Hold on to your hats ladies and gentlemen, because this is going to be one crazy run of MMA. Starting with UFC Fight Night 27 on Wednesday, August 28th there will be three UFC events in the span of a week, then Bellator will be resuming their weekly shows starting the Saturday after that. Plus, over the first half of September there will be events put on by WSOF, Cage Warriors, Legacy FC, XFC and One FC. If you’re an MMA bettor, or even just a fan, call your friends and family and let them know they won’t be seeing you for a while. As mentioned, UFC Fight Night 27 will be kicking off this crazy run in an event headlined by the rematch between Martin Kampmann and Carlos Condit. The organization hopes to build off of its solid start on Fox Sports 1 by putting all of these events right near the channel’s launch to really solidify that this is the new home for the UFC. Betting lines have already been opened for all but one main card fight, so today MMA oddsmaker Nick Kalikas rounded out the card by opening the rest of the odds at Several Bookmakers. Check them out (new lines bolded): ——————– MAIN CARD Carlos Condit -215 Martin Kampmann +165 Rafael dos Anjos -120 Donald Cerrone -120 Kelvin Gastelum -260 Brian Melancon +180 Robert Whittaker -130 Court McGee -110 Brad Tavares -350 Robert McDaniel +250 Erik Perez -215 Takeya Mizugaki +165 PRELIMINARY CARD Dylan Andrews -265 Papy Abedi +185 Brandon Thatch -265 Justin Edwards +185 Hatsu Hioki -175 Darren Elkins +135 Jason High -120 James Head -120 Zak Cummings -260 Ben Alloway +180 Abel Trujillo -130 Roger Bowling -110 ——————– Brad’s Analysis: While this card isn’t nearly as stacked as UFC Fight Night, especially on the undercard, there are still some very solid fights here and some interesting ones from a betting perspective. Erik Perez is an interesting case, as he’s looked extremely impressive beating up three fighters in the UFC who are not UFC-caliber. The fact that he finished John Albert so early is impressive, as Albert is a solid fighter for the first round of his fights. Still, the cart may be getting a little ahead of the horse here as Mizugaki is a massive step up from his previous competition. If Mizugaki can take Perez down and make this a grinding affair, it will be interesting to see how the youngster’s cardio holds up in the later rounds. I really like Dylan Andrews to beat Papy Abedi, even if he has some rough going in the first round. Although he picked up a decision win last time out, Abedi still has a poor gas tank and Andrews is the type of fighter who will be resilient enough to withstand the opening barrage. Unless Abedi finds a KO within the first four minutes, this fight will turn towards Andrews who likely gets a stoppage in round two or three. A potential leg of a parlay. Hatsu Hioki is a fighter that I really want to bet, but his fight against Clay Guida is the perfect example of why I can’t at this opening line. Guida and Darren Elkins are extremely similar fighters, and Guida is probably the better fighter than Elkins in nearly every respect. All signs point to Hioki doing better on the feet, threatening on the ground but judges turning a blind eye to all of it if he doesn’t get a stoppage because Elkins is on top. Zak Cummings should be another fighter from the recent season of The Ultimate Fighter who should get the job done as well, but his long layoff is a bit worrisome. Even still, the blueprint to beat Ben Alloway was laid out pretty clearly in his last fight against Ryan LaFlare, and Cummings has the skills to replicate that.
