A pivotal heavyweight bout between Ciryl Gane and Alexander Volkov headlines UFC Vegas 30 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada on June 29.
The winner of Gane and Volkov could be the next title challenger at heavyweight after Francis Ngannou and Derrick Lewis likely have their rematch. However, Jon Jones is also on the sidelines so the stakes of this fight is uncertain.
UFC Vegas 30 Opening Odds:
Ciryl Gane -135
Alexander Volkov +115
Gane and Volkov’s recent fights
Ciryl Gane (8-0) is coming off a lackluster decision win over Jairzinho Rozenstruik in his first UFC main event back in February. Before that, he knocked out Junior dos Santos at UFC 25. He’s 5-0 in the UFC with other wins over Tanner Boser by decision and submission wins over Don’Tale Mayes and Raphael Pessoa. The Frenchman fought for the TKO heavyweight title in his pro debut.
Alexander Volkov (33-8) is on a two-fight winning streak and coming off back-to-back TKO wins over Walt Harris at UFC 254 and Alistair Overeem in the main event of UFC Vegas 18. The Russian is 7-2 in the UFC with his losses coming by decision to Curtis Blades where he was outwrestled and was knocked out by Derrick Lewis. He does hold notable wins over Fabricio Werdum, Stefan Struve, and Roy Nelson among others inside the Octagon.
Are the odds surprising?
I’m not surprised that Gane opened as a small favorite as he is someone the oddsmakers and public have liked to back. He’s been the betting favorite in all of his UFC fights and has opened above -300 three fights with the only two times he wasn’t he opened as a -28- favorite against Tanner Boser and a -270 favorite against JDS but closed well above -400 in both of them.
Volkov, meanwhile, hasn’t gotten a ton of respect as he opened as an underdog against Overeem in his last fight but ended up closing as the favorite. He was also a sizeable underdog to Curtis Blaydes and was only a -175 favorite against both Walt Harris and Greg Hardy.
How might the odds change?
I do think the odds were set perfectly where you will see two-way action on both men. Already we have seen the fluctuate where some books have him Volkov at +125 while others have him around +100.
When the two step into the Octagon I do expect Gane to be the slight favorite around -125 but I wouldn’t be surprised if the odds held at the current price.
