One of the prelims at UFC Fight Night 65 is a three-round women’s strawweight bout between Kailin Curran and Alex Chambers. According to the current betting lines available at Several Bookmakers, Curran is a -225 favorite (bet $225 to win $100) while Chambers is a +185 underdog (bet $100 to win $185). MMA oddsmaker Nick Kalikas opened up Curran at -210 and Chambers at +160, and the bettors are so far on the favorite Curran. I do favor Curran to win this fight so I understand why the line has been bet up on her. Here’s why. Curran (3-1) is 0-1 in the UFC with a TKO loss to Paige VanZant. The 24-year-old Hawaiian had an exciting fight with VanZant, winning Fight of the Night, but she showed some serious flaws in that fight, particularly with her conditioning. She started off doing well but as the fight went on she gassed badly and was finished with strikes. It looked to me like she wasn’t expecting such a tough fight, but this is the UFC, and if you’re conditioning is not up to par you cannot win at the highest level of this sport. Having said that, she is still young and has time to improve. For now, I’d characterize her as an aggressive young fighter who is well-rounded. I don’t think she excels in any area of the game, which will hurt her when she steps up in competition, but for now she will just have to focus on implementing a well-rounded game to beat opponents like Chambers. Although Curran hasn’t proven anything, she does have potential, and despite Chambers having TUF experience, I agree Curran should be slightly favored heading into this fight. Chambers (4-2) is 0-1 in the UFC with a submission loss to Aisling Daly. Prior to her official UFC debut, Chambers was a contestant on TUF 20, where she lost via submission to Rose Namajunas. Chambers is 36 years of age, making her one of the oldest female fighters in the UFC. However, while she is getting up there in age, on the plus side she hasn’t had many fights so she hasn’t taken much damage. As far as her skillset goes, she actually has a well-rounded background in MMA. She has a karate background and she also has a solid resume in BJJ. However, she hasn’t quite yet figured out how to put everything together yet, leading to her having an inconsistent record in MMA. As well, she is quite small for 115lbs, having previously competed as a 105lber. She seems like the type of fighter who would do better in Invicta fighting at 105lbs instead. She will have the hometown edge going into this fight, but other than that she has a lot going against her in this fight against Curran, which is why she’s the dog. With all due respect to both these fighters, neither is UFC caliber. In Curran’s case, she is just too inexperienced and should be competing in Invicta against lesser competition to build her skillset. In Chambers’ case, she is too small to be competitive at 115lbs in the UFC and would be better suited being in Invicta’s atomweight division. And that’s why I don’t think betting on this fight is a good idea. There are 12 fights on this card, and considering both of these women just haven’t shown much in their short careers thus far, it’s better to look at the other fights for betting because other fighters on this card have larger bodies of work from which to break down their fights. In this particular matchup I do have to lean towards Curran considering the massive youth advantage, but I really don’t rate her too highly and if Chambers pulls this off it wouldn’t surprise me. The pick is Curran, but this is not a fight to bet money on.
