Cage Warriors 71 will be kicking off a very busy Friday in the world of MMA. Once again heading to Amman, Jordan and the King Hussein Youth City Boxing Arena, the organization will see one title on the line, while another pair of former title challengers hope to work their way back up to the belt. Jack Hermansson captured the CWFC middleweight title back in June with a fourth-round rear-naked choke over Norman Paraisy. He’ll now defend that belt for the first time against Deyan Topalski, a Bulgarian striker making his Cage Warriors debut. Elsewhere on the card, former featherweight title challengers Dave Hill and Martin Svensson find themselves in the co-main event. Veteran Jack Mason makes his 16th appearance in Cage Warriors, matching the record by Jim Wallhead. The main card also features female prospects Pannie Kianzad and Laura Howarth, while youngster Arnold Allen looks to rebound from his first career loss. MMA oddsmaker Nick Kalikas opened betting lines on the top three bouts at Cage Warriors 71 today at Several Bookmakers. Check them out below: ——————– MAIN CARD (MMAJunkie.com, 1pm ET) CWFC Middleweight Title Jack Hermansson -380 Deyan Topalski +260 Martin Svensson -140 Dave Hill +100 Jack Mason -230 Jonatan Westin +170 ——————– Brad’s Analysis: Jack Hermansson has remained underrated because the two worst performances of his career came in his two Bellator bouts, when most eyes would have been on him. That’s fine with me, as it has presented some great value on him in his last couple bouts. The public should come around on him in this bout however, as Deyan Topalski is mostly unknown. Topalski has a decent striking game, although he can be far too inactive at times. Against a busy fighter like Hermansson who is also a much better wrestler and grappler, Topalski should struggle, and the Swede should retain his belt. Keep in mind that this event was originally scheduled to take place in Sweden, before the fiasco with the Swedish MMA Federation forced the move to Amman. Looking at this as a Swedish event makes me lean a bit more strongly to Martin Svensson than I otherwise would. Svensson has a pretty good stylistic matchup here, facing another fighter who is primarily a grappler in Dave Hill. The difference is that I see Svensson as the overall better submission artist, and he should also be able to use his length to dictate the portions of this fight that take place on the feet. It will be competitive, but I feel like Svensson was in mind when this match was originally made. Jonatan Westin is another fighter coming out of the Allstars Training Center in Sweden. He has a solid grappling game, and can be a bit tricky on the feet as a southpaw. His big weakness thus far in his career has been his chin, as his two losses are both TKOs within the first 30 seconds of fights. That’s not necessarily Jack Mason’s strongpoint, but he does have a bit of power. More likely I think Mason follows his usual gameplan and uses his strength and wrestling to control the majority of the fight, possibly finding a ground-and-pound finish along the way. Westin could give him some issues on the mat, but I think it’s too much of a step up in competition for the Swede.
