UFC Fight Night 168 Review

Paul Felder +130, by my view, was absolutely robbed of this decision by some home cooking by the New Zealand judges. All three judges scored the fight 48-47, two for Hooker and one for Felder. My card had Felder winning 49-46 and the consensus in the MMA community follows suit. Tough break on this one.

Michal Oleksiejczuk -130 simply could not get away from the pressure and will of grappling from Crute in the first round and was ultimately submitted late in the round. This is the best Crute has ever looked and now the second consecutive fight a strong grappler has neutralized the striking of and submitted (former) Lord Michal.

Yan Xiaonan -250 was as dominant as expected and this one was a runaway. Karolina was able to survive and lose via decision because she was able to turn a leg lock into an awkward position and slow the damage for the majority of the third round or Yan likely would have put her away.

Magomed Mustafaev came with a wrestling heavy game plan and after being dropped by Riddell in the first round, his game plan was control and survival without much weight put on winning the fight. Well, he did survive but definitely didn’t win and this approach put our ITD pay up in smoke

Jalin Turner at +125 via KO was a foregone conclusion as we watched the first round. Culibao was able to survive the first round but once he was flattened out giving his back in the second. Turner rained down strikes until the ref was forced to intervene for the win.

We double dipped on the Turner KO with the fight ending ITD, getting a second win there.

Tyson Nam was as advertised, and was certainly landing the heaviest and most damaging strikes. He had Kara-France into almost desperation grappling mode by the third round but was unable to get the finish. Our partial unit punt didn’t get the KO but as the fight played out, the +650 odds on it were obviously a value play.

The best play on the card in Sato was unfortunately a cancelled fight.

I did you all a disservice not listing Song by KO as a betting play. I listed it in the other fights section as a first round KO, but not attacking his opponent, Callan Potter, was a missed opportunity.