A number of new fights have been added to UFC Japan, and for today’s MMA Odds and Ends I will list the new bouts and give my thoughts on all of them. Gegard Mousasi vs. Roan Carneiro, UFC Fight Night 76 A middleweight bout between Gegard Mousasi and Roan Carneiro will co-headline UFC fight Night 76, which goes down September 27 at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. Mousasi is of course a top-10 middleweight and he is coming off of a dominant victory over Costas Philippou, but Carneiro has been super impressive as of late and is coming off of a huge win over Mark Munoz himself. Prior to that, he won an eight-man, one-night tournament in the Battlegrounds MMA promotion. Having said that, Mousasi has been fighting much higher-level opponents and for the most part has done well, but I wouldn’t count Carneiro out of this fight completely. I still think Mousasi will be a pretty big favorite like he always is, but if he odds are high enough it may be worth taking a flier on Carniero as a dog. Kiichi Kunimoto vs. Li Jingliang, UFC Fight Night 76 A welterweight bout between Kiichi Kunimoto and Li Jingliang will also take place at UFC Fight Night 76. Kunimoto lost to Neil Magny in his last fight, which snapped a seven-fight win streak. But while he had a nice win streak going, closer inspection reveals that it wasn’t really that great of a streak. Jingliang, on the other hand, is coming off of a big knockout win over Dhiego Lima, the biggest win of his career to date. He looked very impressive in that fight and I have no problem calling him the best Chinese fighter in the UFC right now. I’ve been really impressed with Jingliang while Kunimoto I think is pretty overrated. This is a Pick ’em type fight to me as far as odds go, but I do lean towards Jingliang here as I believe he has more upside. Matt Hobar vs. Kid Yamamoto, UFC Fight Night 76 And finally, bantamweights Matt Hobar and Kid Yamamoto will collide at UFC Fight Night 76. Hobar is just 1-2 in the UFC but both of his losses in the Octagon have come to solid prospects in Sergio Pettis and Pedro Munhoz, with a win over Aaron Phillips mixed in. Yamamoto recently returned to the Octagon after a three-year layoff and looked just OK in a No Contest against Roman Salazar, a fight that was stopped due to an eye poker. I think Hobar is the better fighter, but I’m positive the UFC is giving Yamamoto a fight they believe he can stylistically win. This is a close one to me, and I would expect Yamamoto to be favored due to his name, but Hobar is probably the right side in this one as the younger, less damaged fighter.
