Resurrection Fighting Alliance remains one of the best avenues for up-and-coming prospects and regrouping veterans to get to the UFC, and their card this Friday features some of each. The evening’s bantamweight main event between Joe Murphy and Terrion Ware should be an entertaining fight between a pair of solid prospects. Murphy has a style which can be dangerous wherever his opponent takes the fight, but shines on the ground. Ware much prefers to strike, and does so with a high volume style that normally leaves opponents uncomfortable. The co-main event sees Gabriel Checco attempting to recover from his lone loss against former TUF contestant Joe Henle. Checco needs to tighten up some aspects of his game if he hopes to capitalize on the promise he showed earlier in his career, while Henle at 31 is attempting to make a run to the UFC. Nova Uniao product Raoni Barcelos also suffered his first professional loss in his last RFA appearance. He is still seen by many as a top prospect in the featherweight division, and faces another talented youngster, Team Takedown’s Jamal Parks. Coming from their respective camps it’s fairly simple to imagine the gameplans from both fighters in this one. Another TUF veteran finds himself on the card as well. Dom Waters was the top pick of Roy Nelson back on TUF 16, but lost early in the competition to Mike Ricci. He has gone 2-1 since the competition, with the loss coming to undefeated prospect Curtis Millender (who faces Michael Page on an upcoming Bellator card). He faces 28-fight veteran Mikey Gomez, who has 13 submission victories in his career and has competed in promotions like Bellator and Elite XC in the past. MMA oddsmaker Nick Kalikas opened the betting odds for these three RFA 23 bouts today at Several Bookmakers. Take a look: ——————– MAIN CARD (AXS TV, 10pm ET) Joe Murphy -175 Terrion Ware +135 Joseph Henle -260 Gabriel Checco +180 Jamal Parks -165 Raoni Barcelos +125 Dom Waters -315 Mikey Gomez +235 ——————– Brad’s Analysis: I’ve enjoyed nearly every moment I’ve seen Joe Murphy in the cage, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I think he’s going to win this fight. Part of Murphy’s appeal is that he’s an overaggressive grappler who is always looking for a submission, and I appreciate that style. Some of his drawbacks however, are that he doesn’t have great takedowns (or takedown defense) and is content to strike in many of his fights should his opponent choose to do so. Against Terrion Ware, that’s going to be a problem. Ware is the far more fluid and dangerous striker, and keeps such a high volume on the feet that Murphy may be overwhelmed if this stays standing. If Murphy has the sense to take the fight to the ground, I think he can submit Ware, but I’m just not sure that’s what he’ll do. For that reason, I think if there’s a play here it should be on Ware, whose line is higher than it really should be. The Jake Collier fight showed that Gabriel Checco has some serious holes in his game. On the regional circuit he was able to mask those with his physical tools, but he hasn’t had the physical advantages since coming to the US. I think that’s going to be the case again, and Henle should be able to outwork Checco as this fight gets deeper, perhaps even scoring a stoppage in the second or third round. Raoni Barcelos definitely has talent, but for the second time since coming stateside he’s going to be facing a talented wrestler. Last time, Mark Dickman was able to get past Barcelos’ early barrage and find a submission in the second. Jamal Parks doesn’t have the same type of well-rounded skillset as Dickman yet, but he’s a significantly better pure wrestler, and I think he can make Barcelos’ life very difficult in this one. The one caveat to that is Parks took the fight on short notice, so he may fade later on. Luckily, Barcelos doesn’t have the greatest cardio, so Parks may be able to pick up a decision regardless. I’m going to side with the wrestler again here and hope that the Brazilian’s hype is still enough to push the line in his direction. Dom Waters doesn’t have any real standout skills, but he’s a solid wrestler and a decent striker (albeit a sloppy one at times), and has even shown good defense on the ground against some good grapplers in the past. I think he’ll probably choose to keep his fight against Mikey Gomez standing, where Gomez is fairly limited. Waters should have a speed and power advantage there and that should carry him to victory even if his striking isn’t much tighter than last time we saw him.
