hector Neris (closer)
• P: Cole Ragans (Ace)
• P: Chris Sale (Ace? ATL more wins)
• P: Bobby Miller (Ace? LAD more wins)
• Bench: Chris Bassit (struggling, but great track record)
• Bench: Jon Gray (2.50era 1.16whip, vs COL. Sell high?)
• Bench: Jameson Taillon (3wins, 1.13era, 0.88whip vs PIT. Sell high?)
• Bench: Garret Crochet (1.01whip, high k rate, might cut after FRI)
• Bench: Erick Fedde (Numbers look elite like in Japan)
• IL: Jacob Degrom (ELITE when healthy)
• IL: Max Scherzer (ELITE when healthy)
• IL: Drew Rasmussen (almost elite when healthy, bit underrated)
• IL: Kodai Senga (almost elite when healthy)

So here we are! I made it through yet another week with this "bad team". I would like to talk about last week's matchup: I pulled off a smashing 6-4 victory! I hit .264 and stole 11 bases (despite not fielding a full offense for half the week!) for my hitting category wins, then for pitching I won W(6), Saves(4), K(75), and WHIP(0.91)! Opponent had a crazy low era of only 2.11 to beat my very low 2.76. "Can't win them all" haha. I had extremely been benefited by selecting the best two start streamers possible! Jon Gray, Garret Crochet and Jameson Taillon came in enormously here to help! Crochet with 13k, 2.45era, 0.55whip plus a win for me, and Gray with 10k, 1.80era, 0.67whip plus a win for me, and then Taillon with 0.68era, 0.68whip plus a win!!! Having streamers with 2 starts that perform this extremely well almost guarantees winning more pitching categories. It adds "upside". Truly I got lucky in that aspect though, because no way did I expect THIS from them!!! I will take it. :) Some of my offensive hitters who helped me win my two categories were Yandy Diaz hitting .462 after I added him, Ahmed Rosario .278 with 2sb, Maikel Garcia .269, 1sb, Jose Caballero .263 with 4sb, Jacob Young 2sb, and Jake McCarthy who hit strong .357 with 1sb. I guess Sal Frelick contributed 1sb too! With this win I actually move down in standings to 3rd place with a record of 24-16. All top 4 teams are within 2 games of each other!
I would like to discuss my solo trade that I pulled off for a bit. I send out my fishing rod with a very high volume of trade offers and one of them got a bite! There is usually much communication and sometimes back and forth that happens. I type very much to my fellow managers. I been lucky they have worked with me and communicated back and forth. But this trade for this week in particular they just quickly accepted! I wrote about them getting a closer in Ginkel (even though he is likely to lose the role depending on the health of Sewald) and wrote up Ronel Blanco enormously. I had 2 paragraphs talking him up. Then I talked down about Sale regarding his health/injury history and his age where he might be washed and how he struggled in his start against weak offense in MIA. Well my narratives worked. While I don't fully thing this is a "slam dunk" guaranteed win (because those narratives are actually honest and slight concern) I do think I got the better side in large part because Sale rotation spot is secure and ATL will get plenty of wins. (Sale already has 4 wins and he is a proven winner in his illustrious career). This trade is similar to my previous trades because again I'm banking on career track record rather than "this season stats". Also, Chris Sale has been one of my favorite players for years and years now! Did I make the trade due to my fandom bias? Not really, but if I'm being honest maybe sorta? I don't like to tell my friends "I have Ronel Blanco on my team", I want to tell my friends that "I have future hall of famer Chris Sale". :) It may not work out in my favor though, we shall see!!!
My matchup for this current week features an opponent who has stolen 20 bases on the season (vs my 33) so I feel safe in that category. There will be a real close call for AVG with them hitting .269 on season (vs my .259). (Big reason why I added in Jackson Merrill). I also may move off Ruiz or drop a pitcher to sub instead of Ruiz (cuz long term the speed skills for Ruiz are too intriguing to just let go of?) and I would add a hitter with more AVG. (Jung Hoo Lee keeps staring at me so enticingly! Or maybe I'm the one staring at him? Someone tell his girlfriend/wife? haha) Number of options that I'm pontificating. I also wanted Ruiz for the doubleheader games on WED. So my move might be after those games. I concede HR and RBI as I have no chance. I may also concede Runs, but last week I was only 10 behind in runs... If I wanted to chase runs the best play would have been getting more bats from OAK and TEX (Something that might be useful to some of you in your waiver moves this week), but I decided to be playing the long term future focus and securing a very strong hit tool hitter (65grade) like Merrill was very important to me.
For the pitching matchup, they have thrown 219k vs my 244k so that still might get close... Their ratios are very bad with 3.80era and 1.17whip on season in comparison to my league leading 2.26era and 1.02whip, but of course that can fluctuate based on MLB team matchups. They have 7 starters (9 scheduled starts) and only 2 relievers so I have the slight edge on more saves with my 3 relievers. I only have 10 scheduled starts so it could get quite close in the wins and strikeouts battles!!! That will be a debate for me midweek/late-week if I add streaming pitching or higher AVG hitters. Some of you might wonder how I know these stats on my opponents, well make sure you check the TEAM STATS page (on yahoo) to gain this information on your opponents as it will give you an insight on their strengths and weaknesses. (Do be aware that moves they have made can fluctuate this slightly/drastically) It will help you in determining what categories you can attack each week or which ones to punt. I track this in a notepad document for each league that I am in and refer to it every night as I decide the moves I make or do not make. "Sometimes the best moves you make are actually the moves you DO NOT make." Same concept/phrase applies for trades.
