The UFC yesterday announced two new fights for upcoming fight cards, and for today’s MMA Odds and Ends I’ll quickly break down the bouts and give my initial thoughts on both of them. Yuri Alcantara vs. Vaughan Lee, UFC Fight Night 41 The first newly-announced matchup is a bantamweight bout between Yuri Alcantara and Vaughan Lee, which will take place at UFC Fight Night 41: Munoz vs. Mousasi on May 31 in Berlin, Germany. Both fighters are coming off of impressive victories, with Alcantara taking out Wilson Reis and Lee outclassing Nam Phan, and a big win at UFC Fight Night 41 for either man would shoot them into the short-list of top 135lb contenders. I was under the impression Lee was going to try and drop down to 125lbs, but he must have decided against that move (at least for the time being) and instead gets a brilliant opportunity to enter the top 10 of the division by taking out Alcantara. As for the Brazilian, outside of a loss to top contender Urijah Faber he’s been nothing short of awesome as a 135er and a win over the surging Vaughan would certainly leave him only a victory or two from a title fight. As far as the line goes, Alcantara is generally overvalued by the public while Lee is often undervalued, but after Lee’s breakout performance against Nam and Alcantara’s competitive fight with Reis, it’s possible this line will be closer than what it would have been had it happened, say, a year ago. Still, I do expect Alcantara to be a slight favorite and it’s hard to argue it based on their resumes, but I think as far as a bet goes this is a Lee or pass situation, depending of course on the line. Cezar Mutante vs. Andrew Craig, UFC Fight Night 44 The second new fight is a middleweight clash between original TUF Brazil winner Cezar Mutante and Andrew Craig, a bout which will take place at UFC Fight Night 44: Swanson vs. Stephens on June 28 at AT&T Arena in San Antonio, Texas. With both men coming into the fight off of stoppage losses — Mutante was knocked out by CB Dollaway at UFC Fight Night 38 while Craig was submitted by Luke Barnatt at UFC Fight Night 30 — it will be imperative of each man to do everything they can to win and stay in the middle of the pack at 185, and that dynamic is what makes this fight so interesting to me. I was expecting both men to win their last respective outings and both disappointed me greatly as each was finished. With Craig, at least he was able to entertain in his loss and win a Fight of the Night award, while Mutante was completely blown out by Dollaway in just 39 seconds. Who knows where his mind is at now? And he’s not been given an easy matchup here against Craig, who will be able to match Mutante in size and who will have homefield advantage as the fight takes place in his native Texas. This is a close fight on paper but I think everyone is off the Mutante bandwagon at this point, so look for the fight to open near a Pick ’em, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if Craig is actually a small favorite despite Mutante being 4-to-1 in his last fight.
