There are those among the ranks of MMA fandom that do not appreciate the UFC’s attempts to become a truly global brand make inroads in the European market, specifically the UFC odds event which will be held in Oberhausen Germany on November 13th.
And it’s not that these fans are anti-European or anti German it’s simply that the lineup for this German smack down is less than ideal. As we saw last month with the UFC 120 event held in London England, organizers tend to load the fighting lineup with home grown talent (or at least European talent) in an attempt to build a larger fan base in the massive Euro market which has so far rejected MMA as sporting option.
The UFC betting action will feature 3 German fighters and several other European fighters. The only problem with this is that the German MMA scene is relatively small and almost none of German fighters in the UFC odds competition are known outside of their villages or cities and especially not to most of the UFC fans.
The fact that the Main Card headlining bout in the UFC betting action features Nate Marquardt and Yushin Okami in a match in which the winner isn’t even guaranteed a shot at the division title says a lot about the talent level of the competition in Oberhausen.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean bad news for the MMA fans looks to play the UFC odds. While these fighters may not be very well known and never amount to much on the UFC fighting scene, their relative anonymity provides plenty of betting opportunity for the savvy fans willing to do a little homework and find out a bit more about these unknown fighters.
Take for example Pascal Krauss, a German welterweight who’s scheduled to fight Englishman Mark Scanlon on the Preliminary card. He’s 6’1”, 170 lbs and he’s never lost an MMA contest in his life. He’s got a perfect 9-0 record in MMA action, 7 of the wins by submission. He may be next big thing in UFC!
What about Karlos Vemola, the Czech fighter nicknamed the “Terminator” with a 7-1 record, who will be looking to make mincemeat of American Seth Petruzelli in the light heavyweight division.
There’s a lot of relatively unknown talent out there just waiting to be discovered and bet on by MMA fans in the upcoming UFC Main Event.