For those who make a habit of reading these opening odds articles, you know that the King Hussein Youth City Boxing Arena in Amman, Jordan is one of my favorite venues for MMA. This Friday, Cage Warriors heads back there for the second time in three weeks for their 11th Fight Night card. While the usual favorites of the Amman locals aren’t on this card, it’s still shaping up to be a solid event with some familiar names to those who watch Cage Warriors regularly. The main event was supposed to be between UFC veteran Phil Harris and Dagestani prospect Kurban Gadzhiev, but that bout was scrapped. In its place, CWFC mainstay Jack Mason will be taking on Patrick Vallee in the headlining bout, which is at a catchweight of 176lbs. Mason is a grinder who has been slowly improving his overall game during his tenure with the organization, while Vallee shows serviceable striking and grappling, but is likely most recognizable to MMA fans as someone who has lost in violent fashion to both Paul Daley and Brandon Thatch. Bantamweight Marat Pekov fought on the card in Amman that took place just three weeks ago, but breezed through his fight in the first round and is ready to get back in the cage already. His foe this time around will be Brian Moore, a member of the SBG Ireland team. Both of these fighters have the majority of their victories by way of submission and have also proven difficult to finish, so this could end up as a back and forth affair on the ground. The final fight that will have odds on it is in the middleweight division between Jack Hermansson and Ion Pascu. The only hiccups in Hermansson’s MMA career have come when he came over to North America to compete in Bellator. He dropped both bouts in the organization, but has shown solid punching power over the rest of his career, with three previous TKO victories in Cage Warriors. His opponent Ion Pascu is very powerful in his own right, as five of his eight victories have come by TKO. Best case scenario, these two meet in the middle of the cage and sling leather until somebody falls. The main card of CWFC Fight Night 11 also features top English prospect Arnold Allen, as he looks to extend his MMA record to 7-0 against Tobias Huber. The main card can be seen on cagewarriors.mmajunkie.com starting at 2pm ET. MMA oddsmaker Nick Kalikas opened the betting odds for the top three fights on the Cage Warriors Fight Night 11 card today at Several Bookmakers. Take a look: ——————– MAIN CARD (MMAJunkie.com, 2pm ET) Jack Mason -190 Patrick Vallee +150 Marat Pekov -245 Brian Moore +175 Jack Hermansson -170 Ion Pascu +130 ——————– Brad’s Analysis: Jack Mason always seems to make his fights a bit more difficult than they need to be, and I see that being the case here. If he comes in with a gameplan of getting takedowns and controlling Vallee from top position while using his ground and pound to do damage, he should win a decision fairly easily. If he keeps this on the feet, it will be very competitive and I could honestly see him dropping a decision. I don’t know how much I can say about Pekov/Moore, other than Pekov is a better grappler than Moore and will either submit him early or control the majority of the exchanges on the ground. I think Pekov is decent parlay fodder for the weekend. Hermansson/Pascu should be a fun fight, but I give Hermansson slight edges everywhere in this fight. He has a bit more power, a bit more technical striking, and slightly better wrestling. If anyone abandons the striking game I think it will be Hermansson using his wrestling to steal rounds. I’m going to wait on playing this fight because I think the line may move towards Pascu.
