UFC president Dana White now revealed to reporters a middleweight bout between former Strikeforce middleweight champion Ronaldo”Jacare” Souza and Yushin Okami has been targeted for a upcoming event. The fight is intriguing in some ways, but it could turn out to be a huge stinker if Okami’s game plan is to push Souza contrary to the weapon for a quarter hour. Although Souza is a fine grappler in his own right, he’s bigger than Okami and might have problems with his size if Okami’s plan is to simply wall-and-stall, he tends to perform in nearly all his struggles. However, if the grappling neutralizes each other and the struggle becomes a stand-up conflict then it is much more likely the Souza wins. The Brazilian’s palms have gotten much better lately and although Okami is a nice striker in his own right, his brow is quite suspect at this point of his profession and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if Souza won the battle via TKO. The struggle will be nearer than the public thinks, as I am sure they will be over Souza. Therefore, I anticipate”Jacare” to start at around -200 together with all the comeback on Okami being +150. I do prefer Souza slightly because he does possess the striking benefit but in the event the line reaches the +200 markers for Okami the bet may be on him. It’s a close fight though and the right play might just be to maneuver it completely unless the lineup holds absurd value for either man. Koch vs. Poirier Added to UFC 164 Based on MMAweekly.com, a featherweight lean between Erik Koch and Dustin Poirier has been added to the upcoming UFC 164 card, which takes place August 31 at Bradley Center in Milwaukee, WI, which is the city Koch stands from. This is an exceptional matchup between two guys hovering around the top 10 of this UFC featherweight division and that I expect it to be closely contested, so much so I see the opening gambling line being about a Pick’em of -115 for every fighter. Though Koch has the edge that is striking, Poirier has the grappling advantage and as Koch showed in his last fight against Ricardo Lamas, he is definitely vulnerable to being placed on his back. But when he can keep the fight standing he has a very good prospect of knocking”The Diamond” out. I don’t have a lean either way yet in this struggle and my bet will likely depend on where the gambling public takes the line. Thales Leites Returns to UFC Former UFC middleweight title challenger Thales Leites is returning to the UFC after winning six of his last seven fights since being cut from the promotion following back-to-back losses to Anderson Silva at UFC 97 and Alessio Sakara in UFC 101. The information was reported today by Sportv.Globo.com. Although a lot of people are amazed by Leites coming, I am not. Leites is actually a very solid middleweight fighter and in my opinion that he should have never been released in the first place because shedding to Silva was an automatic loss on his album and also the judges absolutely chased him against Sakara. There’s been no opponent named yet for Leites in his return but expect him to compete on the UFC 163 card against one of the branch’s lower-end fighters, perhaps someone from TUF 17.
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