In terms of the moves I have made already on MON and my future moves this week, well I'm also eyeing up my streams for later in the week too. Kodai Senga I felt was an absolute must add considering his return timetable could be only a few weeks out. His numbers last season were that of an Ace (2.98era, huge k rate, 12wins). Being able to add an Ace on the waiver wire is *chefs kiss*. He was dropped a few days earlier (by a diamond rated manager). I mention that because there is this thought out in the community that "my league never drops great players or ever makes easy trades", yet I continue to see across my leagues (and others that people mention) that managers are in fact dropping great players. I took note of that manager and added the relevant information into my nerdy little notepad document. "Team XYZ doesn't like injured players". Although in their defense, actually at the time they made the drop they had 5 players injured and only 4 IL spots. (Gerrit Cole, Senga, Fairbanks, Yelich, Josh Lowe). It's also possible Senga could have a setback so there is risk in that regard... I possibly could have went with a 2 start SP streamer like Luis Gil or Simeon Woods Richardson (looked amazing) (both were in strong consideration for me!). I almost went with Tyler Anderson, but glad I decided against that as he struggled MON. There is a debate on the value of Gavin Stone vs MIA tomorrow, but then I would miss out on the start of Crochet or Fedde if I were to drop them so it's "not ideal for maximum starts" type of thing... Civale vs CWS is also available but he struggled last time vs CWS and his last 3 starts have been terrible. Some interesting other options too.
I feel pretty good about my offense to be honest. Even though there is not be huge superstar names, they are still "useful" for what I want them to do. (As mentioned in last weeks update) Because of this I do think it is more likely my moves will be for pitching. I'm a tad worried Sal Frelick hit 7th on MON. I want him at leadoff. Oh! I want to mention that I tried trading for Tyler Black and the guy rejected trade, but then turns around the next day and dropped Tyler Black!!! (bit odd) So Mr. Black is absolutely on my radar to add! He has those contact, OBP, speed and hits top part of the lineup! SIGN ME UP!
Bit of strategy talk here regarding my team build. The goal of a punt power build is to win 2 offensive categories (Ideally 3 eventually, R, AVG, SB) and win 4-5 pitching categories. (If you are able to obtain closers you have upside to win 5 pitching cats, if you punt saves then your upside is 4 and you would be more consistently likely to win WINS and K categories) I technically currently have the upside to win all 5 pitching and 2 hitting categories. (If I gain runs value I would even have maximum upside of 8 categories! 5+3=8) Remember that in category leagues you ONLY NEED TO WIN 6 categories folks! This is the benefit of punting! (And technically in h2h playoffs you can have a tie 5-5 and still advance to next round due to season standings and matchup ranking!) I think punting gives you less variance than other builds? Or maybe this less variance is just from having high AVG contact hitters? Discuss? (Could be an ongoing discussion throughout the season)
There is an interesting topic to bring up regarding trading for hitters who fit the "punt power" type of team build. I think buying low on Kwan and Trea Turner now become viable possibilities for my team and other punt power teams that may exist out there! If you have any other names that could be buy low, I'm all ears. Remember to always keep an eye out for prospects coming up who have the skills that you want/need! Sometimes you can trade away your current assets that you have for upgrades at weak positions on your team and then fill those holes of the guys you traded away with prospects who are coming up soon or have already come up. (Or a hot waiver wire bat that will fill in temporarily) In this way you become a team with "less weaknesses" (Of course that advice can apply to all sorts of type of team builds in head to head category leagues). What this means for this Undraftables team is I may be able to flip my pitching assets for hitting upgrades that give the full trifecta of RUNS, AVG, SB. (Corbin Caroll firmly on my future radar) Maybe I should already be sending feelers, hmmm...
Overall, I'm quite happy with my team's performance and strategy, even though it's considered a tougher challenge. As mentioned my goal is to win by a score of 6-4 or tie 5-5, but eventually will have upside to win 7-3 or even 8-2. I'm willing to make adjustments for each week and consider player recommendations to achieve that goal. So far, this has gone better than I expected (whereas this was tougher in the NBA)! One of the bigger takeaways you can glean from this strategy is that there are numerous ways to win a category league. I have won with punt power strategy for 3-4 years now so for me it is "proven winner". (Notate that this punt power strategy has NOT been tested in Roto YET. I plan to test that next year. Is this the best way to "punt power"? No, remember this was an "extra challenge" that I set forth upon myself.) You really don't have to go "Undraftables" (hard mode) like I have! A big takeway is that having superstars (or stars) undeniably will help a build like this do even better (Ronald Acuna, Elly De La Cruz, Witt, Corbin Carroll, etc), but you don't necessarily "need" those superstars. Instead you just need to have the right build or combination of players and a focus on your matchups. (In fantasy and MLB) There are various "useful" players with skill sets that are still worthy. You don't always need "The best player" in everything. (At least NOT IN A CATEGORY LEAGUE) If you have suffered severe injuries to some power hitters (like Trout, Casas, Royce Lewis, Josh Jung) you could transition and/or trade into a "punt power build" to try it out? (Or that could be something you consider further down the road in the season too) If you need help on how to do it, I'm your guy!
I'll provide weekly updates on Monday mornings (Tuesday for this week) on the team's progress, so let me know if you'd like to follow along or have any suggestions! Thoughts on the team? If you want the previous updates on the team with "How I ended up here" and each week breakdown you can find them in a FB group or I can send them to you in a message. (I wasn't able to post early in season because I changed reddit profiles (hated my username) from last year which had bunches of karma!) (Can't post if you don't have enough karma) Additionally, I'm recruiting for next year, (although this is NOT the central goal of this post) where this unique drafting strategy will be the league's standard for each owner.

