UFC 187 Betting Movers and Shakers

With so many big favorites on the UFC 187 fight card this Saturday, bettors have been a bit reluctant to lay such monster prices at Several Bookmakers and the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook. Only the main event between Anthony “Rumble” Johnson and Daniel Cormier for the vacant light heavyweight title has a betting line with the favorite at less than -270 of the 12 bouts overall. That championship matchup at 205 pounds has seen early money come in on Johnson (19-4), the No. 1 contender in the division who is coming off a first-round knockout win over former No. 1 Alexander Gustafsson in Sweden on Jan. 24. While Cormier opened as a small favorite following his lone career loss to former champion Jon “Bones” Jones via unanimous decision at UFC 182 three weeks earlier, bettors like his opponent more and have actually made Johnson the favorite at the SuperBook and some other sportsbooks in Las Vegas. But the co-main event between middleweight champ Chris Weidman (12-0) and challenger Vitor Belfort (24-10) is pretty typical of the lines found throughout the rest of the card. Weidman opened between -475 at Several Bookmakers and -500 at the SuperBook, and the heavy favorite has gotten even heavier as of Friday. The biggest mover of the entire event can also be found on the main card, with Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone (27-6, 1 No-Contest) taking on John “The Bull” Makdessi (13-3) in a battle of lightweight contenders. Cerrone has quietly put together a seven-fight winning streak and was originally expected to take on No. 1 contender Khabib Nurmagomedov, who was forced to pull out of the bout due to injury. “Cowboy” opened -305 at Several Bookmakers and -500 at the SuperBook and was sitting at -550+ as of Friday night. Five other fights have seen triple-digit line moves at Several Bookmakers from the openers but have not jumped more than 50 cents at the SuperBook. All of them involve favorites getting pounded by bettors, including Joseph Benavidez, John Dodson, Uriah Hall, Colby Covington and Justin Scoggins. Outside of Cormier, the only other opening line favorite on the card so far that has seen the public go against him in early betting action is welterweight Dong Hyun Kim against Josh Burkman. Following is a complete breakdown of the betting moves offshore and in Vegas for every bout on the UFC 187 card…

 Click here for a sortable UFC 187 Betting Moves chart.