MMA Odds and Ends for Thursday: Wiman/Vallie-Flagg, Feijao/OSP Booked For Fall UFC Events

Matt Wiman “Handsome” will finally make his long-awaited return to the cage this fall, and the UFC gave him a great opponent for his first fight back in nearly two years. The UFC yesterday announced Matt Wiman will return to the Octagon on November 22 at UFC Fight Night 57 in Austin, Texas, and his opponent will be Isaac Vallie-Flagg. This should be an excellent lightweight fight between two of the scrappiest fighters in the division and is definitely going to be a Fight of the Night candidate when it’s all said and done. Both Wiman and Vallie-Flagg walk forward with their chins down throwing bombs and I don’t expect anything less than that when they clash this November. The biggest question mark heading into this fight is of course Wiman’s long layoff and the fact he hasn’t fought since a January 2013 KO loss to TJ Grant is indeed scary, but if comes back and fights close to the level he did before the Grant fight he should be favored to beat Vallie-Flagg, who is definitely in a must-win situation in this fight with Wiman considering he’s on a two-fight losing skid in the Octagon. The UFC also announced a light heavyweight contest between Feijao Cavalcante and Ovince St-Preux will take place at an unnamed UFC Fight Night card that will take place in Uberlandia, Brazil on November 8. The bout is expected to be the co-main event of that card, although it wouldn’t shock me if for whatever reason the fight actually became the main event. It’s a pretty good matchup between two light heavyweights coming off of a loss to Ryan Bader, and will likely provide a finish for the fans either way. I expect either Feijao will knock OSP out or OSP will somehow take Feijao to the ground and submit him. But like I said, either way I don’t think this fight makes it the full 15 minutes. And as far as a line goes, it should be relatively competitive but with a slight lean to Feijao, who will have homefield advantage for the bout. And one more bit of news for you as Stephan Bonnar, who was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame last year, has signed with Bellator MMA nad in a press release to media stated he wants a fight with Tito Ortiz. Although Bonnar is two years removed from his last fight and coming off of a drug suspension, he is still a pretty big name in the sport and a fight against Ortiz would likely draw plenty of eyeballs to Spike TV.

Written by Adam Martin.

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