A good omen, surely?
Cathal Pendred takes on Joel Howard in the prelims for UFC 189, this weekend, and has already won big in Las Vegas.
The Dublin welterweight, fresh off a win at UFC 188, dabbled in a spot of poker at the MGM Grand, where he will fight on Saturday, and came out smiling.
Just won a poker tournament. The @MGMGrand is already being good to me. #UFC189 pic.twitter.com/AqVpA2bHem
— Cathal Pendred (@Pendred) July 7, 2015
The financial boost almost makes up from Pendred’s participation in UFC 188, in Mexico, that did not earn him a bean.
He told FOXSports, ‘I pretty much accepted before the fight that financially I really wasn’t going to make anything in the fight if I was to prepare the way I wanted to prepare, which was to go down to Mexico early and climatize and be in great shape, ready to go.
‘I already said I’m not going to make anything financially, but what I can do is make a massive statement.’
He got the win, over Augusto Montaro, but the performance was more dogged than outstanding and dominant.
Pendred will hope to change all that this weekend in Las Vegas.