
(You know Donald, at some point the hat ceases to be an accessory and starts being a prop.)
MMA fans face a very minor conundrum this weekend. On Saturday night both the WEC and Strikeforce will venture back into the cage and onto TV screens, and even in the age of the DVR that allows us to never miss a fight or a re-run of “Designing Women” ever again, we still have to decide which is worth watching live and which gets mostly fast-forwarded on Sunday morning.
But again, this is only a minor conundrum. One look at the respective fight cards tells us that Strikeforce has more must-see quality fights, although the WEC still has a couple of scraps worth watching and maybe even losing some money on, assuming your gambling habit has been upgraded from ‘problematic’ to ‘compulsive’ by now, and we have every reason to believe that it has. Why don’t we look at some odds then, courtesy of BestFightOdds.com:
Donald Cerrone (-370) vs. Ed Ratcliff (+375)
Anthony Njokuani (-177) vs. Chris Horodecki (+160)
Joseph Benavidez (-180) vs. Rani Yahya (+180)
Takeya Mizugaki (-150) vs. Scott Jorgensen (+140)
Bart Palaszewski (+160) vs. Anthony Pettis (-195)
Muhsin Corbbrey (-245) vs. Zack Micklewright (+210)
John Hosman (-245) vs. Chad George (+200)
Brandon Visher (-600) vs. Courtney Buck (+500)
Brad Pickett (-190) vs. Kyle Dietz (+165)
Jameel Massouh (-165) vs. Erik Koch (+145)
The breakdown…
- The fact that the main event is a fight oddsmakers are expecting to be a blowout should tell us something about why there’s no serious competition between the WEC and Strikeforce on Saturday night. Cerrone vs. Ratcliff would be a good second fight on a WEC card, but as a main event it’s lacking. Win or lose, Cerrone’s going down in weight after this, so the fight feels like little more than a PR boost. I’m taking Cerrone here, but with these odds it’s not worth a bet.
- As exciting as it is to see Horodecki finally test himself against higher caliber fighters in the WEC, Njokuani is a tough first fight for him. He knocked out Bart Palaszewski, who Horodecki fought a couple of memorable, but very close battles against, and his only career losses thus far have been to Cerrone and Ben Henderson. I’m taking Njokuani via decision, and I’m also predicting this will be the best fight of the night by far.
- If this were a submission grappling tournament, Yahya would probably murder Benavidez. But it’s not, and he won’t. Yahya has great submissions but lacks the other tools that might allow him to make full use of that aspect of his game against quality opponents. Benavidez is a better wrestler, which means he’ll have the better chance of dictating the pace of this bout and deciding where it goes. I’m taking Little Joe all the way.
- Official Cage Potato Parlay: Cerrone + Benavidez + Mizugaki + Corbbrey. As the kids say, ‘Whoop, there it is.’


WEC 45….no thankyou, unless i get to see another cowboy hat donned fighter crying scars and bruises like donald cerrone