UFC Vegas 54: Blachowicz vs. Rakic takes place on Saturday, May 14 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 54 Odds
Aleksandar Rakic -150
Jan Blachowicz +130
Ion Cutelaba -175
Ryan Spann +145
Davey Grant -275
Louis Smolka +235
Manuel Torres -225
Frank Camacho +190
Katlyn Chookagian -175
Amanda Ribas +150
Jake Hadley -300
Allan Nascimento +250
Michael Johnson -139
Alan Patrick +110
Virna Jandiroba -140
Angela Hill +120
Andrea Lee -145
Viviane Araujo +125
Tatsuro Taira -250
Carlos Candelario +210
Nick Maximov -250
Andre Petroski +210
Here are my quick thoughts on the UFC Vegas 54 Opening Odds:
- The main event of UFC Vegas 54 is a five-round light heavyweight bout between former champion Jan Blachowicz and top contender Aleksandar Rakic. Blachowicz lost his belt in his last outing when he got tapped out by Glover Teixeira in the first round. That snapped a five-fight win steak for Blachowicz, a win steak that included a notable win over UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya. Seeing Blachowicz get tapped out by Teixeira was very surprising, and it makes you wonder if he is finally seeing a decline at age 39. As for Rakic, he is coming off of back-to-back wins over Anthony Smith and Thiago Santos, although both fights were not exciting. At age 30, he’s much more in his prime, and Rakic opened as the small favorite here.
- The co-main event is also a light heavyweight bout, this one between Ion Cutelaba and Ryan Spann. Cutelaba is coming off of a great win over Devin Clark to snap a three-fight winless skid, while Spann was most recently submitted by Anthony Smith. This should be an interesting light heavyweight fight, but given how dominant Cutelaba has been with his wrestling in his last two fights, you would have to give him the slight lean here to defeat Spann.
