UFC Fight Night 134 takes place Sunday, July 22 at Barclaycard Arena in Hamburg, Germany. The opening odds were recently released by the offshore sportsbooks, and here they are.
UFC Fight Night 134 Opening Odds
Anthony Smith -175
Mauricio Rua +135
Glover Teixeira -300
Corey Anderson +220
Abu Azaitar -165
Vitor Miranda +125
Marcin Tybura -175
Stefan Struve +135
Danny Roberts -420
David Zawada +300
Marc Diakese -305
Nasrat Haqparast +225
Nick Hein -175
Damir Hadzovic +135
Emil Meek -285
Bartosz Fabinski +205
Nad Narimani -215
Khalid Taha +165
Justin Ledet -175
Aleksandar Rakic +145
Manny Bermudez -245
Davey Grant +195
Darko Stosic -230
Jeremy Kimball +170
Pingyuan Liu -140
Damian Stasiak +100
And here are some of my initial thoughts on these opening lines:
– I feel like Smith is a bit undervalued in this main event slot against Rua. Smith (29-13) is coming off of a huge KO win over Rashad Evans and looked amazing in his light heavyweight debut. I think not cutting weight is going to held him immensely as far as his chin goes, and we already know he has a ton of knockout power. Rua (25-10) is coming off of three straight wins but he’s been on the decline for a while now and even his current win streak isn’t that impressive if you look closely. I think Rua has more experience against better competition and has had a full training camp, but I really think Smith has what it takes to get the knockout here.
– I also like the favorite in the co-main event as I expect Teixeira to dispatch of Anderson. Teixeira (27-6) only loses to the best of the best in the UFC light heavyweight division and smashes everyone else. He’s coming off of a destructive TKO win over Misha Cirkunov and can’t be too far away from a title shot right now. Anderson (10-4) recently beat Pat Cummins to get back into the win column but was brutally knocked out his two fights before that. Anderson is a solid fighter with potential but I just feel like Teixeira is way too big of a step up for him and I fully expect Teixeira to get the knockout here, and possibly get a title shot after.
– Another guy I really like on the main card is Tybura, who fights Struve in an important heavyweight affair. Tybura (16-4) is coming off of two straight losses but prior to that had won three straight fights and was looking like a heayweight star. Don’t forget his losses came against highly-ranked Fabricio Werdum and Derrick Lewis. Struve (28-10) is coming off of an ugly loss to Andrei Arlovski which is really bad in the year 2018. In the fight before that, he was knocked out by Alexander Volkov, his sixth knockout loss in the UFC alone. That’s not good at all. I don’t trust Struve’s chin, and I think Tybura has what it takes to knock him out in brutal fashion.
– For the prelims, one dog I have my eye on is Hadzovic, who fights Hein in a lightweight bout. Hadzovic (11-4) is just 1-2 in the UFC but his lone win showed what kind of knockout power he has as he viciously finished Marcin Held with his knee. I still feel like we haven’t seen the best of Hadzovic inside the Octagon. Hein (14-3-1) is coming off of a submission loss to Davi Ramos. That’s not that bad of a loss but when you really look at Hein’s record you’ll see he’s mostly beaten inferior competition. Hein doesn’t finish fights, and while he does have solid wrestling, I think he’s going to run into problems against guys that can finish fights like Hadzovic. I honestly thought Hadzovic was going to open as a slight favorite here, so I think there’s some value with him as an underdog here.
