UFC Fight Night 136 takes place Saturday, September 15 at Olympic Stadium in Moscow, Russia. The offshore sportsbooks recently released the opening odds for the full card, and here they are below.
UFC Fight Night 136 Opening Odds
Mark Hunt -215
Aleksei Oleinik +165
Jan Blachowicz -130
Nikita Krylov -110
Andrei Arlovski -215
Shamil Abdurakhimov +165
Alexey Kunchenko -245
Thiago Alves +175
Petr Yan -530
Jin Soo Son +350
Rustam Khabilov -475
Kajan Johnson +325
Maribek Taisumov -350
Desmond Green +250
Khalid Murtazaliev -160
CB Dollaway +140
Magomed Ankalev -350
Marcin Prachnio +250
Jordan Johnson -175
Adam Yandiev +135
Ramazan Emeev -475
Stefan Sekulic +325
Merab Dvalishvili -350
Terrion Ware +250
And here my initial thoughts on the UFC 226 opening odds:
– The main event between Hunt and Oleinik is a massive clash of styles. Hunt is one of the premier KO artists in the UFC heavyweight division but submissions have historically been a weakness for him, while Oleinik is an incredible submission artist who has been susceptible to the knockout in his career. It’s not an easy one to call, but considering Hunt’s level of competition throughout the years, he’s the favorite in this one despite the fact he’s 45 years old. Then again, Oleinik is 41. Generally, it’s a smart idea to fade older fighters but when they’re both old, what do you do? I’ll be interested to see how the line moves by the end of fight week.
– One of the lines the books blew was Arlovski being favored over Abdurakhimov. Since opening as the favorite, the line on Arlovski has completely flipped and now he’s an underdog, which I belive is correct. I like Abdurakhimov in this fight considering his combination of knockout power and wrestling combined with the fact Arlovski is an easy fade at this point. There isn’t as much value now that Abdurakhimov is the favorite, but I still expect him to win this fight.
– There are numerous fights on the card which look like total blowouts and the lines indicate that. I see now reason why Yan, Taisumov, Kunchenko, Khabilov and Emeev shouldn’t win their fights. All of these men are huge favorites for a good reason and all of them have very favorable matchups. Also huge favorites are Ankalev and Dvalishvili, but I would be way about laying huge juice on those two guys considering how their last fights went.
– As far as underdogs go, some of the fighters I’m looking at are Dollaway, Yandiev and Krylov. I think all three of them have a good chance to come through for the upset.
