PFL 2019: Week 9 takes place Thursday, October 31 at Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. The offshore sportsbooks recently opened up the betting odds for the full card, and here they are.
PFL 2019: Week 9 Opening Odds
Alex Nicholson -116
Francimar Barroso -116
Denis Goltsov -345
Satoshi Ishii +260
Muhammed Dereese -286
Jared Rosholt +220
Ali Isayev -455
Kelvin Tiller +330
Rashid Yusupov -185
Vinny Magalhaes +155
Maxim Grishin -116
Jordan Johnson -116
Viktor Nemkov -185
Bazigit Ataev +155
Emiliano Sordi -556
Sigi Pesaleli +390
And here are my initial thoughts on the PFL 2019: Week 9 Opening Odds:
- In the third playoff edition of PFL’s 2019 season, the light heavyweights and heavyweights will compete for the right to go to the finals. Remember the winning fighters will compete twice in one night.
- In the heavyweight division, we have three fights with a heavy favorite and one fight that’s a Pick ’em. As far as the fights with heavy favorites go, I definitely favor both Goltsov and Isaev to advance to the next round. Both fighters are much better than their opponents and I’d be surprised if either lost. Not surprisingly they’re both gigantic favorites. However, I do think there’s upset potential in the Dereese vs. Rosholt fight. Dereese has finishing ability and could very well knock Rosholt out, but you can’t discount Rosholt’s wrestling abilities. For all his faults he’s a very strong wrestler and could pick up and upset win just based on takedowns alone. As for the Pick ’em fight between Barroso and Nicholson, this is the closest heavyweight fight scheduled, but I do favor Barroso. He is the older fighter of the two, but he has far more experience and is more well-rounded.
- The light heavyweight fights should be more competitive than the heavyweight fights, at least according to the odds. The one big favorite is Sordi, who takes on Pesaleli in what by all accounts should be a blowout. Sordi has been extremely impressive in this season of PFL and has far more experience than Pesaleli, who only advanced to the playoffs because his other opponents couldn’t both to make weight. Sordi should be able to get a first-round stoppage win, and he’s a strong favorite to advance all the way to the finals. Two other fights have solid favorite in Yusupov and Nemkov. It’s a situation where both fighters are taking on dangerous opponents, but at the same time I’d be surprised if both men lost. The final fight is a Pick ’em bout between Grishin and Johnson. At one point, Johnson was a top prospect in the UFC but he’s really struggled so far in PFL. Grishin is more experienced and has looked better in PFL. At these odds you have to go with Grishin to get his hand raised and quite frankly it looks like there’s some good value on him at Pick ’em odds.
- Overall the light heavyweight bouts have more upset potential than the heavyweight bouts, but then again it’s PFL, and we’ve seen plenty of big upsets so far during this year’s playoffs. Don’t be surprised if a few of the big favorites go down. It’s just hard to predict who they will be.
