Unsolicited thoughts (why the hell not):



Ben Saunders vs Peter Sobotta - close fight. They will bang, bro. Saunders has a power edge, and can probably own the clinch with better knees, but Sobotta probably has the better chin (but maybe not better enough).



Omari Akhmedov vs Abdul Razak Alhassan - If you know Alhassan doesn't wrestle that well - despite the judo background - now is the time to bet the other guy, because he's no joke, he's just not as apt as Abdul to be able to end the fight in an instant, and isn't as athletic as some of the other Dagestan type guys, but he's in their mold and should smoke Alhassan if he can be there for R3. The judo tourney footage I saw of Abdul had him looking like a frontrunner with not the greatest gas tank. This looks a lot like Guillard vs Burkman to me, as far as overall skillset and slower-twitch guy grinding down the more gifted athlete if he can just manage not to get KO'ed in R1, which might not be that tall an order as skilled overall as Omari is (but he is pretty slow). Abdul looks to be an exceptionally gifted athlete, but this is a big jump up in competition for him -- he hasn't come up against anybody nearly as good as Omari yet; hard to have any real sense of what happens when he runs into someone who can defend well and hang in there long enough to test how he swims against real competition. All the footage of Abdul is of him wrecking much weaker competition. He avoids the ground like it's covered in acid, though -- not a good sign as far as what happens when someone drags him into deep water.



Jack Hermansson vs Alex Nicholson - they, too, will bang. Bro. Also a close fight, imo, and Nicholson is probably undervalued by average fans because he just sort of doesn't look like a fighter (looks like a...guy from some school like U of Rhode Island who goes to Alaska for the Summer to work on fishing boats and dies by getting stuck in the mud and then the tide comes up and nobody can get there to rescue him so he drowns?). I thought Nicholson had the edge in this, but can't remember why, now.



Pedro Munhoz vs Damian Stasiak - likely to be a rout, and over before R2 ends, either by KO or by guillotine. Munhoz is probably top 5 (or top 10, but anyhow up at the top of the "A" tier) in the division. Really good strikers can slow him down, but he has a brick chin and usually wears them down with steadfast pressure & defense that is probably more effective than it looks. Looked like a near-lock for Munhoz to me. Stasiak is more Bellator contender material; Munhoz will fight for the belt sooner or later if no bad injuries or other craziness befall him. Rivera is underrated, & their fight showed how good they both are.



Chris Camozzi vs Trevor Smith - Smith probably gets outboxed and flummoxed going for TDs, but this isn't a bad spot for him in a world full of bad spots for him. He doesn't wrestle exceptionally well, but either does Camozzi, and Camozzi has trouble getting up off his back and isn't apt to submit anybody who's got high level BJJ. Smith doesn't have high level BJJ, but it might be good enough to not get submitted by Camozzi. IMO, this is rightly Camozzi as fave, but Smith probably isn't more than a +165 or +185 underdog, true odds. If Smith can take Camozzi down in two rounds, he could easily end up winning a G/P 29-28 decision.



Nico Musoke vs Bojan Velickovic - also a close fight. Musoke will try to bang his bro, and Velickovic will probably try to win a point fight. Musoke's got goood top game MMA zhoo zhits, and though neither guy wrestles particularly well if Musoke gets on top he probably smokes Velicko, who has that Euro type of JJ, less positionally tight. Pretty close fight that could easily end up 3 rounds of all stand-up. Musoke throws sharper, imo, but Velickovic moves laterally better. Musoke also counters counters better than Bojan - he comes back with fire in instants when most guys are regrouping and silent (a big factor against someone who tends to counter and then remain too long) - but again Bojan probably tries to be in and out without really committing to engaging for all 3 rounds.



Oliver Enkamp vs Nordine Taleb - This Enkamp guy is like a Norwegian Wonderboy. You have to think he has nothing new to show Nordine and Nordine is probably better than him at everything, being seasoned in real time against top competition. Norwonderboy has looked OK fighting guys that suck; you can't really know how good or bad he is til you see how he looks against better comp, for better or worse. Who knows. Nordine's deservedly a heavy fave, but you can't really know what Enkamp can or can't do against someone good because pretty much all the footage is of him against sub-scrub level guys.



Jessin Ayari vs Darren Till - Till is for real, though probably not yet nearly as good as he will be some day, and probably smokes most anybody but the very best strikers and pretty good wrestlers with good jiu jitsu. Ayari isn't that guy, imo. Till deserves to be heavy fave in this.



No real hard looks at any of the others.



I hate the current odds on all of these, both sides.