With a rare gap between UFC events, fans and bettors alike were getting antsy for the lines to be released for the upcoming UFC on FUEL TV 9 card, which takes place Saturday, April 6th in Stockholm, Sweden. The organization’s second trip to the country will once again feature Alexander Gustafsson in the main event, as he takes on Gegard Mousasi. The lines for the top four fights on the card had already been released, and today Several Bookmakers released the remaining lines for what is a massive 13-fight card. Take a look at where all the bouts on this card opened up: ——————– MAIN CARD Alexander Gustafsson -260 Gegard Mousasi +180 Ross Pearson -290 Ryan Couture +210 Matt Mitrione -350 Philip De Fries +250 Brad Pickett -180 Mike Easton +140 Diego Brandao -215 Pablo Garza +165 Robbie Peralta -350 Akira Corassani +250 ——————– PRELIMINARY CARD Michael Johnson -195 Reza Madadi +155 Tor Troeng -350 Adam Cella +250 Adlan Amagov -155 Chris Spang +115 Conor McGregor -170 Marcus Brimage +130 Ryan LaFlare -120 Ben Alloway -120 Tom Lawlor -145 Michael Kuiper +105 Papy Abedi -170 Besam Yousef +130 ——————– Brad’s Analysis: After some interesting lines on the European sports books popped up, the lines for UFC on FUEL TV 9 have opened on domestic books, and the opening odds generally seem correct. In fact, the largest move from the opening price to present line is 90 cents in the Tor Troeng/Adam Cella bout, as Troeng’s KO loss on ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ has bettors worried that he was overvalued in the opening line. Additionally, both Robbie Peralta and Michael Johnson have seen some early backing from bettors and the lines in their fights have moved 50 cents steeper. The one line that sticks out to me in the bunch is Conor McGregor being favored over Marcus Brimage. McGregor has looked extremely impressive on the British circuit, but we’ve seen many times in the past the the gap between MMA on both sides of the Atlantic can be as big as… well, the Atlantic. McGregor is a far better fighter than your average Brit, but Brimage has improved markedly since his time on ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ and has defeated two very solid fighters in his last two outings. The early line move towards McGregor (he is now a -210 favorite) seems wrong to me, and I’ll certainly be keeping an eye on that fight. Aside from that line, I don’t see too much of interest on these openers, so we’ll have to wait and see where the public takes them over the next week. The good thing with the odds being out this early is that there’s plenty of time to do research and for the lines to make their inevitable moves.
