UFC Vegas 8 odds: Rakic favored over Smith

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC

Check out the betting odds for tonight’s UFC VEGAS 8 card, where, Aleksandar Rakic over Anthony Smith in the main event.

It’s time for UFC Vegas 8 to go down tonight (August 29th) from the company’s APEX center in Las Vegas, Nevada. The marquee matchup will take place in the light heavyweight division when the #5 ranked, Anthony Smith, takes on the the #8 rated, Aleksandar Rakic. Both men are coming off of tough losses, and are looking to rebound in a division that is now wide open with no current champion at the helm. Bloody Elbow is here to provide the betting lines for this top-tier 205-pound tilt, as well as for the rest of the UFC Vegas 8 card.

Despite giving up a ton of experience, especially over elite competition, the 12-2 Aleksandar Rakic is quite favored over Anthony Smith in the main event. With a strongly favored moneyline of -245, the oddsmakers are siding with the fighter that has way less mileage on him. That leaves the 33-15 Smith in the underdog realm, being offered up at a sizable plus line of +225. The over/under for this 25-minute main event has been set at 1.5 rounds. The ‘Over’ option is available with a -157 price tag, with a +142 comeback on the ‘Under.’

At light heavyweight, Smith’s wins include two first-round knockouts and a third and fourth round RNC. As far as his losses at 205-pounds, Smith has only lost in the fifth round to Glover Teixeira, and then came up short in a five-round decision to the then champ, Jon Jones. On the other side of this coin, Rakic owns two first-round knockouts and two decision victories inside of the UFC. He was submitted in the first-round of his professional debut way back in 2011, but hasn’t been finished since. He did drop a split decision to Volkan Oezdemir in his last outing where he had to gut through growing what resembled a third knee. Neither one of these fighters lack any sort of toughness, so history states that there’s a good chance of both of them being there longer than 1.5 rounds.

With that being said, the bookies do not believe that these two lethal talents will be making it all five rounds. The prop bet ‘Fight doesn’t go to decision’ is sitting at a favored tick of -170, with the ‘Fight goes to decision’ wager trending at +140. The odds have pegged Rakic as the competitor most likely to get a finish here. The exotic bet ‘Rakic wins inside distance’ can be found with a slight underdog value of +120, with ‘Not Rakic inside distance’ favored at -150. Going back the other way, the wager ‘Smith wins inside distance’ comes at a much heavier underdog line of +335, with ‘Not Smith inside distance’ soaring at a lofty altitude of -460.

Check out the UFC Vegas 8 betting odds, courtesy of BestFightOdds.com:

For an in-depth breakdown of each UFC Vegas 8 matchup, check out The MMA Vivisection with Bloody Elbow’s own Zane Simon and Connor Ruebusch. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to stay up to date with all of our live video content. Stay glued to Bloody Elbow for all of your event coverage including play-by-play, results, highlights, and more! Happy hunting!