This is a long read.
TL;DR: Drake is a creep with a clear pattern of predatory behavior towards many minors and I have the receipts to back it up.
INTRODUCTION
This is a comprehensive post regarding Drake's extremely questionable behavior regarding minors and young women in general. There's more than 60 links in this post to various sources and it contains almost 30.000 characters - if you want to repost, make a YouTube video, an article, a TikTok or Twitter thread then do it - I do not need credit, I do not care - I only want this information to be spread. This post will serve as an archive that people can refer back to or use as a source to back up their claims.
Let me be clear - I do not like Drake. I've thought the guy was a creep ever since the Millie Bobby Brown video and I despise him - but I'll still try to remain as objective as possible here, you know my bias now though.
This thread is partly based on this thread from 2022
Read this comment for edits I've made to the post.
OVERVIEW
This post is divided into sections:

• The 17 year old at show
  
• Millie Bobby Brown
  
• Billie Eilish
  
• Kylie Jenner
  
• Hailey Baldwin (Now Bieber)
  
• Cydney Christine (Lil CC)
  
• Aaliyah
  
• Unconfirmed rumors
  
• Lyrics, references, tweets, pictures, ties
  
• (Dis)honorable mention
  
• Final Note
  

THE 17 YEAR OLD AT A SHOW
Drake is performing at a show in Ogden, Denver where he calls a girl up on stage. I really encourage you to watch this yourself, but since I know the majority of you won't watch it, I've described it for you below.
Video starts with her on stage, he asks her name, where she is from, asks the crowd to welcome her to the stage and tells her she looks great. He then asks her to give him two seconds because "I gotta be ready for you". He wipes off his sweat with a towel and proceeds to take her hand, put it on his shoulder, his hand on her hip/back and they slowdance for a few seconds. He spins her around and stop her with her back facing him. This is when it starts to get.. really weird.
Drake says "I told you I like your hair, right, what is it, like herbal essence or something?" while he's caressing her shoulder and smelling her hair. He says something I can't hear properly, puts the mic down and exposes her upper back and neck by pulling her shirt collar down. The crowd goes wild. He then starts kissing her shoulder and neck, putting her arms around her and fondle her breast. The girl on stage looks.. uncomfortable. A few seconds later he picks up the mic again and says "you can't have me carried away again before I get in trouble - how old are you?" She responds "17". The crowd has a mixed reaction - Drake says something that is hard to make out, because of the crowd but when it's clear he says "I can't go to jail yet, man - 17? Why do you look like that? You thick - look at all this!"
It's hard to make out exactly what he says afterwards because of the poor quality (2011 zoomed video at a concert, it's bad..), but he says something about it bringing them (the 17 year old and Drake) to a close and follows it up with "I got one question for you (...) I just want to know if (something about women in Colorado), I should just take one opportunity to take one home?" The girl nods "As a Colorado woman you'd enjoy that?" "Well, listen 17, I had fun - I don't know if I should feel guilty or not, but I had fun. I liked the way your breasts felt against my chest. I just want to thank you." He then puts the mic down again, grabs her hand and kisses it. You might think that was a little over the top, but he then immediately follows it up by putting his hand on her chin and kissing both of her cheeks, her forehead and then on HER FUCKING LIPS. I think he asks her to walk off stage, it's hard to make out, but then he says "It's okay. I'm only 23, I can do shit like that. It's all good, you know what I'm saying" and the video ends.
Addition: I know this girl has said she was not offended, violated, whatever you want to call it, but that's not the point. And I do not mean to sound like a complete dick, but it's not about her - it's about Drake and proving his pattern of behavior over many instances. If you stopped here because she denied it, you completely missed the point.
MILLIE BOBBY BROWN
Now this video was what really made me do a double take on Drake. Now, there's one very important fact to establish here and that is that Millie Bobby Brown at the time of this interview (18. September 2018) is 14 (Born 19. February 2004). I'll quickly transcribe the interview here:
Interviewer: What about your relationship with Drake, tell me about your friendship, how did this all come about?
Millie Bobby Brown: I love him. I met him in Australia and he's honestly so fantastic and a great friend and a great role model. You know we text - we just texted each other the other day and he was like "I miss you so much" and I was like "I miss you more". He's coming to Atlanta, so I'm definitely gonna go and see him and I'm so excited.
Interviewer 2: You and Drake? That's awesome. That's awesome..
Interviewer: What advice does he give you? What does he say?
MMB: About boys he helps me, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah he's great. He's wonderful, I love him.
Interviewer: What's his advice with boys?
MMB: Ehm, you know.. That stays in the text messages.
I'm sure it's obvious what is wrong here and I don't need to spell it out for any of you, but I do have one thing to add. If Drake is giving advice about boys and telling her "I miss you so much" they must have talked for a while. It's not something you say after knowing a person for a week. We are talking months at least. There's 7 months between her birthday and the interview - did Drake already start talking to her when she was 13? It would make sense that Drake was in Australia during their summer (Dec-Feb) for festivals/concerts/vacation. It's probably possible to figure out through social media posts, but I'm not digging that deep.
Millie has only commented on this once which was a few days later in a story on Instagram
I don't want or mean to infantilize her, but she was 14. She would have no chance of knowing if Drake actually was grooming her. There's not a chance that she could understand the dynamic at play and why it's wrong at that age.
Drake also defended their friendship on the song Another Late Night when he raps:

