One of four featherweight tournament quarterfinals to take place at Bellator 110 is a fight between Mike “The Marine” Richman and Desmond “The Predator” Green. The current betting line for the fight at Several Bookmakers lists Richman as a -275 favorite (bet $275 to win $100) while Green is a +235 underdog (bet $100 to win $235). MMA oddsmaker Nick Kalikas originally opened up Richman at -260 and Green at +180, meaning there has been some early action on the favorite Richman. I agree with the line movement as I’m picking Richman to win the fight. Here’s why. Richman (16-3) is a powerful striker who has been impressive in Bellator, going 5-2 overall in the promotion with four knockout wins. The 28-year-old has an excellent head kick, strong punching power, and good takedown defence that allows him to keep fights on the feet where he uses his striking advantage to win his fights. He also has an underrated ground game. Although Richman hasn’t been successful so far in his Bellator featherweight tournament runs, the promotion is giving him another shot here to right the ship and if he can take out Green in impressive fashion, he could very well be the favorite to win the whole eight-man field. Green (9-2) made his Bellator debut last year and went 1-1 overall in the promotion, but like Richman he’s been given another ticket into a featherweight tournament and will look to upset Richman and move on in the field. The 24-year-old Green is an athletic fighter with some improving striking, but overall he is a grinder and wins most of his fights by decision. That’s not a great thing when going against a finisher like Richman, so unless Green’s wrestling game is better than everyone thinks, he should be thoroughly outstruck on the feet here and will therefore have a very tough time picking up the win. I believe Richman will be able to use his wrestling in reverse, keep the fight standing, and outstrike Green en route to either a decision victory or perhaps even a T/KO stoppage as he moves on to the semifinals of the featherweight tournament. At -275, I think the line is a bit too high on Richman but if it drops down closer to 2-to-1 then I think there will be some value in the line for parlays. The total is set at 2.5 rounds and the OVER/UNDER is a Pick ’em each way, but I’d pass on that as I can very well see the durable Green making it all the way to decision, even if he’s getting beat up by Richman the entire time.
