There were a few new UFC fights announced this past weekend, and I’m going to use Monday morning’s Odds and Ends to go through them all and even give my early leans. UFC Fight For The Troops 3 Grows By Two The third UFC Fight for the Troops card grew by two fights as the UFC recently announced that a featherweight fight between Nik Lentz and Dennis Bermudez and a lightweight fight between Michael Chiesa and Colton Smith will both take place at the event. I’ll give my leans in both fights and I’ll start with Lentz vs. Bermudez, a fight that I feel will be a good spot to bet on Lentz, who I consider the dark horse at 145. Although Bermudez is on a good win streak, his last two fights were controversial decisions and I think he’s going to be overvalued yet again here as he’s a public favorite, while the public historically doesn’t trust Lentz. This is a competitive fight but there’s enough edges on Lentz that I would recommend a big play on him if he’s under -175. As for Chiesa vs. Smith, I do favor Chiesa because he is the better all-around fighter but Smith will be a big lightweight and he could very well grind this one out. Still, I do lean Chiesa and I cap him at -160 with the comeback on Smith at about +130. UFC Fight Night 32 Gets New Addition Also, a welterweight matchup between Ryan LaFlare and TUF Brazil 2 alum Santiago Ponzinibbio has been added to the UFC Fight Night 32: Belfort vs. Henderson II card, according to MMAjunkie.com. I don’t know much about Ponzinibbio but from all indications he is a very talented prospect and that’s why I’m kind of surprised the UFC matched him up against another good prospect in LaFlare. I need to watch tape on the Brazilian but I am high on LaFlare so I’ll be looking closely at the betting line for this bout by the time November rolls around. Magalhaes vs. Monson Added To GWC 2 And one more note for you guys: Vinny Magalhaes is moving back to heavyweight and he’ll take on Jesson Monson at GWC 2 on Nov. 9 in Hawaii in a fight between two excellent submission grapplers. I’m glad Magalhaes didn’t retire after getting cut by the UFC, but I don’t know if moving to 265 is a good idea for him. At least in this particular matchup, Monson is a shorter heavyweight so Magalhaes might actually have the size advantage but going forward I hope he drops back down to 205.
