Steve Bruno vs. Johnny Rees
The bottom line: As much as I’m tempted to pick against Rees based on his nickname -- it really doesn’t get any worse than “The Hater Hurter” -- legitimate fight dissection is required. Thankfully, Bruno is the far more proven commodity and his background with American Top Team should give him a comfortable edge on the ground against Rees, who has feasted against bottom-of-the-barrel regional opponents for virtually his entire career.
Ben Saunders vs. Brandon Wolff
The bottom line: Saunders’ freakishly long frame gives him a natural advantage on the feet and mat, but he has yet to fully harness it while Wolff often lacks a solid game plan heading into the cage. In one of the more evenly matched scraps on the undercard, take Saunders. He’s shown steady improvement post-“TUF,” and his ground game seems to be developing at a faster pace than Wolff’s. Also, how could you not take the guy named “Killa B.” Long live the Wu.
Corey Hill vs. Dale Hartt
The bottom line: In a battle of two bangers, it’s never a bad move to take the guy who is roughly 4,678 feet tall. That guy is Corey Hill, who, despite a recent setback against Justin Buchholz, remains a high-ceiling prospect who has the reach and aggression to drive opponents up the wall and down to the floor in one fell swoop. Sorry to all you Hartt fans out there, but “The Real Deal” takes this one easily.
Eddie Sanchez vs. Justin McCully
The bottom line: The official “fight I have to fake an interest in.” Eddie Sanchez is a decent striker while Justin McCully has a half-decent shot. While Sanchez is hardly an MMA luminary, he should be able to stuff enough takedowns to land a game-changer on the feet and send McCully to sleepy town. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go develop a scientific test designed to prove that this fight card had the highest incidence of terrible nicknames in recorded history.