After UFC on FX 8 was dominated by Brazilians this past Saturday, the Octagon comes back stateside and sets up at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada for a card that is quite literally, top heavy. UFC 160 will be headlined by a Heavyweight Title bout between Cain Velasquez and Antonio Silva. The co-main event will feature former champion Junior dos Santos going up against the shockingly surging Mark Hunt in what will likely prove a number one contender’s bout. The lines for those two fights, as well as five others on the card, have already been released, but today the full betting odds for the event were opened by MMA oddsmaker Nick Kalikas on Several Bookmakers. Take a look: ——————– MAIN CARD Cain Velasquez -585 Antonio Silva +385 Junior dos Santos -460 Mark Hunt +320 Glover Teixeira -300 James Te Huna +220 Gray Maynard -245 T.J. Grant +175 Donald Cerrone -275 K.J. Noons +195 ——————– PRELIMINARY CARD (FX) Rick Story -210 Mike Pyle +160 Dennis Bermudez -210 Max Holloway +160 Colton Smith -130 Robert Whittaker -110 Khabib Nurmagomedov -350 Abel Trujillo +250 ——————– PRELIMINARY CARD (FACEBOOK) Stephen Thompson -140 Nah-Shon Burrell +100 Brian Bowles -380 George Roop +260 Jeremy Stephens -230 Estevan Payan +170 ——————– Brad’s Analysis: First, I’ll point out the the new lines from this group are for the Bermudez/Holloway, Smith/Whittaker, and the three Facebook fights. From those lines, I find two interesting. The first is Dennis Bermudez’s line against Max Holloway. Even though Bermudez is opening over a 2-to-1 favorite, Holloway seems like a good matchup for him. Bermudez showed incredible resilience in his last bout against Matt Grice — although his propensity to get hit a ton is worrisome — and he has a huge wrestling and grappling advantage over Holloway, who was taken down a couple of times against Leonard Garcia in his last bout, which many felt he lost. I like Bermudez here, and could see him being a parlay leg on this card. The other line which intrigues me, but one which I would advise to wait before betting, is Nah-Shon Burrell being an underdog against Stephen Thompson. Thompson was an incredibly hyped “prospect” (he is 30, after all) coming into his UFC debut and subsequent second appearance against Matt Brown, and he laid an egg in that fight. His cardio was lacklustre, his wrestling was the same, and he offered no offense from his back. Burrell, who is actually a prospect at 23 years-old, doesn’t rely on his wrestling as a primary weapon, but should have the ability to mix in takedowns in this fight to keep Thompson off-balance. Also be sure to check out the MMA Oddsbreaker show segments for four of the five main card bouts, as they can be found on the main page.
