Ep. 122 - How To Dominate Fanatics Games with Third Place Winner Matt Dennish

For three days from June 20 to 22 in the second ever Fanatics Fest, Michael Rubin hosted the first ever Fanatics Games. The Fanatics Games tested participants across eight sports-themed events, including quarterback accuracy, basketball shooting, soccer goal-scoring, puck shooting, UFC striking power, WWE-style entrances and a golf simulator challenge.

Tom Brady got first place and $1 million, and UFC champion Justin Gaethje won a 2025 Ferrari 296 GTB for placing second, and it was an "Average Joe" Matt Dennish, a health teacher at Red Lion Area High School in Pennsylvania, who placed third and won a 2003-04 Topps Chrome Gold Refractor LeBron James BGS 9.5.

In this interview, Matt explains how Tom Brady offered $250,000 for the card as well as everything that happened before then. We talked about how he was not sure he was going to hold onto one of the top three positions, because he went on Day 1 and there were many athletes and participants going on Days 2 and 3. Nevertheless, his strong performance in the Games allowed him to finish third out of 100. Congratulations Matt! You are certainly not average!

You can find Matt's Instagram @averagejoe_dennish

You can find the CNN article referenced in the interview here: https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/25/sport/philadelphia-teacher-matt-dennish-third-place-fanatics-games-spt