Four new fights have joined the UFC Fight Night 72 lineup, and for today’s MMA Odds and Ends I’ll give my thoughts on each. The card takes place July 18 at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland, and the new bouts added to the card should be pretty exciting. Leon Edwards vs. Pawel Pawlak A welterweight bout between Britain’s Leon Edwards and Poland’s Pawel Pawlak is set for this event. Edwards is 1-1 in the UFC with a split decision defeat to Claudia Silva and a brutal, eight-second KO win over Seth Baczynski. Pawlak, meanwhile, is also 1-1, with a lopsided decision loss to Peter Sobotta and a decision victory over Sheldon Westcott. It’s hard not to like Edwards in this fight considering how dominant he was against Baczynski. That being said, he has shown some flaws in his cardio and his takedown defence so you can’t sleep on Pawlak here, but all things considered Edwards should take this, and one should expect him to be a big favorite entering this bout. Robert Whiteford vs. Paul Redmond A featherweight bout between Scotland’s Robert Whiteford and Ireland’s Paul Redmond was also added to this card. Whiteford is 1-1 so far in the UFC with a submission loss to Jimy Hettes and a decision win over Daniel Pineda, while Redmond is 0-1 with a decision loss to Mirsad Bektic. However, one must keep in mind Redmond took that fight against Bektic on extremely short notice and had to cut a lot of weight to even make 145lbs. With a full camp in tow, I expect him to look better this time around. Having said that, I do favor Whiteford in the matchup. He showed some solid wrestling skills against Pineda and comes from a great camp at ATT, and Redmond showed in the Bektic fight his takedown defence is suspect. Whiteford will also have the hometown advantage in this fight. It’s going to be a competitive fight that probably hits the scorecards, but I do favor Whiteford and believe he should be slightly favored in this one. Ilir Latifi vs. Hans Stringer A light heavyweight matchup between Sweden’s Ilir latifi and Holland’s Hans Stringer should be fun. Latifi is 2-2 in the UFC with stoppage wins over Chris Dempsey and Cyrille Diabate with a decision loss to Gegard Mousasi and a TKO loss to Jan Blachowicz. As for Stringer, he’s 1-1 with a split decision win over Francimar Barroso and a TKO loss to Fabio Maldonado. This is a light heavyweight fight between two guys with good power and I could really see it going either way. If you asked me who would win this fight prior to Latifi’s bout against Blachowicz I would have said Latifi, but after seeing him get smoked like that it’s hard to trust him. Then again, it’s nearly impossible to bet on Stringer after seeing him give up against Maldonado. This is a Pick ’em type fight with a slight lean towards Latifi, but it’s a difficult one to bet. Steven Ray vs. Leonardo Mafra And finally, a lightweight bout between Scotland’s Steven Ray and Brazil’s Leonardo Mafra also takes place on this card. Ray is 1-0 in the UFC with a TKO win over Marcin Bandel while Mafra is 1-2 with a decision win over Cain Carrizosa and stoppage losses to Thiago Perpetuo and Rick Story. This is a pretty good scrap. If the fight hits the ground Ray will have a big edge, but if it stays standing Mafra will have the advantage. That’s what makes it tricky. Having said that, one would assume that Ray, the hometown fighter coming off a knockout win, would be the favorite to win this fight. But he’s not a lock by any means.
