Betting handicappers have set Conor McGregor as a large favorite for his welterweight debut against Nate Diaz at UFC 196.
UFC 196 has a new main event, and despite the fact that the UFC featherweight champion is fighting two divisions up from where he holds the belt, he’s still a big favorite in the eyes of bookmakers. Conor McGregor will move up to welterweight to fight Nate Diaz, who is a natural lightweight but has competed at welterweight before. Here’s the current line, via BestFightOdds:
For those new to BestFightOdds, they take the lines from many sports books and offer the best on each side in the handy chart above. If you’d like to see what each book is offering individually, you can do that over at their site.
McGregor is as high as -440 on 5Dimes, while the odds on Diaz are all over the place. One site has him at +260, with the price above obviously the best line out there currently for him.
Frankly, I’m quite surprised that the line is this wide and the early money has moved it even further in Conor’s direction. A 25-pound weight jump is a big deal, and Diaz is no joke. We’ll find out if the bookmakers got it right on March 5th in Las Vegas.