Yesterday, MMA oddsmaker Nick Kalikas opened the betting lines for all of the televised bouts taking place at the UFC on Fox 11 card this Saturday in Orlando, Florida. There are an additional three fights on the card that will be airing only on UFC Fight Pass, and those lines were opened today at Several Bookmakers. While the Fight Pass prelims are often derided for their quality, two of these three bouts are excellent, even if most fans aren’t familiar with the names involved. The third, well that bout is in the heavyweight division, so draw your own conclusions. Take a look at the full opening betting odds for UFC on Fox 11 below, and note the three new lines at the bottom: ——————– MAIN CARD (Fox, 8pm ET) Travis Browne -210 Fabricio Werdum +160 Miesha Tate -165 Liz Carmouche +125 Donald Cerrone -140 Edson Barboza +100 Yoel Romero -150 Brad Tavares +110 ——————– PRELIMINARY CARD (Fox Sports 1, 5pm ET) Khabib Nurmagomedov -185 Rafael dos Anjos +145 Thiago Alves -350 Seth Baczynski +250 Jorge Masvidal -190 Pat Healy +150 Estevan Payan -165 Alex White +125 Caio Magalhaes -280 Luke Zachrich +200 Jordan Mein -385 Hernani Perpetuo +265 ——————– PRELIMINARY CARD (Fox Sports 1, 3:30pm ET) Dustin Ortiz -215 Ray Borg +165 Chas Skelly -175 Mirsad Bektic +135 Derrick Lewis -315 Jack May +235 ——————– Brad’s Analysis: Dustin Ortiz will probably be at a high point as far as respect goes from most fans and bettors, coming off of a very close decision loss to John Moraga (a fight most thought he deserved). Even still, that doesn’t mean he’s a sure thing against Ray Borg. Borg is making his UFC debut, and doing so on short notice, both negatives. However, he just put together a phenomenal performance on AXS TV two weeks ago and has the strong, aggressive grappling style that has given Ortiz issues in the past. This could be one of those fights that lots of people pick and throw into parlays blindly that will come back to bite them. The two remaining bouts (both comprised of UFC newcomers), are also very interesting. Skelly/Bektic is actually one of the fights I’m looking forward to most on the whole card, as I’ve had my eyes on both for a long time outside of the UFC. I lean Bektic because of his superior overall game, but if Skelly is able to put him on his back for 15 minutes I wouldn’t be shocked either. In the Team Takedown spectrum, Skelly is definitely more Shane Roller than Johny Hendricks. He still needs to refine his game on the feet, and that could cause issues for him, as I only see his grappling being able to control, not submit, Bektic. If he’s even able to do that. The other bout is between a pair of debuting heavyweights. Even at the best of times heavyweights are barely to be trusted in MMA betting, but coupled with two guys who like to throw hard and have 14 of their combined 16 wins by TKO it’s tough to be too confident in a side early in this one. Lewis will take over late because he’s got a huge cardio edge here, so you have to side with him overall. Even the under in this one isn’t a lock as Lewis has proven durable in his losses, and doesn’t necessarily get the quick KOs that one would associate with a heavyweight possessing solid power. This is a very tricky bout to bet in any matter whatsoever, and one I’ll pass completely.
