While Friday night will host a fairly interesting Bellator event, and Saturday morning will be dominated by the UFC card from the Philippines, that isn’t the extent of MMA available to bet on this weekend. The two most prominent promotions in the Scandavian MMA scene (Sweden’s Superior Challenge and Finland’s Cage) will both hold shows on Saturday afternoon (for North American audiences). The biggest names on these shows are UFC veterans Anton Kuivanen, David Bielkheden, and Cody McKenzie — the latter two are facing each other on the Superior Challenge show. Swedish prospect (and Alexander Gustafsson training partner) Max Nunes also makes an appearance on the show, attempting to run his current winning streak to three bouts. MMA oddsmaker Nick Kalikas opened the betting odds for Cage 30 and Superior Challenge 12 today at Several Bookmakers. Take a look: ——————– Cage 30 Saturday, May 16th – 11:00am ET Anton Kuivanen -190 Sean Carter +150 Soren Bak -130 Aleksi Nurminen -110 Mikael Nyyssonen -405 Alex Rodrigues +285 Suvi Salmimies -350 Lily Kazak +250 Mikko Ahmala -350 Ismael Naurdiev +250 ——————– Brad’s Analysis: I don’t have tremendous insight on all these fights, but in the main event I think Sean Carter is going to upset Anton Kuivanen, and I’ll take the dog price. Carter has been impressive in Cage Warriors, and I think that Kuivanen is on a bit of a decline. Carter’s grappling is impressive and he has proven durable in the past, and I think that will be enough for him to overcome Kuivanen, who has been caught a few times in recent fights and doesn’t seem to have the effectiveness in his grappling that he had in years past. The only other lines I’m really considering are Soren Bak at -130 in the co-main, and Alex Rodrigues as a +285 underdog in his bout. Bak should have a grappling edge over Nurminen, and Rodrigues has proven dangerous with leglocks in his young career, which can be enough at times to pull fights off at this level. ——————– 
Superior Challenge 12 Saturday, May 16th – 2:00pm ET Max Nunes -210 Joachim Christensen +160 David Bielkheden -230 Cody McKenzie +170 Martin Akhtar -215 Antoine Gallinaro +165 Lina Lansberg -350 Alexandra Buch +250 ——————– Brad’s Analysis: Max Nunes is coming back up to light heavyweight to face a much bigger fighter in Joachim Christensen, and while Nunes was once considered something of a blue chip prospect, I’ve soured on him a bit lately. I think Christensen might be able to bully him around the cage and pick up the upset, so that’s a line I’ll keep my eye on. McKenzie is at the point in his career where he’s strictly taking fights for a paycheque. With his lack of motivation, already limited skillset, and facing a solid grappler in Bielkheden, I think this is a recipe for the Swede to come away with a fairly easy victory, and he could be a parlay piece. Another fighter who looks like a simply parlay piece is Lina Lansberg. She went 2-0 in Cage Warriors against some decent competition, and is now fighting in her home country against a fighter who is 35 and has been submitted by Jorina Baars (the world champion kickboxer, who is purely a kickboxer) and Sheila Gaff. This seems like a definite setup fight for Lansberg, and even though -350 is a high price to lay on a fairly inexperienced female fighter, I think it’s easily justified here.
