Resurrection Fighting Alliance returns again on AXS TV for their 19th card, this time from Prior Lake, Minnesota as the organization continues to sprawl across the Western United States. The organization has now held their last seven events in different states as they keep attracting some of the top young talent in domestic MMA. That trend continues on Friday night, as the RFA middleweight title vacated by Kevin Casey will be up for grabs between two of the better 185lb prospects in the game, Gabriel Checco and Jake Collier. The Brazilian, Checco, will be making his US debut whilst facing his biggest test to date. Collier has faced some other solid fighters thus far in his career, suffering his only defeat to another middleweight prospect in Kelvin Tiller. This could easily be another case of a fighter winning an RFA title only to be immediately plucked by the UFC without even defending the belt. If it seems like Abel Cullum just fought, that’s because he did. His return to MMA after a three year absence went as well as could be imagined, as he submitted Ulysses Gomez in under 90 seconds. That fight was on September 12th, so even though he wasn’t the original opponent for Carl Deaton, Cullum should be in fine shape for the quick turnaround. Deaton, who hails from Minnesota, has run up a nice record in his career thus far, but will be taking a significant step up in competition against Cullum. One thing is for certain however, and that is when Cullum steps in the cage excitement usually follows. Former RFA flyweight title challenger Junior Maranhao steps up to bantamweight to take on Marvin Blumer. The jump in weight classes should come as a welcome change for Maranhao — who infamously feinted between rounds of his title bout against Matt Manzanares, but was still allowed to continue fighting. The Brazilian was simply too big to get to 125 safely, and he should put on a better performance at bantamweight against another local fighter in Blumer who has some solid experience under his belt, most notably going four rounds against current UFC fighter Frankie Saenz. Continuing the trend of locals and prospects, the featherweight division will see Jordan Griffin look to continue his seven fight winning streak against Dan Moret. Roufusport’s Griffin started his career 1-3, but has rebounded nicely since, while Minnesota Martial Arts Academy’s Moret opened 6-0 before dropping his last bout to fellow prospect Luke Sanders. A win for either would put them squarely in the RFA’s featherweight title picture. MMA oddsmaker Nick Kalikas opened the betting lines for RFA 19 today at Several Bookmakers. Here they are: ——————– MAIN CARD (AXS TV, 10pm ET) RFA Middleweight Title Jake Collier -130 Gabriel Checco -110 Abel Cullum -185 Carl Deaton +145 Junior Maranhao -350 Marvin Blumer +250 Dan Moret -165 Jordan Griffin +125 ——————– Brad’s Analysis: Gabriel Checco has that Brazilian hype behind him, but I think people should pump the brakes a bit. The combined record of his 7 opponents is 8-12 (and one of those fighters is 6-3). He’s looked dangerous against those fighters, but a lot of middleweights would look like world-beaters in the same situation. Against Jake Collier he’s going to come up against someone who is bigger than him, and may be able to bully him for the first time in his career. The combination of the US debut and a legitimate test almost has me wanting to play Collier, but I’ll wait to see if the public feeds into the hype a bit more before locking anything in. Carl Deaton is another fighter who has feasted on mediocre regional competition, and I think against a skilled veteran like Abel Cullum, he won’t be able to keep up. Cullum’s wrestling and submission game looked right back on point against a stiffer test in Ulysses Gomez, and I think he continues his successful return here. When your primary weapon is your submission game and you’re facing Cullum, you better hope it’s an extremely dangerous submission game, otherwise you’re likely to get outscrambled for 15 minutes, or as long as it takes for Cullum to find his own sub. The other two fights are more difficult to read as I haven’t had access to the kind of tape I’d like on Blumer or Griffin. I’m reasonably confident that Maranhao gets his hand raised, but the Griffin/Moret fight really seems like a toss up. Bet those two at your own peril.
