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Hector Lombard vs. Paulo Filho
Lombard is an olympic judoka and bellator MW champion. He has only lost to Mousasi and Gono. He is a brute. But Filho has only lost once, to Sonnen when he was apparently seeing ghosts in the cage. He also defeated Sonnen. He defeated Manhoef since then. Not long ago, he was the consensus #2 MW. He went from being the undefeated guy everyone wanted to see fight Silva, to not in the top 10 at all, based on one loss to the now #2 MW. Filho has a lot of issue, but he is still a BA.
I have to give an edge to Filho here. But I think Lombard probably has a striking advantage, and with his judo pedigree can keep it upright. If Lombard engages Filho on the ground, he could be in trouble. I need to look at Lombard's standup and takedown defense a little bit. Either guy could have value as a dog.
Joe Warren vs. Georgi Karakhanyan
Warren should win this, but Georgi will have value @ +170 IMO.
Georgi is a wildly aggressive striker and has a good submission game from his back. Warren was nearly submitted 3 times in his last outing. I could definately see a triangle here. If it stays upright for more than a few minutes, Warren is toast.
Patricio “Pitbull” Freire vs. Wilson Reis
Reis will probably open as the rightful favorite. He made it to the Bellator finals last season, and looked great last round. BUT, Pitbull is live. Reis is a bjj world champion with very good takedowns. But Pitbull is a bjj stud himself, though he does not have the top control game that Reis has. He has a enough to not get submitted though, or even positionally dominated. But Pitbull has way better standup IMO. I probably won't bet Reis unless he comes in close to even. I will probably be on Pitbull as a dog. Reis could open in the -250 range.
If we get lines on these, I will look at them then:
Jules Bruchez vs. Lamont Stafford
Shawn Jordan vs. Doug Williams
Christian Fulgium vs. Charlie Rader
Mike Braswell vs. Brock Kerry
Lombard is an olympic judoka and bellator MW champion. He has only lost to Mousasi and Gono. He is a brute. But Filho has only lost once, to Sonnen when he was apparently seeing ghosts in the cage. He also defeated Sonnen. He defeated Manhoef since then. Not long ago, he was the consensus #2 MW. He went from being the undefeated guy everyone wanted to see fight Silva, to not in the top 10 at all, based on one loss to the now #2 MW. Filho has a lot of issue, but he is still a BA.
I have to give an edge to Filho here. But I think Lombard probably has a striking advantage, and with his judo pedigree can keep it upright. If Lombard engages Filho on the ground, he could be in trouble. I need to look at Lombard's standup and takedown defense a little bit. Either guy could have value as a dog.
Joe Warren vs. Georgi Karakhanyan
Warren should win this, but Georgi will have value @ +170 IMO.
Georgi is a wildly aggressive striker and has a good submission game from his back. Warren was nearly submitted 3 times in his last outing. I could definately see a triangle here. If it stays upright for more than a few minutes, Warren is toast.
Patricio “Pitbull” Freire vs. Wilson Reis
Reis will probably open as the rightful favorite. He made it to the Bellator finals last season, and looked great last round. BUT, Pitbull is live. Reis is a bjj world champion with very good takedowns. But Pitbull is a bjj stud himself, though he does not have the top control game that Reis has. He has a enough to not get submitted though, or even positionally dominated. But Pitbull has way better standup IMO. I probably won't bet Reis unless he comes in close to even. I will probably be on Pitbull as a dog. Reis could open in the -250 range.
If we get lines on these, I will look at them then:
Jules Bruchez vs. Lamont Stafford
Shawn Jordan vs. Doug Williams
Christian Fulgium vs. Charlie Rader
Mike Braswell vs. Brock Kerry
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