UFC Vegas 24: Whittaker vs. Gastelum takes place on Saturday, April 17 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 24: Odds
Robert Whittaker -275
Kelvin Gastelum +250
Drakkar Klose -110
Jeremy Stephens -110
Andrei Arlovski -130
Chase Sherman +110
Abdul Razak Alhassan -250
Jakob Malkoun +285
Tracy Cortez -235
Justine Kish +200
Lupita Godinez -185
Jessica Penne +155
Bill Aleo -110
Ricardo Ramos -110
Bartosz Fabinski -150
Gerald Meerschaert +130
Luis Pena -175
Alex Munoz +150
Alexander Romanov -115
Juan Espino -115
Austin Hubbard -175
Dakota Bush +145
Josiane Nunes -175
Zarah Fairn +145
Tony Gravely -205
Anthony Birchak +175
Here are my quick thoughts on the UFC Vegas 24: Opening Odds:
- We are back this weekend with another great UFC card. This event is headlined by middleweight rivals Robert Whittaker (23-5) and Kelvin Gastelum (17-6, 1 NC). If you remember, these two were supposed to fight back in 2019 after they coached TUF: Heavy Hitters, but Whittaker was forced to withdraw on the day of the fight due to a medical issue. Here we are two years later and this fight will finally happen after Gastelum stepped up on short notice for Paulo Costa, who is dealing with an illness. This should be a really good fight and the winner might be next in line for a rematch with UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya. Since getting knocked out by the champ in 2019, Whittaker has picked up back-to-back wins over Jared Cannonier and Darren Till to re-emerge as a legitimate title contender. As for Gastelum, he is coming off of a unanimous decision win over Ian Heinisch that snapped his own three-fight losing skid. Stylistically, I expect a standup war between these two. Whittaker opened up as a big favorite here, and given his recent form, it’s hard to argue against it. Then again, Gastelum has been known to pull off the occasional upset in the UFC.
- In the co-main event, Jeremy Stephens (28-18, 1 NC) takes on Drakkar Klose (11-2-1). It’s worth noting that Stephens is returning to the UFC lightweight division after spending the last eight years as primarily a featherweight. He has had a ton of success in his UFC career, but Stephens is currently on a five-fight winless skid and quite frankly does not look like the same fighter he once was. That being said, this matchup with Klose should be interesting given that Klose was knocked out by Beneil Dariush in his last fight. He has no problem standing and banging, which could leave openings for Stephens to end the fight. Then again, if Klose chooses to wrestler, that might be his clearest path to victory. It should be exciting either way.
- I also want to point out a welterweight bout between Abdul Razak Alhassan (10-3) and Jacob Malkoun (4-1). Alhassan was at one point in time looking like a serious prospect at welterweight, but he’s coming off of back-to-back losses to Mounir Lazzez and Khaos Williams and he appears to be on a bit of a decline. That being said, this should be a favorable matchup here against Malkoun, who was knocked out by Phil Hawes in his UFC debut in quick order. I don’t think Malkoun is going to have the chin to withstand Alhassan’s insane KO power.
