The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) returns to the Patriot Center in Fairfax, VA for the third time in promotion history with UFC Fight Night 63, which will be headlined by a five round main event contest between top featherweights Chad “Money” Mendes and Ricardo “The Bully” Lamas. The main card action will kick off with six scheduled bouts at 1pm ET on FOX Sports 1, with a four-fight preliminary card preceding it on the same channel at 11am ET. If interested in wagering on this fight card, all betting lines will be made available at Several Bookmakerss. Kicking things off for the UFC Fight Night 63 main card on FOX Sports 1 will be a barn-burner between American Top Team’s Dustin Poirier and former Legacy FC lightweight champion Carlos Diego Ferreira. Poirier came up short in his latest outing at 145-pounds, suffering a first round TKO at the hands of Conor McGregor, and he makes the move up to 155-pounds for this contest. While he has competed at lightweight in the past, this is his first lightweight bout inside of the Octagon. Welcoming him to the division is Ferreira, a fighter whose future could potentially be in Poirier’s former division of 145-pounds. The Brazilian himself looks to rebound from a loss in his latest outing, which came against Beneil Dariush on the judges’ scorecards and marked the first defeat of his professional mixed martial arts career. A solid fight between a pair of talented scrappers, this one should get the main card rolling on a high note. It is likely this bout will be amongst the favorites to snatch the evening’s ‘Fight of the Night’ honors, when Several Bookmakers releases the lines. Poirier opened as a -150 betting favorite in this bout, with the return on the underdog Ferreira being +110. The public has backed Poirier, making current betting lines -185/+160. Next up on the evening’s main card is a featherweight bout that sees veteran Clay “The Carpenter” Guida take on Robbie “Problems” Peralta in one of the most looked-forward-to fights on the entire card. Both 145-pounders have found new homes for this bout, with Guida training at Sacramento’s Team Alpha Male, and Peralta putting time in at Montreal’s TriStar Gym. Guida and Peralta are both expected to show improvements in skill-sets, and they both aim to leave it all inside the Octagon in their efforts to return to the win column. Fight hopes keep their fingers crossed for an old school, classic Clay Guida match-up. “The Carpenter” who opened as the betting favorite in this contest at -230, with Peralta being an underdog to win at +170. Slight action has since come in on Guida, with current betting lines sitting at -250/+210. The next match-up on the UFC Fight Night 62 main card features the long-awaited return of The Ultimate Fighter Season 18 winner Julianna Pena as she takes on Russia’s Milana Dudieva. Pena carries with her into the Octagon a professional mixed martial arts record of 5-2, and Dudieva is 11-3. Both ladies are 1-0 in their UFC careers. It’s “The Venezuelan Vixen” who opened as the betting favorite in this match-up at -305, with the Russian being the underdog at +225. With what I assume has been back-and-forth action, betting lines have tightened up and sit at a current -270/+230. The UFC Fight Night 63 main card in Virginia continues when lightweights Michael Chiesa and Mitch Clarke take center stage. The Ultimate Fighter Season 15 winner Chiesa looks to rebound from a second round TKO (doctors stoppage) to Joe Lauzon, which snapped a two-fight winning streak, and his opponent Clarke from the MMA Lab in Arizona looks to make it three in a row inside the Octagon following a unanimous decision win over John Maguire and a second round submission of Al Iaquinta. It’s a rare “winner vs loser” match-up between a pair of lightweights who each own a victory over top-15 ranked Al Iaquinta, who is competing on the evening’s co-main event. In fact, they are the only two fighters Iaquinta lost to in his UFC career. Chiesa opened as the favorite to get his hand raised in this contest at the betting line of -350, with the return on his underdog opponent Clarke being +250. After some back and forth action that saw Chiesa rise as high as -420, betting lines for this contest are currently -350/+290. Next up is the aforementioned co-main event of the evening where Team Serra-Longo’s Al Iaquinta will square off against American Top Team’s Jorge Masvidal in what should be the favorite to take home the evening’s ‘Fight of the Night’ bonus. Both 155-pounders currently enjoy three-fight winning streaks, with Iaquinta’s three victories coming by way of TKO and Masvidal’s coming via unanious decision, and they will both aim to make it four in a row on Saturday night. Bobby Green was Masvidal’s original opponent for this card but pulled out due to injury and was replaced by Iaquinta, who was just coming of a TKO win over veteran Joe Lauzon. Masvidal was not happy with the opponent he received in Iaquinta, especially because Donald Cerrone was agreeing to fight him. “Gamebred” thinks that Iaquinta is a step back for him and feels he will run through the Long Islander come Saturday night. Iaquinta doesn’t think much of what Masvidal has been saying and looks to do his talking inside the Octagon. “Raging” beleves he is the best and he is out to prove it, preferably by earning his fourth straight finish in Virginia. The winner of Iaquinta vs Masvidal will take a step up the lightweight ladder and likely draw highly ranked opposition for his next outing. If you had to pick one fight on this entire card not to miss, this is it. Iaquinta opened as the underdog in this contest at +150, with Masvidal being the -190 favorite to win. Initial action came in on the Long Island native, bringing betting lines to coin-flip odds, where the public started pouring it on Masvidal and making him the favorite again, as betting lines are currently +115/-135. The main event of the evening for UFC Fight Night 63 on FOX Sports 1 is a featherweight contest between a pair of former title challengers in Chad “Money” Mendes and Ricardo “The Bully” Lamas. Mendes is coming off his second failed title shot against Jose Aldo, losing the bout via unanimous decision on the judges’ scorecards in what many considered the Fight of the Year. Meanwhile, Lamas is coming off a first round guillotine choke submission of Dennis Bermudez, snapping the The Ultimate Fighter Season 14’s seven-fight winning streak in the process. This is another rare “winner vs loser” match-up, considering Mendes is coming off the loss for his bid at the gold, and Lamas is riding a two-fight winning streak with wins over Bermudez and Brazil’s Hacran Dias. Both 145-pounders expect to earn another crack at the championship title with a win in this match-up, though that is unlikely to happen, especially if Jose Aldo defeats his latest challenger Conor McGregor in their UFC 189 main event contest this July. Mendes vs Lamas is the type of main event that would only be considered a main event on a Fight Night card in a place like Virginia, no offense to anybody from Virginia. Regardless of that fact, this is a fight between two of the best featherweights in the world and should prove to be a great battle. Mendes opened as a -400 betting favorite in this contest, with Lamas being the underdog at +280. Some action has since come in on Mendes, making current betting lines -440/+350.
