UFC Fight Night 130 takes place next Sunday, May 27 at Echo Arena in Liverpool, England. It looked like the card had been set with 12 fights bound to happen, including a cracker of a main event between welterweights Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson and Darren Till, but a late-notice injury to one fighter has led to some shuffling, and I’ll talk about that in today’s MMA odds and ends.
Brad Scott vs. Carlo Pedersoli Jr., UFC Fight Night 130
Due to an injury to Salim Touahri, the UFC has called upon newcomer Carlo Pedersoli Jr. to fill in on short notice, and he will fight Brad Scott on about 10 days’ notice when they two meet next weekend at UFC Fight Night 130. The bout was reported by Jim Edwards of MMANytt.com.
Scott (11-5) was a standout on The Ultimate Fighter Smashes but ultimately lost the TUF title to future middleweight champion Robert Whittaker in the finals. Since then, Scott has put together an overall UFC record of 3-4 as he’s alternated wins and losses his entire UFC tenure. At times he has put together some terrific performances, such as in his submission wins over Dylan Andrews and Michael Kuiper, but at other times has looked bad such as in his last fight when he was knocked out by Jack Hermansson. Overall Scott has won 10 of his 11 career victories by stoppage so this is a guy who finishes fights, but he hasn’t had much luck when fights have gone to decisions, losing three of his four UFC fights that went to the judges’ scorecards. At 28, it’s make-or-break time for Scott.
Pedersoli Jr. (10-1) is making his UFC debut on short notice and he’s moving up from 170lbs to 185lbs to do so. Sometimes taking a fight on short notice is the only way to get into the UFC and that’s what he’s doing here. In his last fight, Pedersoli Jr. defeated former UFC veteran Nicholas Dalby by decision, and overall he’s won seven-straight fights. The fight with Dalby was just two weeks ago so he will be in shape for this fight. Even with the weight class change on short notice, I’m kind of feeling an upset here by Pedersoli Jr. I haven’t been impressed with Scott too much and I believe the 24-year-old American Pedersoli Jr. has the skillset necessary to come in and get the upst. I think Scott is likely going to be favored when it comes to the betting odds, and if that’s the case I would take a stab at the dog.
