In the midst of this current UFC drought, I'm looking forward to this card, plus Glory & boxing this weekend. One of the weaknesses of this open forum though, is that some people don't want to comment about the upcoming card for what I consider kind of a far fetched fear of influencing the linemakers with their comments. So quite a few days or a week plus will sometimes go by wasted with barely any discussion at all until the lines get released and then it's a scramble on short notice. I think these are some interesting matchups on Bellator 162 with a decent undercard. Not sure how many prelims we'll actually get but I know quite a few of the preliminary fighters. Doubt we'll get lines on them.
For the main card, it's important to note that Goiti Yamauchi is coming up from featherweight to lightweight to take on Ryan Couture, a move that he says is permanent due to him growing. Couture got KOed last fight, and he's not a big 155er so I don't think a size difference will be too huge. We'll see at the weigh-ins at 6 PM EDT Thursday. In a battle of two submission artists and with Couture coming off of a KO loss to Pitbull, I have to lean Yamauichi who I also think is the more accomplished grappler with more varied submissions. Not sure yet how the lines will open though.
For the next two bouts I'm leaning Kato over Matthews by KO or decision and Lashley over Appelt also by KO or decision and the lines will probably reflect them both as favorites. No way either one is a lock though, far from it.
In the main event, this is one of those spots where I would love to root for Kendall Grove especially as a decent sized underdog. He's been fighting smarter recently using his reach and jabs which he finally learned to put to good effect dozens of fights into his career. He's much taller than the Russian and bigger overall, but he doesn't have a Tito Ortiz or Brandon Halsey takedown and smothering game which Shlemenko is susceptible to. If Shlemenko doesn't gas like he did in one of his recent fights in Russia- a real concern which I hope never rears its ugly head again- I think he'll close the distance and connect with Grove's long torso with kick or punches. A round 2 or 3 KO or decision seems likely to me unless Kendall fights him a totally different way than he has ever fought before. Shlemenko will surely be a favorite, the question is how much and do you want to pay the juice in his first fight back in the States since his PED suspension that got reduced form three years to one.