The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to Brazil this Saturday night (Dec. 20, 2014) for UFC Fight Night 58, which will be headlined by a five round middleweight bout between former UFC light heavyweight champion Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida and ASU Division I wrestler CB “The Doberman” Dolloway. The event will mark the UFC’s second trip to Barueri, Brazil, and is expected to produce a night of exciting scraps. UFC Fight Night 58 will be live on FOX Sports 1 at 10pm ET, with a four-fight preliminary card preceding it on the same channel at 8pm ET. Getting the action going for the televised prelims will be one of the most highly anticipated bouts on the card, top to bottom, as Yuta Sasaki gets set to make his second appearance inside the Octagon, taking on Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Leandro Issa. Sasaki was tremendously impressive in his debut with the promotion, submitting submission specialist Ronald Delorme, and fight fans have since been anxiously awaiting his next outing. Issa bounced back into the win column with an impressive, come from behind armbar submission late in the third and final round of action. Heading into this 135 pound scrap, both fighters will be looking for their second win in the UFC’s bantamweight division. Sasaki opened as a heavy -405 favorite in this contest, with the return on the Brazilian underdog being +285. Some action has since come in on the Japanese fighter, making current betting lines -420/+300. Next up is another match-up between a couple of grappling-based fighters, and this one comes in the featherweight division, as Brazil’s own Hacran Dias gets set to take on Darren “The Damage” Elkins. Elkins recently took on another Brazilian in Brazil, facing Lucas Martins at UFC 179 less than two months ago and winning the fight via split decision. This would be a rare ‘winner vs loser’ match-up, as Elkins is coming off a win, while Dias has dropped back to back fights via unanimous decision to Ricardo Lamas and Nik Lentz, respectively. Looking to avoid going 0-3 in front of his fellow Brazilians, the Nova Uniao product will be expecting to leave it all in the cage. “The Damage” opened as the slight -130 betting favorite at the sportsbooks for this featherweight affair, with his opponent Dias being -105. However, action has since come in the other way, flipping the lines and making Dias favorite to win at -190 and Elkins the underdog at +150. Another fighter expected to leave it all in the cage is Brazilian-Armenian Daniel Sarafian, who will be taking on promotional newcomer Antonio Dos Santos Jr in an attempt to bounce back into the win column following a pair of defeats and being 1-3 with the promotion. He dropped a split decision to CB Dolloway in his promotional debut, then bounced back with a first round submission over Eddie Mendez in his next outing, and he followed that up with another split decision loss to Cezar “Mutante” Ferreira. The loss and size difference prompted Sarafian to drop down to the welterweight division, where he took on Kiichi Kunimoto and lost the fight in the first round after getting too aggressive and getting caught in a rear naked choke by the Japanese veteran. Now back at 185 pounds, this fight is do or die time for The TUF: Brazil Season One veteran. Sarafian opened as a -170 betting favorite in this middleweight contest, with the promotional newcomer Dos Santos being a +130 underdog. There has since been absolutely no line movement and betting lines currently remain at -170/+130. Headlining the evening’s televised preliminary card will be a light heavyweight bout that sees The TUF: Brazil Season 3 veteran Marcos Rogerio De Lima take on Croatia’s Igor Porkajac. De Lima is coming off a first round knockout victory of Richardson Moreira in his promotional debut at heavyweight, and will be dropping down to the light heavyweight division for this outing againt Pokrajac, who has not picked up a win in four fights and is coming off a year-long layoff. Like many bouts on the UFC Fight Night 58 fight card, this light heavyweight scrap is not expected to go the three round distance. De Lima opened as a -270 betting favorite to win, with Pokrajac opening as the underdog at +190. Action has since come in on the Brazilian, driving current betting lines to -335/+245.
