Two new fights have been added to UFC Fight Night 74 which takes place August 23 at SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, and for today’s MMA Odds and Ends I’ll give my thoughts on both bouts. Frankie Perez vs. Sam Stout A lightweight fight between Frankie Edgar and Canadian Sam Stout will take place on the Saskatoon card. Perez had some hype behind him coming into this UFC debut but was utterly destroyed by Johnny Case in his debut matchup. As for Stout, he’s been knocked out in back-to-back fights by Ross Pearson and KJ Noons. He looks like a shell of his former self and if he loses this fight will likely hang up his gloves. The UFC is doing Stout a bit of a favor here as they are matching him up with a grappler, not a striker with knockout power, so he could have more success in this fight than he has in recent outings. Having said that, he hasn’t looked like the same fighter he used to be in years and has been good fade material for a while now. I don’t think Perez is a very good fighter, but it’s hard to trust Stout these days. This is a Pick ’em type fight as far as I’m concerned, but I do lean slightly towards Perez to come out on top as the fresher, younger fighter in this matchup. Elias Silverio vs. Shane Campbell As well, a lightweight bout between Elias Silverio and Shane Campbell will also take place on this card. Silverio is coming off of a devastating KO loss to Rashid Magomedov in his last outing, but he remains a solid lightweight prospect despite the defeat. As for Campbell, he was brutally KOed by John Makdessi in his UFC debut and did not look good at all in that fight. Silverio isn’t a contender, but he’s a pretty good prospect and the UFC likely booked this fight in mind for him to pick up the win. I don’t trust Campbell’s chin, and although he has good offensive striking, after seeing the way his chin crumbled in his UFC debut I have a hard time picking him against any decent strikers going forward. I don’t feel great about either guy in this spot considering both are coming off of knockout losses, but if I had to lean towards one guy it would be Silverio, who I believe has a little bit more to give at this point of both fighters’ careers.
