The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is back in Las Vegas this tomorrow night (Jan. 31st, 2015) with 12 scheduled bouts, including a five-fight main card that will be live on Pay Per View at 10pm ET. Preliminary action will precede it on FOX Sports 1 at 8pm ET and UFC Fight Pass at 7pm ET. If interested in betting on this fight card, all lines will be made available at Several Bookmakerss. Getting the action started for the evening’s Pay Per View card will be a barn-burner that comes in the welterweight division. In his return to the Octagon following yet another unfortunate injury, Thiago “Pitbull” Alves is set to take on surging 25-year old prospect Jordan “Young Gun” Mein. Alves and Mein are both excellent strikers, and their arsenals are expected to be in full display tomorrow night. Fireworks are in order. Mein opened as a -145 favorite at the sportsbooks, with Alves being a slight +105 underdog. After some back and forth action, current lines are -140/+120. Up next is a middleweight match-up that sees Tim “The Barbarian” Boetsch again embrace the role of the underdog when he takes on the Brazilian Thales Leites. Boetsch will be aiming to score yet another upset, while Leites will be looking to make it 5-0 since his return to the UFC’s 185-pound division. Boetsch opened as a +190 underdog in this contest, with Leites being favored to win at -270. Action, however, has since come in on the Brazilian in heavy loads, bringing betting lines to the current +380/-475. Middling the main card is a highly anticipated lightweight match-up between Long Island’s “Raging” Al Iaquinta and Massachusetts native Joe “J-Lau” Lauzon. With both fighters making it no secret that they are looking to finish, this is one fight that is not expected to go the three round distance. One of these 155-pounders belongs in the top 15 of the division, and the outcome of this contest should decide who that is. A win for “J-Lau” will prove that he can still take out some of the best in the division, while a win for Iaquinta will mean that he is on his way to potentially becoming relevant in the UFC lightweight title picture. “Raging Al” presents a tough challenge for Lauzon, and at the same time, Lauzon is the biggest test of Iaquinta’s professional mixed martial arts career. Iaquinta passed his last test with flying colors, defeating Ross Pearson via second round TKO. Now comes time to see what he can do with a quick turnaround following the November 2014 victory. Iaquinta opened as a small -135 favorite over Lauzon at the sportsbooks, with the return on Lauzon being -105. However, action has since poured in on the Serra-Longo product, making current betting lines -190/+165. Co-headlining the UFC 183 Pay Per View card is a three round welterweight bout between the undefeated Kelvin Gastelum and knockout-artist Tyron Woodley. This is a fight that could prove to be an instant classic, and surely one no fight fan should want to skip. For Gastelum, Woodley presents the biggest challenge of his professional mixed martial arts career, and with a victory, the undefeated Mexican-American will firmly be in the mix for a shot at Robbie Lawler and his 170-pound title. For Woodley, Saturday night will be an opportunity to derail Gastelum’s road to fulfilling his championship dreams, while simultaneously putting himself right back in the thick of things. Gastelum opened as a-150 favorite in this contest, with Woodley being a slight +110 underdog at the sportsbooks. Action has since come in on Woodley, bringing betting lines to the current -120/+100. The main event for UFC 183 is the first “superfight” in recent UFC history, and it comes in the middleweight division featuring the return of two of the biggest stars in all of mixed martial arts in Anderson “The Spider” Silva and Nick Diaz. With a victory, Silva very well could earn another shot at Chris Weidman and his UFC gold. Diaz is stepping up from 170 pounds to 185 pounds for this contest, and as always, fight fans expect him to leave it all in the Octagon and no less is expected from his Brazilian counterpart. Silva vs Diaz is strange matchmaking, and I was not one that was particularly thrilled with the pairing. Tomorrow night is likely to prove two things; either it turns out to be a true gift for fight fans, or everybody regrets that it was ever put together. The tale will be told live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Silva opened as a considerable -405 favorite in this five round main event bout, with the return on the underdog Diaz being +285. Action has since come in on the former UFC champ, bringing current betting lines to -470/+375.
