There were a few new fight announcements made over the weekend, and for today’s MMA Odds and Ends, I’ll give my initial thoughts on what I think the betting odds for these fights may be. Jason High vs. Beneil Dariush, UFC Fight Night 35 The first new fight announced is a welterweight bout at UFC Fight Night 35 between Jason High and UFC newcomer Beneil Dariush. Dariush is taking the fight on short notice after Adlan Amagov pulled out of the fight with High as he has reportedly taken a leave of absence from the sport. I understand the UFC probably had a hard time finding someone to fight High on just a few weeks’ notice, as UFC Fight Night 35 takes place Jan. 15, but I feel like Dariush is a step down from the fighters High has fought in his last three UFC matches — Erick Silva, James Head, and Anthony Lapsley. I don’t know much about Dariush, so maybe he’s way better than I think he is, but this fight really looks like a “stay-busy” contest for High, and I’m definitely not looking forward to this fight as much as I was looking forward to a bout pitting High and Amagov. As far as the line goes, I’ll need to watch more tape on Dariush, but after High has impressed in his last two outings, I think he will open up as a decent favorite here. -300 might seem high, but consider that Dariush is a grappler himself, so this seems like a decent matchup for High and I think he should be able to get the W here and keep moving up the UFC welterweight ladder. Clint Hester vs. Andy Enz, UFC 169 Next up is a middleweight fight that will take place at UFC 169 between the surging Clint Hester and fellow TUF 17 castmate Andy Enz. Hester is coming off of two TKO wins in the UFC, over Dylan Andrews and Bristol Marunde, while Enz is making his UFC debut after suffering a broken arm during a fight he had with Uriah Hall in the TUF house. At first I was scratching my head at this matchup, as I figured the UFC would give Hester a higher-ranked opponent, but after thinking about it, it does make sense. Even though Hester is 2-0 in the Octagon, he has shown holes in his game, while Enz has never got a chance to really show what he’s made out of as he had a broken arm in the fight with Hall and obviously didn’t perform his best there. Still, with all the hype behind Hester, you have to figure he’ll be a big favorite here, perhaps around -250 or so and maybe even higher. But from what I’ve seen, Enz might be a bad matchup for him, and he might be worth looking at as a dog in this spot.
