Somewhere along the way, Uriah Hall and Donald Cerrone must have switched bodies, because Hall has been acting very much like ‘Cowboy’ in terms of his fight bookings lately. After Roan Carneiro pulled out of his scheduled fight with Gegard Mousasi little more than a month out, Hall stepped in to take the fight. As we know, things ended pretty well for him on Saturday, finishing Mousasi with a spinning back kick and flying knee. Earlier today, Michael Bisping announced that he was withdrawing from his UFC 193 bout with Robert Whittaker due to an injury (curious timing given the recent rumours of a bout between Bisping and Anderson Silva). So, up steps Uriah Hall once again on a month’s notice to fight another talented middleweight. Perhaps the lack of preparation time keeps Hall from overthinking his bouts and allows him to pull the trigger, as he did against Mousasi. If that is the case, the bout with Whittaker should be very entertaining, with both men being excellent strikers. Hall was virtually discounted heading into the Mousasi fight, but had a long history of being a massive favorite prior to that, so it will be interesting to see where the line settles for this one, but I’m anticipating Hall being a moderate favorite (between -150 and -200). The public will probably be wowed by Hall’s finishing effort against Mousasi, and forget that he has disappointed multiple times in the past. Also announced recently was a heavyweight bout for the UFC’s return trip to Boston. Travis Browne and Matt Mitrione are both looking to rebound from recent setbacks to top 10 opponents, and have a nice platform to do so on perhaps the best Fox Sports 1 card the UFC has put together. This fight will probably remain standing, as we saw how Mitrione fared in about three seconds on the ground with Ben Rothwell, and while Browne has shown his grappling on occasion, it’s far from his primary weapon. This will not look like a heavyweight fight, at least for the opening five minutes, and I expect the fight to be over within that time frame. Unless Browne does resort to his grappling game here, I think Mitrione picks up another knockout. He is the faster fighter on the feet with better movement and more power, and we’ve now seen Browne outstruck badly in 2 of his past 3 bouts. If I can get a dog price on Mitrione, I’ll bite. Also on UFC Fight Night 81, veterans Tim Boetsch and Ed Herman hope to right the ship after being knocked out in under a minute. Boetsch has now dropped 5 of his last 7 bouts, with one of those wins being a terrible decision, and another being a fairly miraculous comeback knockout. Herman hasn’t fared much better, losing 4 of 6 (although his bout with Jake Shields was overturned to a no contest), and consistently looking slow in those performances. Although both fighters are well known — and Boetsch actually headlined in his last performance — it wouldn’t be shocking if this fight saw the loser get cut from the UFC. Bellator announced a fight booking on Wednesday night as well for Bellator 146, as Bubba Jenkins attempts to work his way back up the ladder towards a title shot. After 11 fights (mostly in Bellator), I’m not sure how much Jenkins can really be considered a prospect at this point, but his opponent Jordan Parson is certainly considered one, with a 2-0 record in Bellator which has finally seen him show some finishing ability. It would be interesting to know who the Bellator head office wants to see win this fight, and who they feel has the brighter future moving forward.
