This Friday night (or Saturday morning, depending on your location) the UFC will make its return to the land down under, and it brings a card that is tailored to the local audience, but still high on appeal no matter where you live. Fan favorite Mark Hunt headlines the card, as he takes on massive Brazilian Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva. Both fighters are coming off of devastating losses to Junior dos Santos and Cain Velasquez, respectively. Given the lack of depth in the heavyweight division, a win for either man gets them right back in the title hunt, making this a very important bout. In the light heavyweight division, former champion Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua is in desperate need of a win if he has any hope of remaining near the top of the division, but judging from his recent performances, the window on his career is closing. That makes the matchup with New Zealander James Te Huna an intriguing one. Although the fighters are only separated by one year, their careers seem to be in very different places. Still their power striking styles should result in an entertaining bout. The rest of the main card features local fighters Anthony Perosh, Soa Palelei and Dylan Andrews, and the undercard will showcase the debuts of seven new fighters to the organization. Betting lines for the top two fights have already been released, as Antonio Silva -145 and James Te Huna -120 are the early favorites despite both actually opening as underdogs. Today, MMA oddsmaker Nick Kalikas opened the remaining betting lines for the UFC Fight Night 33 main card at Several Bookmakers. Take a look: ——————– MAIN CARD (Fox Sports 1, 9pm ET) Mark Hunt -125 Antonio Silva -115 Mauricio Rua -160 James Te Huna +120 Ryan Bader -585 Anthony Perosh +385 Pat Barry -260 Soa Palelei +180 Clint Hester -145 Dylan Andrews +105 ——————– Brad’s Analysis: Some early information to process in what is shaping up to be an extremely busy week in MMA. The one interesting line that jumps out at me is Clint Hester being the favorite over Dylan Andrews. Andrews has had a pretty decent run thus far in the UFC, and seems to have won some fans over by battling through injuries to get a TKO win in his last bout against Papy Abedi. That said, Hester is a tough stylistic match for him with big power and what I consider to be a superior defensive wrestling game. It will be interesting to see how the public moves this one. As far as the other new lines go, I think this card in general is going to be a bad night for the local fighters. Soa Palelei looked downright awful despite picking up a win against Nikita Krylov in his last outing, at one point even quitting in his corner (something that went unheeded by his cornermen, and rightly so). Pat Barry will have a big striking advantage, a speed advantage and a cardio advantage in this fight. Barry’s chin is fading, so Palelei has that as an avenue to victory, but not much else. Finally, Ryan Bader has been taking on primarily top flight fighters at 205lbs for the last few years, and when he has stepped down in competition — to face someone like Vladimir Matyushenko — he has excelled. Anthony Perosh is another step down in competition for Bader, and other than an advantage in pure jiu-jitsu, I don’t see a spot where Perosh is the better fighter. I may even look to parlay the Bader ITD line when it comes out.
