UFC on ESPN+ 24 takes place Saturday, January 25 at PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina. The offshore sportsbooks recently opened up the betting odds for the full card, and here they are.
UFC on ESPN+ 24 Opening Odds
Curtis Blaydes -185
Junior dos Santos +145
Rafael dos Anjos -215
Michael Chiesa +165
Alex Perez -280
Jordan Espinosa +220
Arnold Allen -265
Nik Lentz +185
Hannah Cifers -135
Angela Hill +105
Darko Stosic -126
Jamahal Hill -104
Bevon Lewis -350
Dequan Townsend +275
Lucie Pudilova -150
Justine Kish +120
Brett Johns -215
Tony Gravely +175
Montel Jackson -700
Felipe Colares +500
Nate Landwehr -140
Herbert Burns +110
Lina Lansberg -150
Sara McMann +120
And here are my initial thoughts on the UFC on ESPN+ 24 Opening Odds:
- The first Fight Night card of the year should be a fun one. In the main event two of the best heavyweights in the sport go at it as Blaydes takes on dos Santos. Blaydes has looked incredible in the UFC aside from his two losses to Francis Ngannou, going 7-2, 1 NC with four knockouts. His wrestling is incredible and his ground-and-pound is just nasty. JDS is, of course, a former champ and has proven with his 15-5 record in the UFC that he’s one of the best heavyweights of all time. He’s also coming off of a loss to Ngannou, but had won three straight fights before that. Considering Blaydes has the wrestling and the youth on his side, he deserves to be favored here. But JDS and his knockout power is a huge wildcard.
- The co-main event is a very intriguing fight between RDA and Chiesa. RDA is just 4-3 since moving up to welterweight but he has been fighting elite competition and has been mostly competitive in his fights. Chiesa looked fantastic in his first two welterweight wins over Diego Sanchez and Carlos Condit but RDA is a big step up. The odds seem a big high here on RDA considering how good Chiesa has looked, but RDA’s pedigree gives him the slight lean.
- Two fighters who lost their original opponents were Allen and Lentz and the UFC has now matched them up. Allen has gone 6-0 in the Octagon and he and could be a real sleeper in the UFC featherweight division. Lentz is the ultimate grinder and is 14-7-1, 1 NC all-time in the UFC. After spending the last five years at lightweight he’s moving back down to featherweight and I’m not sure it’s the right decision. I’m very high on Allen and even though Lentz has the wrestling advantage I still think Allen is the more well-rounded mixed martial artist and will win.
- Looking down the card, the biggest favorite on the card is Jackson over Corales. Jackson is 2-1 in the UFC and has looked pretty good, but I’m just very surprised he opened as the biggest favorite on the entire card. It’s not like Corales is a total can as he picked up a nice upset win over Domingo Pilarte in his last fight. The odds just seem kind of crazy here. We saw a couple of massive upsets last weekend at UFC 246, and maybe another could be brewing here.
