Cage Warriors 78 Betting Odds

This Saturday, before UFC 203 kicks off, Cage Warriors will provide some entertainment for MMA fans. Cage Warriors 78 will air on UFC Fight Pass with a pair of title fights at the top of the bill. The Liverpool, England event is high on local talent, who also happen to be some of the top English fighters in the game today. The main event features lightweight champion Chris Fishgold. Fishgold moved up from featherweight to lightweight late in 2015, and has already put a 4-0-1 record on the board in his new division en route to capturing the title. His opponent, Jason Ponet, will be making his Cage Warriors debut on the heels of a 9-2-1 record in his last 12 fights. Ponet has competed nearly everywhere across Europe during his 8-year career, but this will be by far his biggest bout. In the co-main event, highly touted British prospect Paddy Pimblett will be looking to capture his first title, as he looks for the vacant CWFC Featherweight belt in the main event. Pimblett brings a seven-fight win streak into his bout with French veteran Johnny Frachey. In contrast to the 21-year-old Pimblett, Frachey has been around the European scene since 2003, facing UFC veterans like Mizuto Hirota, David Baron, and Tom Niinimaki along the way. CAge Warriors 78 also features UFC veteran Mickael Lebout taking on Tim Wilde in the lightweight division. Mohsen Bahari and Ali Arish meet in the welterweight division, and longtime Cage Warriors mainstay Lee Barnes welcomes Swedish grappler Vcitor Cheng back to MMA after nearly four years away from the sport. MMA oddsmaker Nick Kalikas opened the betting odds for the top five fights at Cage Warriors 78 today at Several Bookmakers. Take a look below: ——————– MAIN CARD (UFC Fight Pass, 4:00pm ET) Chris Fishgold -705 Jason Ponet +435 Paddy Pimblett -405 Johnny Frachey +285 Mickael Lebout -155 Tim Wilde +115 Mohsen Bahari -140 Ali Arish +100 Victor Cheng -260 Lee Barnes +180 ——————– Brad’s Analysis: Jason Ponet has 10 losses in his career, and 9 of them are by submission. Chris Fishgold has 10 of his 14 wins by submission. This fight is in Fishgold’s hometown. That all adds up to what looks like an easy submission win for Fishgold in his first title defense, and potentially a UFC call. Paddy Pimblett’s fighting style is aggressive in all aspects, and Johnny Frachey is good at surviving, which means this could be an entertaining fight that goes a while. What could be even more entertaining is Pimblett’s post-fight interview. I can never understand what the hell he’s saying, but he sure seems excited about it. I expect Mickael Lebout and Tim Wilde to be competitive early, but Lebout to start to distance himself in the 2nd and 3rd round as Wilde beings to fades. Ali Arish is one of those fighters whose age we don’t really know, but judging by some of his recent performances it seems like he’s slowing down, and is probably nearing 40. At his best, he would probably be able to score takedowns on Mohsen Bahari and perhaps take a decision, but Bahari is overall the more skilled fighter and less prone to lapses during fights. If Victor Cheng wasn’t coming off a four-year layoff, I would expect him to be a pretty massive favorite over Lee Barnes. Even with the layoff, I have to expect him to pull off the win against Barnes, who always starts strong, but only has a couple of good minutes in him.