UFC 105 Pick: Pearson vs Riley

UFC 105 doesn’t have amazing star power outside of Randy Couture, but it does have a fight card full of grinders who are tough and have the mental makeup to make any fight on the card a potential Fight of the Night.

One such fight at UFC 105 in Manchester, England is the Aaron Riley vs. Ross Pearson lightweight matchup. The lightweights always seem to put on close, back-and-forth fights because of their cardio advantage over guys in other weight classes (have you seen some of these heavyweights on Ultimate Fighter Season 10??).

Pearson and Riley are both scrappy guys who have flown under the radar, but they are capable of taking out a great portion of the UFC lightweight class as they continue to gain experience and fine-tune their overall MMA games.

This fight will happen at around 3 p.m. Eastern time in Britain so be sure to get your bets in early.

The line on this one going into the fight on the BetUs.com Sportsbook has the favorite Riley listed at -190 odds to +155 for the underdog Pearson.

Riley is a veteran of over 40 fights who has shown some skill and a good all-around game. His weakness going into this one might be a lack of strength in comparison with the home country guy Pearson, who is just a bulldog at 155 who never seems to get an inch.

Riley will come out expecting to use his experience and versatility to force Pearson into a mistake, so expect the staredown to last into the middle of the fight as few punches will be thrown early.

Riley will catch Pearson with a few shots as he will be a bit reluctant to engage early considering this is the first main event fight of the evening.

But once Pearson gets more comfortable, his youthful energy and hard-headedness will allow him to outlast the older, more worn-down Riley. Pearson will be able to use his wrestling to get inside of Riley to deliver some shots via dirty boxing, and he might have a shot to get the fight to the ground for some ground and pound as well.

While Pearson has a few holes in his game, he showed a lot in winning The Ultimate Fighter Season 9 and he is a solid bet here as the underdog to take home a win against the less-explosive Riley in this fight.

The pick: Ross Pearson (+155).