UFC Vegas 19: Blaydes vs. Lewis takes place on Saturday, February 20 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada. The offshore sportsbooks recently opened up the betting odds for the event, and MMAOB staff writer Adam Martin takes a look at the opening odds below.
UFC Vegas 19 Odds
Curtis Blaydes -300
Derrick Lewis +250
Ketlen Vieira -275
Yana Kunitskaya +225
Chris Daukaus -140
Aleksei Oleinik +120
Charles Rosa -145
Darrick Minner +125
Tom Aspinall -275
Andrei Arlovski +235
Jamall Emmers -140
Chas Skelly +120
Jared Gordon -180
Danny Chavez +155
Casey O’Neill -185
Shana Dobson +160
Sergey Spivak -225
Jared Vanderaa +190
Eddie Wineland -150
John Castenada +130
Nate Landwehr -159
Julian Erosa +131
Drako Rodriguez -204
Aiemann Zahabi +167
Phil Hawes -118
Nassourdine Imavov -102
Rafael Alves -175
Pat Sabatini +150
Drakkar Klose -135
Luis Pena +115
Here are my quick thoughts on the UFC Vegas 19 Opening Odds:
- The main event features two of the top heavyweights in the UFC going at it for five rounds or less as Curtis Blaydes (14-2) meets Derrick Lewis (24-7). Blaydes has won his last four fights including a dominant decision over Alexander Volkov last June in his last outing. We know how dominant Blaydes is with his wrestling and he will be looking to land the takedown in this bout against the big puncher Lewis, who rides into this fight on a three-fight winning streak. Lewis will be looking to keep this fight standing and catch Blaydes with a big bomb on the chin, while Blaydes will be looking for the takedown. The oddsmakers believe that Blaydes will be more successful with his gameplan, and he opened as a big favorite for this fight with Lewis.
- The co-main event features a pair of women’s bantamweight contenders as Ketlen Vieira (11-1) takes on Yana Kunitsyana (13-5). Vieira has gone 5-1 in the UFC, while Kunitskaya is 3-2. Both women are primarily grapplers so there is a very good chance this fight ends up on the mat where both women do their best work. Vieira is a bit younger and has had more success in the UFC so far so she’s the favorite here, but Kunitskaya makes it an interesting matchup.
- Another fight on this card that I really like is a featherweight bout between Charles Rosa (13-4) and Darrick Minner (25-11). Rosa has been in the UFC since 2014 and has a 4-4 record in the promotion overall, having struggled to put together any sort of winning streak of more than one fight in a row. At times he has shown flashes of brilliance, but generally, he has been very inconsistent in the UFC despite all of his talents. As for Minner, he’s 1-1 in the UFC and is coming off of an amazing submission win over TJ Laramie as a big underdog in his last fight. In general, Minner is extremely deadly in the first round with his submission abilities but he tends to fade after that. Rosa is going to have to be very mindful of Minner’s early onslaught. If he’s not careful, Rosa could get tapped in the first round. Then again, if Minner isn’t able to get a quick submission, it could be a situation where Rosa comes back and wins this fight later on.
- With 15 fights on tap, this looks like a fantastic card with many betting opportunities available.