Weirdos in my comments talkin' 'bout some Millie Bobby, look
Bring them jokes up to the gang, we get to really flockin'

Ironically enough that very same song is also connected to the next person
BILLIE EILISH
The year after the Millie Bobby Brown controversy Drake gets caught texting a minor again and this time it's Billie Eilish. She does a yearly interview with Vanity Fair, and in the 2019 version she's asked who's her most famous contact in her phone. That's when she reveals she's been texting with Drake and that he's so very nice to her. Billie is at the time of the interview (released 25. November 2019) 17 (born 18. December 2001).
Billie did defend Drake and their texting in an interview with Vogue ~3 months later:

“The internet is such a stupid-ass mess right now,” says Eilish, who quit Twitter in 2018. “Everybody’s so sensitive. A grown man can’t be a fan of an artist? There are so many people that the internet should be more worried about. Like, you’re really going to say that Drake is creepy because he’s a fan of mine, and then you’re going to go vote for Trump? What the fuck is that shit?”

On the song Another Late Night where Drake mentions Millie Bobby Brown, Lil Yachty is featured (one of Drake's gho.. co-writers) and he raps the line:

I let her go, she fine as hell but baby wasn't stylish (Yeah)
She had big tits like Billie Eilish but she couldn't sing (Drip)

Now - I know this is not Drake, I just thought it was a 'funny' coincidence that these two women are connected through their shared experiences with Drake and this song. On another note some might say that Drake should have asked Yachty to omit this line if he really was a friend of Billie Eilish since she has been quite vocal about sexualization of herself and women in general.
BELLA HARRIS
This one is pretty fucking bad in my opinion. Bella Harris is the daughter of Jimmy Jam who's a record producer, songwriter etc. and has been very successful. Through him she's been in and around the entertainment/music business her whole life and met Drake that way.
There's an archive of photos posted here that contains the old IG posts she had with Drake. The first one was on May 5th, 2016 - Bella Harris is born 20. April, 2000. She had just turned 16 at the time. Objectively I think they are defendable since they are all music related - Rihanna concert, Summer Sixteen Tour (ironic name..) and the American Music Awards, but then two years later they reportedly start dating and that makes it really difficult to believe, especially with the last archived photo of them in 2018. Also the same photo that is referenced in this article talking about Drake renting an entire restaurant for an intimate dinner between them. Note that E! have confirmed it and are not backing down on their claim despite Harris denying it on Instagram.
Her father liked this post on Instagram about the whole situation. It's not particular to the restaurant or previous potential dating it's more so a general declaration of support for Drake, but that includes the PDF-file allegations.
Him supporting Drake made me search for more information, because I wanted to find whether or not he had spoken about it at the time. That led me to this article where her mother, Lisa, is being asked a few questions regarding Bella.

I was surprised Jimmy Jam hasn't introduced Bella to Drake, Rihanna or anybody else in the music world she is interested in meeting.
"No," said Lisa. "She loves Rihanna, she loves Beyoncé. [Bella has met Bey; her brother Max has met Ri-Ri.] She hasn't met Drake. Too old."

Lisa Harris about a photo of Bella (included in the article) - Bella is 14, almost 15 at the time.

I think Drake would behave himself around a child, even one dressed like this, to wit: Mom doesn't think this photo is too sexy, in all its legginess?
"SHE'S WEARING A BATHING SUIT and a coat!" said Lisa. "Sexy? What? My point is it's a body business, so I don't look at it [that way]. It's a posed picture. She has a one-piece bathing suit on. It's artistic."

