MMA ODDS AND ENDS FOR THURSDAY: TWO INJURY REPLACEMENT BOUTS ANNOUNCED
Another day, another injury — in actuality, this time there were just two. For today’s MMA Odds and Ends, I will record the 2 fights which were changed and give my thoughts on every one of these. Mark Eddiva vs. Levan Makashvili, UFC Fight Night 66 Alex White has been forced to pull out of his struggle with Mark Eddiva at UFC Fight Night 66, also Levan Makashvili will now take on Eddiva on extremely short notice as the card happens May 16 at Mall of Asia Arena at Pasay, Philippines. Eddiva is 1-1 at the UFC with a surprise conclusion win over Jumabieke Tuerxun and a TKO loss to Kevin Souza. He’s actually outperformed expectations within the Octagon and general is a fairly solid grinder who will bang a little. Makashvili, meanwhile, is a grinder-type who’s making his UFC debut. He was supposed to fight Nik Lentz back at UFC Fight Night 60, however, the struggle was cancelled at the last minute when Lentz got ill. This is a tough one to call. I would assert Makashvili is the better fighter and the greater prospect of the pair, but Eddiva gets got the UFC experience and he’ll be fighting in his home nation of Manila here. Eddiva isn’t the kind of fighter that will get much respect from the betting public, but he’s pretty solid and I believe he puts up a fantastic fight against Makashvili. I would expect a close line for this one with a small lean towards Makashvili because he’s got a bit more hype surrounding him, but it is a struggle I think could go either way. Jake Collier vs. Ricardo Abreu, UFC Fight Night 68 Due to an accident to Daniel Sarafian, Ricardo Abreu had a new opponent and the UFC called upon Jake Collier to fight him UFC Fight Night 68, which takes place June 6 at Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. Collier is 0-1 at the UFC using a first-round knockout loss to Vitor Miranda in his debut. He had been doing really well in the struggle and then in the end of this first circular faded badly and paid for it with a KO defeat. Abreu, on the other hand, is undefeated at 5-0 in his career and conquered Wagner Silva via submission in his UFC debut. On the other hand, the struggle was a year ago and he hasn’t fought since, so he will have some ring rust heading into this one. This is another tough one to predict. I believe Collier is the better fighter of the two, but he’s not a person to be trusted with your hard-earned cash after we saw what occurred in his UFC debut. I don’t think Abreu is as good as his record indicates, but he’s a fantastic chance of picking up a win in this struggle. It’s a close one, though, one which could go either way, and I hope the line to signify that.