LFA 104: McKenzie vs. Phillips takes place on Friday, April 16 at Grand Casino Hotel & Resort in Shawnee, Oklahoma. The offshore sportsbooks recently opened up the betting odds for the event, and MMAOB staff writer Adam Martin takes a look at the opening odds below.
LFA 104 Odds
Aaron McKenzie -220
Brandon Phillips +180
Roland Dunlap -200
Obinwa Ikebunna +160
Chris Brown -115
Kelvin Rayford -115
Tomas Petersen -700
Odell Pantin +450
Julien Leblanc -160
Joel Bauman +130
Javier Garcia -170
Timothy Teves +140
Carlos Candelario -300
Yuma Horiuchi +240
Here are my initial thoughts on the Opening Odds for LFA 104:
- The main event of LFA 104 is a lightweight bout between Aaron McKenzie (9-2-1) and Brandon Phillips (8-3). McKenzie is a 32-year-old fighter training with former Bellator middleweight champion Rafael Lovato Jr. Not surprisingly, McKenzie is also a grappling-based fighter who has finished most of his professional victories on the floor, either by TKO or by submission. Heading into this bout, he has finished four of his last five fights by submission, so you know he will want to take this fight to the ground. On the other hand, Phillips is a 31-year-old fighter who is making his return to professional MMA after having last competed in 2018. Since then, he has competed in kickboxing, winning two fights and losing once in that sport. Phillips is actually a Bellator veteran and lost to top prospect AJ McKee in that promotion. One thing to note is Phillips having a submission loss to Bryce Mitchell in WSOF. If McKenzie takes him down, this fight could be over quickly. But if Phillips keeps it standing he has a chance.
- At welterweight, we have Chris Brown (5-3) taking on Kelvin Rayford (5-2). The 31-year-old Brown is coming off of a split decision loss to current UFC lightweight prospect Ignacio Bahamondes in LFA his last time out. He has lost his last two fights, but had won three straight prior to his current losing skid and showed some knockout power in those fights. As for Rayford, the 35-year-old fighter is coming off of three straight stoppage wins, albeit against lower-level competition. I don’t love that he has been finished twice in his career, while Brown has lost three decisions. I would have to lean towards Brown in what is a Pick ’em fight.
- The biggest favorite on the whole card is welterweight Thomas Petersen (3-0) who takes on Odell Pantin (1-1). Petersen seems like a really good prospect as he has won all three of his professional MMA fights via first-round stoppage. Before turning pro in 2019, Petersen won five fights as an amateur with four of those wins coming by stoppage. He seems like a machine so I’m not shocked that the betting line is so high here. Pantin is just 1-1 and he hasn’t fought in MMA since 2018, having competed in boxing and Muay Thai since then. This looks like another case of a grappler vs. striker. Petersen is going to want to get this fight to the ground right away, and Pantin will look to stop the takedowns and land something big on the feet. That seems like an uphill climb, but we will see what happens on Friday night.