KYLIE JENNER
Ever since the Kanye (also fuck Kanye for the record) vs. Drake beef we (or I at least) became aware of the fact that Drake has had a long relationship with the Kardashians/Jenners and known them for many, many years. In fact Drake performed at Kylie's sweet 16 back in 2013. You know what that Sweet 16 was specifically remembered for as well? Drake kissing Kylie on the cheek in front of everyone, including her then boyfriend Jaden Smith.
That's not out of the ordinary and would be very normal, if it wasn't for the clear pattern that is going on here, because guess what - 6 years later Drake and Kylie reportedly start dating, well.. dating/fucking/whatever you wanna call it. Admittedly this article is easily dismissed as paparazzi journalism and clickbait, but what if I told you that Drake has rapped this:

Yeah, I’m a hater to society/Real shit, Kylie Jenner that’s a side piece/Yeah, I got 20 muthafuckas in’ Kylies.

You probably wouldn't have heard it, since it was on an unreleased track played on an Instagram Live back in 2020, but it does make it seem pretty likely that he did actually hook up with her, especially considering the response Drake posted

“A song that mark ran last night on night owl sound live set shouldn’t have been played,” he wrote, “It’s a song that leaked 3 years ago and got scrapped shortly after. He was just going too deep in the drake/future catalogue. Last thing I’d want to do is wake up having any friends of mine feeling disrespected so I just had to say that to start off the day.”

Kylie was 22 at the time they reportedly hooked up.
HAILEY BALDWIN (NOW BIEBER)
In 2016 there were reports that Hailey and Drake were dating. Apparently they hooked up at a party that Drake hosted, where another attendee is also mentioned that seems oddly relevant:

Drake and Hailey weren't the only ones getting close, with Kylie Jenner and rumoured new boyfriend PartyNextDoor were seen "making out" at the party.
"It was almost like she was trying to make a statement," an insider added.

Now again - there's nothing illegal in a 11 year age difference and dating a 19-year old as 30. It's weird, yes. But again we come back to the pattern. Why do Drake know Hailey? Through their similar friends and friend group (Kardashians/Jenners). How long has Drake known Hailey? Well, when Hailey was 19, she said they had known each other for a long time.
We can actually get even closer with certainty since we know that Hailey attended Kylie's Sweet 16 in August, 2013. Hailey is born 22. November 1996, so she was also 16 at the time. So it's another girl that Drake has known since she was a minor and started dating when he got the opportunity. This is not normal.
Another pattern that Drake also seem to follow is that likes to hook up with his friends girl. We know for a fact that he hooked up with Lil Wayne's girlfriend while he was in prison. He not only rap about it, but also admit it in an interview. It's not really hard to believe that he did the same with Bieber.
CYDNEY CHRISTINE (LIL CC)
Cydney Christine is a beatmaker and model - she produced the Drake song Money In The Grave and in a Complex interview/roundtable she talks about it and Drake.

Really the only artist I reached out to is Drake. I'd never met him, never spoke to him, I don't know why, but he has been following me for the past like 6 years. I don't know why..

This interview was uploaded 17. December 2019, Cydney Christine's is born 21. July, 1997, meaning she was 22 at the time of the interview and 15-16 when Drake started following her. This is somewhat innocent but strange since Drake is 27 at the time. That's not what is really weird though.
In March 2023, Lil CC is on the No Jumper podcast and here she speaks about Drake and having her debut beat being a Drake single.
Lil CC: I played basketball, right, so he really was a fan or not a fan, sorry, supported one of my teammates at the time um..
Adam 22: And this is when you are in high school?
Lil CC: Yeah, in high school. So he was a fan of women's basketball - high school basketball - I was her teammate so he followed me because of her, and I was like "oh shit, bitch, you got Drake to follow me, like what the hell? Like that's so crazy". So he followed me and I lost it - I have to meet Drake, I love Drake, I've always loved Drake, still love Drake.
There's more to the conversation, but the relevant part is here is that it's just very, very strange for Drake to be a women's high school basketball fan. They are 16 at the time. He's a supporter of a 16 year old female high school basketball player as a 27 year old grown adult man. He has not hooked up with her, dated or anything of the sorts that we know of or that she has told - for the record.
AALIYAH
It's not like I have whole section for this, but his obsession with Aaliyah is just another part of the pattern. I don't have a lot to contribute here, but if you don't know Aaliyah's story I'd recommend reading her Wikipedia and specifically the section about her personal life. If you think that 'obsession' is too strong a word for how much Drake admires her, I think you should take a look at this Complex article from 2018 and reconsider.
UNCONFIRMED STORIES
(I will continuously update it whenever I find or get sent new information to add here.)

• Back in 2021 Drake was being exposed on TikTok for his 'private Tinder' where one of his guys would go out and the hottest girls in town, interview them and find the one that Drake would like the best.

“He finds the girls and then he interviews them, and out of all the girls he interviews, he picks the one that he thinks is the best,” she continued. “Then, he drives her to Drake’s place, Drake has sex with her, and then he drives her home. So, basically, Drake has his own private Tinder.”

