Daniel Pineda made some gamblers very, very happy with his performance at UFC 252.
Pineda made his UFC return at UFC 252, scoring a second-round TKO win over Herbert Burns.
The returning Pineda was considered an underdog in the fight and that led to some of his friends placing bets on him to win, which put more pressure on Pineda.
“Oh yeah. Big time,” Pineda said on What the Heck (via Mike Heck of MMA Fighting). “I sneak a peek but I knew it because a lot of my people were like, ‘Oh, we’re betting this much money on you,’ and I was like, ‘Why don’t you put some pressure on me, you bastard.’ It’s a lot of pressure when someone tells you how much they’re putting on you. I’m happy, I like being the underdog. I like to prove people wrong. I was the underdog in the PFL. I was a +700-something. When I started with Herbert Burns, I was a +400-something. I wish it would’ve stayed there and made more money.”
To make things even hard on Pineda, his opponent on Burns came in overweight for their bout, as Burns came in 3.5 pounds heavy.
Pineda not only defeated the overweight Burns at the event, but his friends picked up over $200,000 for betting on him.
“$100,000,” Pineda said. “Another guy won, I think, $84,000. Vegas hates us. I was like, ‘I’ll take 10 percent of whatever y’all make.’ They’re all gonna take me out to eat and I’m gonna get fat. Those were the two biggest ones. Other people were like, $10,000, $16,000, $20,000. But it’s crazy.”
There is no word yet on when Pineda, who suffered a bad cut over his left eye during the bout against Burns, will compete again.
Fightful has all of your MMA needs covered. Follow us on Twitter for updates, and subscribe to our YouTube channel for exclusive interviews, lists, news updates and predictions.
