MMA ODDS AND ENDS FOR THURSDAY: JACARE VS. OKAMI RUMORED

UFC president Dana White today revealed to reporters that a middleweight bout between former Strikeforce middleweight champion Ronaldo”Jacare” Souza and Yushin Okami has been targeted for a upcoming event. The battle is intriguing in some ways, but it could turn out to be a huge stinker if Okami’s game plan would be to push Souza against the weapon for 15 minutes. Although Souza is a fine grappler in his own right, he’s bigger than Okami and could have issues with his size if Okami’s strategy is to just wall-and-stall, he tends to do in the majority of his fights. However, in the event the grappling neutralizes each other and the struggle becomes a stand-up conflict then it is much more probable that Souza wins. The Brazilian’s palms have gotten much better lately and although Okami is a fine striker in his own right, his brow is quite suspect at this stage of his profession and it would not surprise me at all if Souza won the battle via TKO. The fight will be nearer than the public thinks, as I am sure they’ll be all over Souza. Therefore, I expect”Jacare” to open at around -200 with the comeback on Okami being +150. I really do favor Souza slightly because he does possess the striking advantage but if the line reaches the +200 markers for Okami the bet may be on him. It is a close fight though and also the right play might just be to maneuver it completely unless the lineup retains ridiculous value for man. Koch vs. Poirier Added to UFC 164 According to MMAweekly.com, a featherweight lean between Erik Koch and Dustin Poirier has been added to the forthcoming UFC 164 card, which takes place August 31 at Bradley Center in Milwaukee, WI, which is the town Koch stands out of. This is an exceptional matchup between two men hovering around the top 10 of the UFC featherweight division and I expect it to become closely contested, so much so that I see the opening betting line being around a Pick’em of -115 for each fighter. Although Koch gets the striking edge, Poirier gets the grappling benefit and as Koch showed in his final fight against Ricardo Lamas, he’s definitely vulnerable to being put on his back. But when he can keep the fight standing that he has a very good prospect of knocking”The Diamond” out. I really don’t have a lean either way yet in this fight 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 coming to the UFC after winning six of the 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 news was reported today by Sportv.Globo.com. Even though a lot of people are amazed by Leites returning, I for one am not. Leites is actually a very solid middleweight fighter and in my view he should haven’t been released in the first place because losing to Silva was a automatic reduction on his record and the judges absolutely robbed him contrary to Sakara. There’s been no opponent named yet for Leites in his return but expect him to compete on the UFC 163 card from one of the division’s lower-end fighters, perhaps someone from TUF 17.
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