• This girl explaining how her friend was invited by Drake's crew and she was brought along as a +1. No ID check, very young girls. Worth a watch: https://www.tiktok.com/@simonestrauss/video/7365696116085591304
  
• This reddit post - yes I know this is 'so easy to just say', but I think the poster was very right by pointing this out:
  

I'm sure you guys won't believe me, but this is the type of situation where someone vanishing and telling you is the best you'll get.

• This YouTube comment about a girl claiming to be a victim of trafficking in Toronto in 2015 and that Drake had ties in all these circles.
  
• This article from 2016, where Drake and his buddy get aggressive with an amateur photographer for taking pictures of Drake and two women. This isn't strange in and of itself, but then there's this post from 2018
  

From the article:

The mystery women were dressed identically in matching white parkas, skinny tan pants, tan boots and ponytail hairstyles.

From the post:

Maybe this foreign born one named A+ list singerapper should have told the whole story about his split with a fellow foreign born A+ lister. How she caught him more than once with another woman and his fascination for watching porn involving women wearing pigtails.

• This post

This foreign born A+ list singerapper asked for all kinds of photos from not only the 18 year old he is dating but at least two other 18 year old females and he didn't make sure they were 18 before he started asking.

• This post

That teen, who was topless in the dressing room of this foreign born A+ list singerapper last night was nowhere in the ballpark of being legal.

• This one is fucking WEIRD - some guy was jerking off and noticed something. Now there's plenty of reasons as to why they would do this, it's porn and they need a story. But then there's this post from 2017:

This one named foreign born A list rapper is going around telling porn stars he is starting his own porn company. It is just his excuse to have sex with them all and not pay.
Drake

• This Twitter post/video of UK rapper Potter Payper calling out Drake for messaging 'bare young girls in England'.
  
• This entire thread is weird to say the least. More CDAN rumors as well. Read the thread, it's too much to paste and explain here.
  
• Drake paid out $350K to sexual assault accuser - Drake initially filed a lawsuit against Layla Lace/Laquana Morris for civil extortion, fraud, defamation, abuse of process and intentional infliction of emotional distress strongly implying he's innocent - but why pay someone $350.000 then?
  

The former stripper and Instagram model wrote: "Drake forced me to perform oral on him. It wasn't your ordinary oral it was more so a fetish." She then describes how he told her to spit into a cup "until he had measured it."

• This comment about a model claiming Drake 'made girls puke in dog bowls for him'. Now that's a typical thing you can dismiss as a rumor, but the same guy commented 16 days ago and said this:

If Kendrick mentions anything about dog bowls or birthday parties in Toronto, then shit is more serious than we thought

• This interview of Aya (Born 24. April 2007) (a 'dancer' in Ice Spice - Deli and probably known for other things I just don't know her) where she's asked about having sex with Drake. She said she can't speak on it because of 'court'.
  
• This Tweet of a guy talking about his experiences in high school and the hottest girls posting from Drake's mansion and being followed by him "every single time".
  
• Shaye G who formerly dated Drake explains alleged threats on HOT 97 ~10 years ago.
  
• The Instagram page of Exclusive Artists Agency is strange and related to Drake. A dude on TikTok went in-depth on it and this is creepy in more than one way.
  
• The woman who had a Twitter thread similar to this post that ended up deleting her account made an entire YouTube video out of it you can find here.
  

LYRICS, REFERENCES, TWEETS, PICTURES, TIES
(Again - Feel free to share with me and I'll add it.)

• On the song Nice For What Drake raps:

You got a baby Benz, you got some bad friends
High school pics, you was even bad then

• This Tweet

"If amazing was a young bitch I'd be going to jail...cause I'm fucking amazing" - Me

• This image of Drake and Malone from Drake's Instagram that's been deleted now. Malone is infamous for impregnating a 13 year old when he was 20.
  
• On the song The Heart Part 6 Drake raps:
  

Just for clarity, I feel disgusted, I'm too respected
If I was fucking young girls, I promise I'd have been arrested
I'm way too famous for this shit you just suggested

• Also on the song The Heart Part 6 Drake raps:

Only fuckin' with Whitneys, not Millie Bobby Browns, I'd never look twice at no teenager

• His connection to Baka Not Nice who Drake is very close with.

In 2014, Baka was arrested and charged with forcing a 22-year-old woman into prostitution and taking her money. In 2015, he pleaded guilty to assaulting the woman and an unrelated weapons charge.

• Adel Nur who has very close business ties to Drake. He's executive producing the show Euphoria together with Drake and they co-own some shady companie(s). Another user went in-depth on their connection here.
  
• J Mulan who's an entrepreneur and close with Drake. This entire thread about her being a trafficker - and especially OP's comments are worth reading .
  
• DJ Eric who's the owner of Area 29, a strip club in Houston. Drake shouts him out in songs and is allegedly also trafficking for Drake.
  

(DIS)HONORABLE MENTION
I know people say Jorja Smith, and I do agree that dating a 19-year old as a 30-year old man is weird and rather pathetic, but every other girl mentioned is related to minors. Their relationship if you can call it that was for sure toxic, and it seems like Drake was a piece of shit abusing the power dynamic between them. This is taken from the Drizzy subreddit, but I can't provide the source since that gets the post blacklisted as it's temporarily banned because of brigading.

