UFC 226 takes place Saturday, July 7 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The offshore sportsbooks recently released the complete betting odds for the card, and here they are along with my initial thoughts on them.
UFC 226 Opening Odds
Stipe Miocic -170
Daniel Cormier +140
Max Holloway -180
Brian Ortega +140
Francis Ngannou -230
Derrick Lewis +170
Michael Chiesa -150
Anthony Pettis +110
Gokhan Saki -180
Khalil Rountree +140
Paulo Costa -290
Uriah Hall +210
Jamie Moyle -350
Emily Whitmire +250
Raphael Assuncao -270
Rob Font +190
Mike Perry -160
Yancy Medeiros +120
Curtis Millender -190
Max Griffin +150
Dan Hooker -160
Gilbert Burns +120
Lando Vannata -245
Drakkar Klose +175
And my thoughts on these fights: – I have previously given my thoughts on some of these bouts. To see my thoughts on Holloway vs. Ortega, go here. To see my thoughts on Chiesa vs. Pettis and Ngannou vs. Lewis, go here.
– As for the other fights I haven’t previously written about, wow, this card is stacked with good ones. Let’s start with the Saki vs. Rountree fight. I absolutely love this fight as I’m expecting a standup war between two excellent strikers. Saki (1-1) had a successful UFC debut with a brutal KO win over Henrique da Silva. He showed in that fight that he has excellent striking technique and brutal power due to his vast experience as a kickboxer, though his cardio in that fight concerned me. Rountree (6-2, 1 NC) is 2-2, 1 NC in the UFC and has been very hit-or-miss overall in the Octagon. We’ve seen him score a few brutal knockouts, but we’ve also seen him lose to some opponents he should have beaten. Overall, I think the opening line is a tad high in Saki’s favor, but I do slightly lean towards him since this is a standup fight and he should be the better striker. But then again, it’s not a kickboxing match, it’s MMA, so we’ll see.
– Headed to the stacked preliminary card, Costa vs. Hall should also be another striker’s delight. Costa (11-0) is 3-0 in the UFC with three knockouts and the UFC vews him as a future ticket seller for them in Brazil. Hall (13-8) is 6-6 in the UFC and is coming off of a KO win over Krzysztof Jotko. At times Hall has looked like a world beater but he’s been so inconsistent and is hard to trust with your money. I understand why Costa is heavily favored here and I agree with it, but since the opener went up Costa has been steamed up 100 cents. I don’t know if I’d want to lay that kind of heavy juice against Hall, considering some of the upsets he’s scored in the past.
– For a dog upset, I have my eye on the Vannata vs. Klose fight. As flashy as Vannata (9-2-1) has been, he’s only 1-2-1 in the UFC and has been a pretty poor bet overall despite his talent. At times Vannata has looked like a world beater but at other times he has looked like an average fighter. Klose (8-0-1) is 2-1 in the UFC and while he did look awful against David Teymur in his last fight, I feel like he can bounce back here with a win. At these odds I am leaning towards the dog in what should be a close fight.
