UFC 296: Edwards vs. Covington takes place on Saturday, December 16 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The offshore sportsbooks recently opened up the betting odds for the event, and MMAOB staff writer Adam Martin looks at the opening odds below.
UFC 296 Odds
Leon Edwards -145
Colby Covington +125
Alexandre Pantoja -260
Brandon Royval +200
Shavkat Rakhmonov -300
Stephen Thompson +250
Paddy Pimblett -250
Tony Ferguson +210
Ian Garry -250
Vicente Luque +210
Bryce Mitchell -185
Josh Emmett +160
Irene Aldana -163
Karol Rosa +143
Cody Garbrandt -160
Brian Kelleher +140
Casey O’Neill -265
Ariane Lipski +225
Dustin Jacoby -155
Alonzo Menifield +125
Tagir Ulanbekov -128
Cody Durden +108
Andre Fili -200
Lucas Almeida +170
Martin Buday -200
Shamil Gaziev +170
Randy Brown -175
Muslim Salikhov +150
Here are my quick thoughts on the UFC 296 Opening Odds:
- The main event of UFC 296 is a UFC welterweight title bout between champion Leon Edwards and top contender Colby Covington. Edwards is unbeaten over his last 12 fights, including back-to-back wins over Kamaru Usman. As for Covington, he has not fought since a decision win over Jorge Masvidal back in March 2022. so it has been quite some time since he hs stepped into the cage. While Covington of course has the wrestling skills to make things interesting, overall Edwards has been more active and he has earned his favorite status here.
- The co-main event of UFC 296 is a rematch between UFC flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja and Brandon Royval. Pantoja has won his last four fights in a row, including a split decision win over Brandon Moreno at UFC 290 to take the title. It’s also worth noting Pantoja subbed Royval in 2021. Speaking of Royval, he has won his last three fights in a row and he has looked fantastic lately. That being said, we have seen this fight before and Pantoja made it look fairly easy with a first-round submission win over Royval when they fought before. Although Royval has improved since then, so has Pantoja, and he should be able to win here.