In “Summer Games” Drake also says ”I kept it decent, even the secrets, kept it between you and I”. What secrets exactly? Well in Jaded, Drake says this woman “told him all her insecurities”.
It’s also interesting that the song “Summer Games” is about a woman who broke up with Drake right at the beginning of the summer. Drake and Jorja were dating in April of 2017 which is right before the summer starts and only lasted a couple weeks.

But that's all there is to it. I can't dig up anything else, so unless someone have something credible with sources, I don't think there's good enough reason to add her to the list further up.
FINAL NOTE
I know there's questions about the reliability of CDAN and that he was exposed, but in the very same article The Daily Beast refers back to one of their old articles on the subject which definitely confirms that he had/have industry ties and do know a lot. Another reddit user dove further in and made some compelling arguments.
If you have anything to add, please post it in the comments and if credible/sourced I'll put it in the post. If I got anything wrong please correct me and I'll edit it. If you have sources that contradict anything in the post, please also share them with me and I'll include them.
Please share this anywhere you want. I don't care about credit. If any media outlets wants to use it for their article or whatever, please do - feel free. You do not need to ask permission.

Swing types (Pull, Extreme Pull, Push etc) are very important but information on which kind of swing a player has is difficult to find. While swing animations are just visual and don't effect outcomes, swing types do. Even Showzone.gg and Showdd.io don't have this information. I've compiled a list of just about every player who doesn't have a "Whole-Field" swing. You'll notice nearly all community favorite swings are Pull or Extreme Pull. Most of this information comes from Roster Control.
If a player has a particular swing type, 99% of the time all of their cards have that same type. But that's the thing about 99%, there is still 1%. A few players I've found have different swing types on their different cards. Brandon Crawford, Steve Finley, Ken Griffey JR, Mike Napoli so far.
There is also an issue/bug with switch hitters. All switch hitters batting righty are Whole-Field, every one of them. Where I knew a player was a switch hitter I've tried to mark that. For example, Yasmani Grandal is Pull hitter batting from the left, but still Whole-Field batting from the right.
Red Sox
Rafael Devers E Pull
Tyler O'neill Pull
Trevor Story Pull
Bobby Dalbec Oppo
Pablo Reyes Pull
Reese McGuire Pull
Baltimore
Adley Rutschman S Oppo
Anthony Santander S E Pull
Cedric Mullins Pull
Ryan O'Hearn Pull
Tony Kemp E Pull
Yankees
Juan Soto E Pull
Gleyber Torres Pull
Anthony Rizzo E Pull
DJ Lemahieu Oppo
Alex Terdugo Pull
Trent Grisham Pull
Jahmai Jones Oppo
Chad Bell Oppo
Greg Allen Pull
Rays
Yandy Diaz Oppo
Jose Siri Oppo
Niko Goodrum S Pull
Brandon Lowe E Pull
Dominic Smith Pull
Jays
Vlad Guerrero jr Pull
George Springer Pull
Dany Jansen E Pull
Kevin Kiermaier Pull
Joey Votto Pull
Cavan Biggie E Pull
Isiah Kiner-Falefa Oppo
Danny Vogelbach Pull
Ernie Clement Oppo
White Sox
Luis Robert jr Oppo
Eloy Jimenez Pull
Andrew Benintendi Pull
Andrew Vaughn Oppo
Paul DeJong E Pull
Max Stassi E Pull
Kevin Pillar Pull
Gavin Sheets Oppo
Brett Phillips Pull
Rafael Ortega E Pull
Martin Maldonado Pull
Zach Remillard Oppo
Guardians
Jose Ramirez S Pull
Josh Naylor Pull
Ramon Laurenado Pull
David Fry Oppo
Myles Straw E Oppo
Austin Hedges Pull
Tigers
Jake Rogers Pull
Mark Canha E Pull
Carson Kelly Pull
Anthony Bemboom Oppo
Royals
Hunter Renfroe E Pull
Salvador Perez Pull
Darion Blanco Oppo
Twins
Byron Buxton E Pull
Max Kepler E Pull
