A few new bouts were added to upcoming fight cards, and for today’s MMA Odds and Ends I’ll quick my quick thoughts on them. Uriah Hall vs. Ron Stallings, UFC Fight Night 59 After Louis Taylor pulled out of his UFC Fight Night 59 bout against Uriah Hall, the UFC signed late replacement Ron Stallings to take on Hall on less than one week’s notice, and the two middleweights will clash this Sunday at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. Like Taylor vs. Hall, Stallings vs. Hall is a squash match, plain and simple. Props to Stallings for stepping up on short notice to take on a sometimes-terrifying opponent in Hall, but this is just a bad matchup for him. Quite simply, Stallings was a last-resort option for the UFC and while he has improved over the years, Stallings is not a UFC-caliber fighter. A former Strikeforce fighter, Stallings is coming into the UFC off of a loss which says all you need to know about the competitiveness of this fight with Hall, one that should end quickly and swiftly in Hall’s favor. As for a line, it will be released very soon but look for Hall to open up as a massive favorite, perhaps in the -800 range, a number that could get even higher once the public picks up on it. Henry Cejudo vs. Chris Cariaso, UFC 185 The UFC is allowing Henry Cejudo to try to make the cut to flyweight once again, and the former Olympian will take on Chris Cariaso in his official UFC flyweight debut at UFC 185, which takes place March 14 at American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. Cejudo looked excellent against Dustin Kimura in his UFC bantamweight debut and I was hoping he would stick around at 135lbs, but this is a guy who wants to be a world champion one day and flyweight represents the best opportunity for him to win a UFC title. The weight cut is going to be brutal, but if Cejudo can manage to make the 126lb flyweight limit, he should be very strong and effective at the weight class. Cariaso, his opponent, is a tough veteran who just fought for the title, but he is a fighter with notoriously bad takedown defence and Cejudo is perhaps the best wrestler in the entire division. Unless Cariaso’s TDD has improved drastically overnight, I expect him to get taken down at will in this fight, get beat up on the mat, and lose a decisive decision. Even with the weight cut concerns, I like Cejudo in this fight and think he should be at least a -250 favorite, and perhaps even higher.
