UFC Fight Night 59 Date: January 18, 2015 Arena: TD Garden City: Boston, MA The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to Boston this Sunday night (Jan. 18, 2015) with UFC Fight Night 59 and will be featuring 12 bouts, including a four-fight main card that will be live on FOX Sports 1 at 10pm ET, with a six-fight preliminary card that will precede it on the same channel at 7pm ET, and a pair of scraps preceding that on UFC Fight Pass at 6pm ET. If interested in making this parlay, or any other wagers for this UFC fight card, you will be able to do so at Several Bookmakerss. Here’s my parlay for UFC Fight Night 59’s Fight Pass Prelims: Flyweight bout: Joby Sanchez (-160) vs Tateki Matsuda (+140) Gabe’s Thoughts: Sanchez made his promotional debut against Wilson Reis on short notice back in August, replacing an injured Tim Elliott, and despite a solid performance, he lost the fight via unanimous decision on the judges’ scorecards. Matsuda also made his promotional debut on short notice, except his came in the 135 pound division, where he took on the undefeated Chris Beal. He was replacing Dustin Kimura, who himself was an injury replacement for Beal’s original opponent Rob Font. After a closely contested three rounds of action, Matsuda lost the bout via unanimous decision, and now with a full training camp under his belt for his UFC flyweight debut, I expect him to leave it all in the Octagon in an effort to pick up his first win in the promotion. On the same note, I don’t expect any different from Sanchez, as he will also be looking to impress following the Reis loss, which was the first defeat of his young professional mixed martial arts career. I think this will be a close fight and I slightly lean with the Jackson-Winklejohn MMA product Sanchez to get his hand raised when Bruce Buffer reads the judges’ scores following three competitive and entertaining rounds of action. Gabe’s Call: Sanchez by Split Decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28) Light Heavyweight bout: Matt Van Buren (+158) vs Sean O’Connell Gabe’s Thoughts: This is a fight between two light heavyweights who are capable of finishing fights and are prone to being finished themselves, so one would expect an early finish here. However, I think how they match-up against each other stylistically will make for a longer fight, likely one that goes all three rounds to a judges’ decision, despite the fact that neither of them are cardio machines. I think this could either be a close fight or a fight where one fighter figures out a way to control the other for the majority of an uneventful 15 minutes. Van Buren is coming off his first round TKO loss against Corey Anderson at the TUF 20 Finale last summer, and in his last outing, O’Connell came up short in a split decision to Gian Villante, also last summer. He is now on a two-fight skid and has his back against the wall heading into this bout, and the same could be said for Van Buren, as he looked very unimpressive in his Octagon debut. I was originally eyeing Van Buren for a live dog play, because I think the odds should be closer to a coin-flip, with Van Buren being a slight favorite. However, I see more value in the Over 1.5 rounds prop at -130 than I do in Van Buren, even though the payback on him is fairly more at +158. I could end up kicking myself if he ends up scoring an early finish, but I think regardless of the outcome, this fight will see its way past the 1.5 round mark, so rather than taking Van Buren, I’m going to take what I think is the safer play which also offers more value. The line on Van Buren at +158 is certainly better than the line on the Over 1.5 rounds at -130, but I think the -130 line offers more value, as I think Van Buren should be -120, while the Over 1.5 rounds should be -260. Gabe’s Call: Van Buren by Split Decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28) Gabe’s Recommended Parlay: Sanchez/Matsuda Over 2.5 rounds (-265) parlayed with Van Buren/O’Connell Over 1.5 rounds (-130) at +143 for 2.3u to win 3.3u
