A trio of new UFC bouts were recently booked, and for today’s MMA Odds and Ends I’ll give my thoughts on each of them. Rick Story vs. Erick Silva, TUF Brazil 4 Finale The main event of the TUF Brazil 4 finale will be a five-round welterweight bout between Rick Story and Erick Silva. The fight takes place June 27 at Ginasio do Ibirapuera in Sao Paulo, Brazil. This is a great fight, but considering it’s five rounds I think Story has a huge edge if this fight makes it out of the first round. We know the book on Silva: he’s super explosive in the first round and then tires and gets beaten down. Yes, he can absolutely finish Story in round one, but if he doesn’t then Story will be at a huge edge. As far as the betting line goes, it will be pretty competitive, but you’d have to figure Silva will be the favorite as he almost always is. While Story is a great fighter in his own right, consider he was a big underdog to Nelson, and he basically won every round of that fight. Silva, on the other hand, even in his losses he’s the favorite in his fights. The public loves this guy, and he will be favored here, but make no mistake about it, Story is very game and can definitely pull off the upset here if the fight gets out of round one. Josh Samman vs. Caio Magalhaes, TUF 21 Finale A middleweight bout between Josh Samman and Caio Magalhaes has been added to the TUF 21 Finale card, which takes place July 12 at an undetermined location in Florida. This is a pretty decent matchup but I lean towards Samman to get the win here. I’ve always been really high on him and after seeing him return from his long layoff to knock out Eddie Gordon in devastating fashion, I expect him to have another solid performance here. Magalhaes is on a nice win streak inside the Octagon himself, but I’ve just never really been sold on this guy. He’s definitely made improvements over the years, but he’s also has some stinker of performances in the Octagon and I feel like if he doesn’t show up against Samman, he’ll lose. Magalhaes always gets respect and he will here because of his recent win streak, but I do lean towards Samman to get the win here and believe he should be the favorite heading into this fight. Alan Jouban vs. Matt Dwyer, UFC Fight Night 71 A welterweight bout between Alan Jouban and Matt Dwyer has been added to UFC Fight Night 71, which takes place July 15 at Valley View Casino Center in San Diego, California. The fight will likely take place on the main card. This is a tough fight for Dwyer. Yes, he is coming off of an impressive KO win over William Macario as a huge underdog, but I feel like Jouban is just on a different level when it comes to the striking. Jouban is super technical, has big power, and throws strikes with all of his limbs. Unless Dwyer catches Jouban with a big strike like he did to Macario, I feel like Jouban’s pressure and relentlessness will be too much for Dwyer to handle and I think Jouban will win by T/KO or decision. Having said that, it’s hard to completely count Dwyer out after that win over Macario, so it’s not like this is a lock or anything. Look for Jouban to be a solid favorite heading into this one as he looks to improve to 3-1 in the UFC overall.
