» mixed martial arts

Around the Web

Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix Odds: Barnett, Silva Favored

Posted by Drew Ellis (09/04/2011 @ 4:36 pm)

nullThe semifinals of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix takes place this upcoming Saturday night and we have the latest odds on the big matchups.

Bullz-Eye.com has the odds for the two semifinal contests, which features Josh Barnett and Segei Kharitonov and Daniel Cormier taking on Antonio Silva.

Barnett walks into his bout as the favorite with a betting line of -280 against Kharitonov, who has odds of +220. Barnett (30-5) is coming off a second-round submission win over Brett Rogers while Kharitonov (18-4) knocked out Andrei Arlovski in less than three minutes of his quarterfinal match.

In this semifinal, Barnett has the grappling edge while Kharitonov appears to have the KO power in his striking. Whoever can dictate the location of the fight will likely get the victory.

In the other semifinal, Silva (16-2) is the favorite to win with odds of -175 while his opponent Cormier (8-0), has odds of +145 to win. Silva defeated Fedor Emelinanenko by second round TKO to reach the semifinals while Cormier is filling in for Alistair Overeem, who was removed from the tournament due to his unwillingness to fight in September because of an injury.

Cormier is a strong wrestler with some good submission skills while Silva has started to put together a complete fight game. Silva has big punches and a smother grappling style. He looked the most impressive of any fighter in the quarterfinals, but now fights somewhat of an unknown in Cormier, who has just eight pro fights.

The Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix will take place from the U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati on Saturday. The show will air live on Showtime at 10PM ET.

  

Read and Discuss »

Posted in: Betting Odds, Events, Fighters, News, Strikeforce

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Velasquez vs. dos Santos to headline UFC on FOX

Posted by Drew Ellis (09/02/2011 @ 2:36 pm)

nullThe UFC wanted a premiere fight for its FOX television premiere and that is just what it has.

Dana White announced via conference all on Friday that Cain Velasquez will defend his UFC heavyweight championship against top contender, Junior dos Santos, on Nov. 12 to headline the show.

The fight was originally scheduled to take place on Nov. 19 as the headline of UFC 139 from San Jose, but will now take place at The Pond in Anaheim.

White also indicated that this is the only fight scheduled for the 1-hour FOX premiere and if the fight ends quickly, they will air undercard bouts that took place earlier in the night.

Velasquez hasn’t fought since winning the championship from Brock Lesnar last October. He is 9-0 in his career.

Dos Santos is 13-1 and coming off a dominant win over Shane Carwin at UFC 131 in June. He has clearly established himself as being the top contender for Velasquez.

While these two may not be the highest-profile of fighters to the outside MMA fan, this is an amazing fight to get on free television.

The UFC is hoping for fireworks for this bout to really draw in a big audience and take the UFC to a new level. Hopefully this fight does just that.

The new main event for UFC 139 has yet to be announced but White indicated that it was in the works.

  

Read and Discuss »

Posted in: Events, Fighters, News, UFC

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,