ONE Championship 70: Iron Will takes place Saturday, March 24 at Impact Arena in Bangkok, Thailand. The odds for the following bouts were released at the Euro sportsbooks:
ONE Championship 70 Opening Odds
Bibiano Fernandes (for bantamweight title) -260
Martin Nguyen +180
Garry Tonon -750
Richard Corminal +450
Zhao Zhi Kang -530
Waqar Umar +350
D.S. Amnuaysirichoke -245
Jeremy Miado +175
Saygid Guseyn Arslanaliev -280
Tetsuya Yamada +200
Shannon Wiratchai -900
Rahul Raju +500
My initial thoughts on the opening odds are as follows: – I absolutely love this main event between Bibiano Fernandez (21-3) and Martin Nguyen (10-1). If you don’t know already, Nguyen is the ONE lightweight and featherweight champion and is making the drop down to bantamweight to try and win a third belt. That would make MMA history if he did so. Having said that, I’m not betting against Fernandes in any situation. This is a guy I’ve been betting on for years and he’s come through in flying colors with 13-straight wins. Even at age 37 I still think he has a lot left in the tank as he hasn’t taken much damage during his MMA career. Nguyen has won six-straight fights and has looked awesome. At age 29, he’s right in his prime and should continue to improve. Having said that, he’s cutting down to 135lbs for the first time in his career and I have no idea if he’ll even make weight, and even if he does, if it will drain his body. As good as Nguyen has looked in ONE, I don’t think betting against Fernandes is a good idea. He might lose eventually but I think he defends his title once again here, and likely does so by submission.
– The other “big” fight here is the MMA debut for BJJ specialist Garry Tonon (0-0), who fights an overmatched Richard Corminal (4-3) in the co-main event. ONE clearly sees big things for Tonon in the MMA world and the promotion’s matchmakers have given him an easy fight against a guy who was just choked out in his last fight. I’m not sure if Tonon ever reaches championship heights in MMA, but I’d be shocked if he lost this debut fight. There likely isn’t any value in the opening betting line but there’s no number out there that would make me want to play Corminal.
– For an underdog to take a look at, I think Tetsuya Yamada (24-5-2) has a chance to dethrone Saygid Guseyn Arslanaliev (4-1). Yamada is on a seven-fight win streak and he’s a guy with a ton of experience, having fought the likes of Maximo Blanco and Ronnie Mann back in Sengoku. I have to say the fact he fought eight times in 2017 is a concern as far as damage taken goes, but at the same time it just shows what kind of momentum he has right now. Arslanaliev has looked awesome so far in his career but the fact he hasn’t got out of the first round is worrisome as he might gas if this fight goes into the second or third round. At these odds I’ll be banking on just that to happen.
