With a UFC and Bellator event taking place this weekend, MMA fans may have overlooked this Friday’s RFA 16 card which will be airing on AXS TV. However the promotion always seems to produce some of the best talent in MMA, so it would be wise to keep an eye on the event taking place in Broomfield, Colorado. It’s rare to see a heavyweight fight in the RFA cage, but the main event of RFA 16 is a bout for their vacant heavyweight title between undefeated big men Josh Copeland and Jan Jorgensen. Each fighter represents one of the biggest camps in the Rockies, as Copeland trains with Grudge and Jorgensen comes from the Pit Elevated, so this may not be the typically sloppy heavyweight bout we’ve come to expect. The co-main event features likely the best prospect on the card, as Jarred Mercado takes on Daniel Swain in a 140-lb catchweight bout. Mercado is a talented wrestler, while Swain brings a fairly well-rounded game to the cage. The third bout featuring odds will be a welterweight battle between grapplers Chris Heatherly and Josh Cavan. MMA oddsmaker Nick Kalikas opened the betting lines for the top three fights at RFA 16 over at Several Bookmakers today. Take a look: ——————– MAIN CARD (AXS TV, 10pm ET) RFA Heavyweight Title Josh Copeland -150 Jan Jorgensen +110 Jarred Mercado -280 Daniel Swain +200 Chris Heatherly -130 Josh Cavan -110 ——————– Brad’s Analysis: It’s really hard to get a gauge on the main event, as both fighters have faced rather atrocious competition. A lot of times where heavyweight MMA is concerned, I treat it like women’s MMA in that the better athlete gets a big advantage in my eyes. In this fight, I believe Jorgensen fits that bill. He’s definitely got height and length over Copeland, but I think his athleticism will be his biggest edge as it should allow him to dictate where the fight takes place. He also appeared to be in better shape than usual at weigh-ins, which could be of paramount importance given that this is a five-round fight. Jarred Mercado will have a big wrestling advantage against Daniel Swain, and given Swain’s struggles in the grappling department the last time we saw him on AXS (December at XFC 27) I just don’t see any way past that massive disparity. It would be nice to see Mercado flesh out his finishing ability a bit more, but what he’s got now is more than enough to get him by at this level. Josh Cavan is physically the more imposing fighter here, but Chris Heatherly is probably the slightly technically better grappler. How that will translate in the cage is difficult to tell, but I lean very slightly towards Cavan in this fight as Heatherly struggled to control a poor grappler in Chidi Njokuani last time out.
