UFC 106 Middleweights - Jake Rosholt (-210) vs. Kendall Grove (+165)

UFC Middleweights

November 21 - Las Vegas

JAKE ROSHOLT -210
KENDALL GROVE +165

For betting purposes, let's look at the contestants:

ROSHOLT (6-1, 4 KO's) is the -210 favorite at BetUS largely in part to his seriously impressive background in wrestling. He won an NCAA national championship at 184 pounds and two titles at 197 pounds while attending Oklahoma State, a school which itself has a rich tradition in collegiate wrestling.

It was only in 2007 that he embarked on a career in MMA, and trained at Randy Couture's gym. In his pro debut, in July of that year, he choked out Dusty Miller, and went on to win his first five pro fights before making his debut in the UFC at a "Fight Night" promotion where he was submitted on a guillotine choke in just 63 seconds by Dan Miller, the IFL champion. It obviously brought questions about him, but Miller was by far the most experienced and accomplished fighter he had encountered. He got some redemption at UFC 102, however, when he scored a beautiful arm triangle to get the submission over Chris Leben, winning "Submission of the Night" honors and a $60,000 bonus.

GROVE (10-6, 2 KO's), the +165 underdog at BetUS, is a native of Hawaii who, like Rosholt, was a high school wrestling standout but did not go the college route. He trained in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and gravitated into MMA, making his debut as a pro in Hawaii with a first-round chokeout of Tripstin Kersiano.

In his first eight pro fights, his record was unimpressive, with four wins, three losses and a no-contest. After fighting in nine different organizations, he made his first appearance in the UFC in the Ultimate Fighter 3, beating Ross Pointon, Kalib Starnes and Ed Herman to win the middleweight competition and a UFC contract. He's never made any real impact in the organization, however.

When moving up in level of competition, he knocked out Patrick Cole in one round. He did score a split decision win over the late former middleweight champ, Evan Tanner, in The Ultimate Fighter 3 finale, but Tanner's career was on the downswing at the time. Grove's last bout was not a winning one, as he dropped a unanimous decision to local hero Ricardo Almeida at UFC 101 in Philadelphia.

The thing I see about Kendall Grove is that he is always going to fall into the category of a guy who "almost gets there"; a high-level club fighter, if you will, despite his win in the Ultimate Fighter competition. He has had opportunities to win the fights that get a fighter to the next level, and he hasn't done it. So even though he's someone who walks into the Octagon with more experience than Rosholt, that's doesn't mean as much as it normally would. Relative to the price he is listed at, some are looking at him as a viable underdog, but this may be a matter of a fighter's potential that is about to be unleashed.

I know that Rosholt has not been in this thing for long, and he has some stuff to learn, but what impressed me was that he was able to rebound from the loss to Dan Miller to gain that big submission over another experienced guy like Chris Leben.