Someone Lost $200k Betting On A Masvidal Baptism At UFC 251

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC

This week in crazy sportsbook action, some crazy person with high hopes sunk six figures into heavy underdog Masvidal pulling off a baptism on Fight Island.

We’re not exactly sure why there’s a sudden splurge in stories about gamblers splashing big cash on questionable fight bets, but we’re all for it. Two weeks ago, the biggest angle to come out of the UFC on ESPN: Poirier vs. Hooker card was surrounding a $37,000 bet placed on UFC newcomer Kay Hansen to beat former Invicta champ and #1 abs in my heart champ Jinh Yu Frey. Hansen even ran into the lucky dude at the airport after her win … I’d say he should have bought her a drink with some of his $20,000 winnings, but Kay isn’t old enough to legally drink in America.

Now we’ve got another big spender taking wild chances. According to William Hill sportsbook, “A $200,000 bet was placed on Masvidal at +230 against Kamaru Usman in tonight’s welterweight title fight at The M in the Las Vegas area. If Masvidal were to pull off the upset, the total payout for the wager would be $660,000.”

Of course, we now know that Masvidal did not pull off the upset. He was slick enough to stay relatively vertical most of the fight, but Usman used endless pressure to keep “Gamebred” from being able to use any of his striking. It was a pretty predictable outcome, hence the pretty wide odds on the fight, which were the second widest on the UFC 251 card after the ridiculous and borderline dirty booking between Paige VanZant (+550) and Amanda Ribas (-900).

Big bets like this are nothing new, but it seems like the UFC is actively courting the degenerate gambler demographic now that there’s less competition in the worldwide sports scene due to COVID-19. Mixed martial arts is pretty unpredictable compared to some other sportsbook options, so there’s always a thrill to be had betting on the underdog and riding dat buttclench through an exciting fight that really could go either way off one well placed punch.

But there’s also a lesson to be learned here about how styles make fights. Wrestlers fare so well against strikers because they don’t even have to win the wrestling exchanges to win the fight. They just have to force the striker to wrestle and the fight is already half won. So for all you newbs out there, just a word of advice: maybe bet the over on the wrestler going to decision rather than praying the striker lands a hail mary KO.

Make sure to buy me a drink at the airport if my TED Talk comes in handy.