The UFC today announced that they have booked a showdown between surging middleweights Costa Philippou and Francis Carmont, as the two fighters will go head-to-head at UFC 165, which takes place Sept. 21 at Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. With Philippou and Carmont both currently riding five-fight win streaks in the UFC Octagon, it’s expected that the winner of this fight will take a serious step up in competition, possibly even fighting in a title eliminator their next time out. As far as how I think these two match up, well I think it’s pretty obvious what’s going to happen here. Philippou will look to keep the fight standing and land the knockout blow on Camront, who is going to be looking for the takedowns the entire time, although he does have serviceable standup that could give Philippou problems. At first glance, I do have to favor Philippou in this fight because he has tremendous takedown defence and solid enough striking that he should be able to stuff Carmont’s takedowns, keep this fight on the feet, and knock him out. The problem is, if Philippou doesn’t get a stoppage victory then he could be in trouble because Carmont’s last two wins, over Lorenz Larkin and Tom Lawlor, were both controversial decisions in his favor because the judges favored his aggressiveness in going for the takedowns over his opponents’ takedown defence. So the possibility of a bad decision going Carmont’s way is definitely high if the fight hits the cards. Having said that, I still think Philippou is the right side in this fight and I price him close to -220 or so, with the comeback on Carmont at bout +170, although at that price I’d probably pass because of the threat of bad judges. Masivdal vs. Khabilov Added To November UFC Event It was reported on Tuesday’s edition of UFC Tonight that lightweights Jorge Masvidal and Rustam Khabilov will meet a future UFC event this November, although the exact card wasn’t confirmed. This is an intriguing matchup and it kind of came out of nowhere because Khabilov had been rumored to fight Edson Barboza, but rumor has it Barboza turned down the fight and instead the UFC decided to pair up Khabilov with Masvidal, who picked up an amazing submission win over Michael Chiesa last weekend at UFC on FOX 8. This is an interesting fight to handicap, but I’d guess Masvidal opens at about -200 with the comeback on Khabilov at about +150, although the fact the public is so fond of the Russian makes it likely they may eat up the plus money on him, if indeed he does open as a slight dog like I predict he will. I honestly don’t feel too strongly about either fighter in this spot to make a bet but my early prediction is Masvidal by decision.
