The UFC returned to Brazil on Saturday as UFC Fight Night 51 gave us an 11-fight card from Brasilia, Brazil. All told, seven favorites came through on the evening, while three underdogs cashed, including a big upset by Andrei Arlovski in the main event. The eleventh bout was one of the rare fights that closed as an exact pick em (-105 on each side) at Several Bookmakers. Keep reading to see how all the action played out. Favorites that cashed 23 UFC bouts later, and Gleison Tibau is still around beating quality fighters. He moved his UFC record to 15-8 with a typically Tibau-esque split decision victory over Piotr Hallmann. Tibau came out and landed good strikes early, controlled the grappling and faded late to let the Pole back into the fight. Still, has he has so often been able to do, the big Brazilian held on for the decision and cashed at -235 (bet $235 to win $100). Leonardo Santos seems like he’s going to end up the Mac Danzig of TUF Brazil winners. He used his experience to win on the show, but was at his peak during his TUF run and hasn’t done anything to impress since. That held true against fellow TUF champion Efrain Escudero, as although Santos picked up the unanimous decision, the bout was much closer than most expected and Escudero had him hurt in the second round. Santos closed as a -210 favorite. Iuri Alcantara showed off his fantastic offensive arsenal and his complete disregard for wrestling all in one fight, but his offense was enough to get the nod from the judges against Russell Doane. Bettors may have been sweating the judges’ scorecards after Doane was able to take Alcantara down repeatedly throughout the bout, but in the end it was unanimous for the -315 favorite. The line was back-and-forth in the women’s bantamweight bout between Jessica Andrade and Larissa Pacheco all week, but in the end the opening numbers were the most accurate. Andrade opened at -195 and ended up closing a very slight -110, meaning that sportsbooks cleaned up when she dominated Larissa Pacheco on the ground before scoring a submission late in the first round. Godofredo Pepey is a star in Brazil. There’s no two ways about it. The TUF Brazil 1 runner-up has seen mixed results in the UFC, but he’s always in fun fights and picked up a fantastic armbar victory over Dashon Johnson on Saturday. Those with faith in the Brazilian were rewarded as his line closed at -130, and looked like a steal shortly thereafter. Francisco Trinaldo is making a habit of winning third rounds lately, and those late charges have earned him decisions in two of his past three fights. Trinaldo seemed to be back to his old cardio-deficient ways in round two as Leandro Silva took his back and dominated the round, but the 36-year-old persevered and took the decision as a -185 favorite. The thought process by many bettors is that Paulo Thiago doesn’t have much left in the tank, and that was the reason behind picking and betting Sean Spencer. That was the right line of thought, as despite Spencer not looking great, Thiago had nothing to offer. The American went into the Brazilian’s hometown a -235 favorite and came out with his hand raised after 15 minutes. Underdogs that cashed In the main event of the evening Andrei Arlovski put in his best performance this decade, looking like he had his old quickness back and demolishing ‘Bigfoot’ Silva in the first round. The lumbering Brazilian was unable to get his hands on Arlovski like in their 2010 Strikeforce bout, and the former champion was able to earn his biggest win since leaving the UFC back in 2008. He was a +380 underdog (bet $100 to win $380) when the opening bell rang, and provided yet another reminder how few favorites in heavyweight MMA are safe. In a bit of a trend on the prelims, the late money was right on George Sullivan. After sitting around +150 for most of the week, Sullivan saw action on fight day bring him down to +120, and he did not disappoint. Sullivan was even more impressive than in his UFC debut win over Mike Rhodes, as he stopped Igor Araujo with ground-and-pound in the second. In the opening bout of the evening, Rani Yahya got his revenge over Johnny Bedford, locking up a nasty kimura in the second round after a scramble-filled contest. Yahya closed as a +115 underdog after a lot of late money came in on the Brazilian, and those late bettors turned out to be right. Pick em bouts Santiago Ponzinibbio and Wendell Oliveira were dead even at -105 according to sportsbooks heading into their welterweight bout. Just 80 seconds later however, Oliveira was waking up against the cage and asking the referee why he stopped the bout. Ponzinibbio rocked the man formerly known as ‘War Machine’, pushed him back to the cage, and then unloaded a salvo which put Oliveira out and forced the ref to step in, picking up his first UFC win.
