After last week’s big UFC 252 event, where Stipe Miocic beat Daniel Cormier in their trilogy fight to be declared “THE GREATEST HEAVYWEIGHT FIGHTER OF ALL-TIME”, we were bound for a letdown with this week’s UFC card. And the UFC hasn’t disappointed in that regard – UFC Fight Night: Munhoz vs Edgar offers a pretty weak fight lineup. We go from crowning “THE GREATEST HEAVYWEIGHT FIGHTER OF ALL-TIME” to crowning the kind of decent, pretty good bantamweight fighter right now.
In all fairness, Saturday’s card was lining up to be a bigger affair. It was hoped that former welterweight champion Tyron Woodley would finally fight his hated rival Colby Covington on this card, but that fight has been pushed off a few weeks down the road. And Yoel Romero was scheduled to fight Uriah Hall before Romero pulled out of the fight.
‘Young Punisher’ Takes on Former Champ
But enough of talking about “what ifs” – let’s look at what we actually have in store for us Saturday night from the UFC Apex. The main event sees bantamweight contender Pedro Munhoz welcome former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar to the 135-pound weight division. Edgar was grossly undersized at 155 pounds, slightly undersized at featherweight (145 pounds), but seems to be about the right size for bantamweight (he’ll actually probably even be the bigger man in this fight, which is a rare occurrence for him). Of course, the elephant in the room is how the weight cut down to that weight will affect him. One of his strongest traits – his iron chin – seems to be slipping away from him, and severely dehydrating himself – and his brain – to get down to the 135-pound (technically he can weigh in at 136) bantamweight limit won’t help that. Not to mention that he’ll be turning 39 later this year and has been through some absolute wars during his 15 year pro career.
This bodes well for his opponent, ‘The Young Punisher’ Munhoz (considering he’ll soon be turning 34 years old, maybe time for a new nickname?!). The Brazilian has flashed knockout power as of late, with his past two wins coming via putting his opponent’s lights out. He’s also a grappling wizard, which also will cause a problem for Edgar, who relies on his wrestling to win fights.
Which makes the current line on the fight at MBet about right – Munhoz at 20/57. I’m liking Munhoz to win via KO/TKO at 6/5 even more.
Underdogs to Watch
If you want some plus money, there are a few underdogs I like for Saturday. Let’s start with Amanda Lemos coming in at 11/10 for her women’s strawweight bout against Mizuki Inoue. In a case of “styles make fights”, Lemos is a terrific wrestler and grappler, while the karate stylist Inoue has struggled with wrestlers in past fights. While Lemos doesn’t win many fights via submission (just two of her seven wins come via tapout), she did win her last fight by rear-naked choke, so you might want to look at her winning via submission at 5/1. Who doesn’t like five times their money?!
I also like Ovince Saint Preux at 21/20 against Alonzo Menifield. While OSP didn’t look particularly good in his last fight, losing to Ben Rothwell, that was at heavyweight and he’ll be back at his natural light heavyweight class for this one. While Menifield has scary knockout power, I’m hoping Saint Preux is able to use his experience advantage, as well as his superior size (three inches of height, four inches of reach), to avoid the kill shot. His sneaky good submission game also makes the 16/5* line on him winning via submission attractive.
*All odds correct at time of writing