Carlos Santana S Pull
Kyle Farmer E Pull
Christian Vazquez Oppo
Jose Miranda Oppo
Astros
Yordan Alvarez E Pull
Jose Altuve Pull
Kyle Tucker Pull
Alex Bregman E Pull
Jose Abreu Pull
Victor Caratini Pull
Jon Singleton E Pull
Angels
Mike Trout Pull
Brandon Drury Pull
Aaron Hicks Pull
Anthony Rendon Pull
Matt Thaiss Pull
Hunter Dozier Pull
Caleb Hamilton Oppo
Willie Calhoun E Pull
Evan White Oppo
Miguel Sano E Pull
As
JD Davis Pull
Aledmys Diaz E Pull
Carlos Perez Pull
Tyler Nevin Oppo
Ms
Mitch Garver Pull
JP Crawford Pull
Josh Rojas Pull
Ty France Pull
Mitch Haniger Pull
Michael Chavis Pull
Rangers
Corey Seager E Pull
Marcus Semien Pull
Jared Walsh Pull
Wyatt Langford Oppo
Andrew Knizner Oppo
Braves
Ronald Acuna jr Pull
Matt Olson E Pull
Ozzie Albies S E Pull
Adam Duvall Pull
Marcell Ozuna Pull
David Fletcher Pull
Luis Guillorme Oppo
Marlins
Luis Arraez Oppo
Christian Bethancourt Pull
Avisail Garcia Pull
Mets
Pete Alonso E Pull
Brandon Nimmo Pull
Jeff McNeil Pull
Harrison Bader Pull
Trayce Thompson Pull
DJ Stewart E Pull
Ji-Man Choi Pull
Omar Narvaez Pull
Joey Wendle Pull
Rylan Bannon Oppo
Phillies
Trea Turner Pull
Bryce Harper E Pull
JT Realmuto Pull
Nick Castellanos Pull
Kyle Schwarber E Pull
Jordan Luplow Pull
David Dahl Pull
Nationals
Joey Gallo E Pull
Eddie Rosario E Pull
Ildemaro Vargas Oppo
Victor Robles Pull
Jesse Winker Pull
Cubs
Cody Bellinger E Pull
Dansby Swanson Pull
Yan Gomes Pull
Mike Tauchman Oppo
David Peralta Pull
Garrett Cooper Oppo
Curt Casali Pull
Miguel Amaya Oppo
Reds
Jeimer Candelario S Pull
Jonathan India Oppo
Tyler Stephenson Oppo
Nick Martini Pull
Mike Ford Pull
Austin Wynns Pull
Brewers
Christian Yelich Pull
Gary Sanchez E Pull
Rhys Hoskins E Pull
Jake Bauers E Pull
Vinny Capra Oppo
Pirates
Michael A Taylor Pull
Andrew Mccutchen Pull
Rowdy Tellez E Pull
Yasmani Grandal S Pull
Gilberto Celestino Oppo
Jake Lamb E Pull
Josh Palacios Oppo
Billy McKinney E Pull
Cardinals
Paul Goldschmidt Pull
Nolan Arenado Pull
Willson Contreas Pull
Tommy Edman S Pull
Brandon Crawford Live Pull / 89 E Pull
Matt Carpenter E Pull
Dbacks
Christian Walker Pull
Eugenio Suarez Pull
Randal Grichuk E Pull
Joc Peterson E Pull
Jace Peterson Pull
Emmanuel Rivera Oppo
Tucker Barnhart Pull
Rockies
Ryan McMahon Pull
Ezequiel Tovar Pull
Charlie Blackmon Pull
Brendan Rogers Oppo
Kris Bryant Pull
Elias Diaz Oppo
Alan Trejo Oppo
Sam Hillard Pull
Jacob Stallings Pull
Jake Cave Pull
Dodgers
Shohei E Pull
Mookie Betts E Pull
Freddie Freeman Pull
Will Smith E Pull
Teoscar Hernandez Pull
Max Muncy E Pull
Jason Heyward Pull
Miguel Rojas Oppo
Enrique Hernandez Pull
Padres
Fernando Tatis jr Pull
Xander Bogaerts Pull
Kyle Higashioka Pull
Jurickson Profar Pull
Tyker Wade Pull
Tim Locastro E Pull
Oscar Mercado Pull
Giants
Jorge Soler E Pull
Matt Chapman Pull
Thairo Estrada Oppo
Mike Yastrzemski Pull
Austin Slater Oppo
Michael Conforto Pull
Tom Murphy E Pull
Nick Ahmed Pull
Joey Bart Oppo
Legends
Shawn Green E Pull
Jason Giambi E Pull
Evan Longoria Pull
Paul Konerko Pull
Jorge Posada S E Pull
Steve Finley E Pull / 87 Pull
Johnny Damon E Pull
Ken Griffey JR Pull / E Pull
Michael Young Oppo
Adam Dunn E Pull
Jason Heyward Pull
Tim Salmon Oppo
Larry Doby Oppo
Mike Napoli Whole / 93 Oppo
Hank Aaron Oppo
Eddie Murray S Pull / Whole
Ivan Rodgiguez Oppo
Vladimir Guerrero Pull
Richie Sexson Oppo
Giancarlo Stanton 89 Pull
Free Agents
Brandon Belt E Pull
CJ Cron Pull
Elvis Andrews Pull
Francisco Mejia Pull
Kolten Wong Pull
Charlie Culberson Pull
Raimel Tapia Pull
Mike Moustakas Pull
Johathan Schoop Pull
Darin Ruf E Pull
AJ Pollock E Pull
Yuli Gurriel Pull
Billy Hamilton Oppo
Josh Harrison Pull
Luke Voit Pull
Kyle Lewis Oppo
Adalberto Mondesi S Pull
Wil Myers Pull
Tommy La Stella E Pull
Jackie Bradley Jr E Pull
Hanser Alberto Pull