The biggest week in the history of the UFC will get underway with Thursday’s Fight Night 90 card at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, as lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos (25-7) meets former Bellator champ Eddie Alvarez (27-4) in the main event.
Dos Anjos was originally supposed to fight Conor McGregor at UFC 196, but a broken foot kept that from happening. He is listed as a heavy -350 favorite (bet $350 to win $100) versus second-ranked Alvarez at sportsbooks monitored by Odds Shark.
Alvarez, a +265 underdog (bet $100 to win $265) earned the title shot with a pair of split-decision wins over Gilbert Melendez and No. 7 Anthony Pettis, who fought him most recently on January 17 in Boston.
His previous UFC appearance before that resulted in a unanimous-decision loss to Donald Cerrone at UFC 178 in September 2014 after he earned a split-decision victory against Michael Chandler to take home the Bellator title belt for a second time a year earlier.
Meanwhile, dos Anjos is riding a five-bout winning streak and coming off a first-round TKO win over Cerrone last December 19 at UFC on Fox 17 in Orlando. Before that, he scored unanimous-decision victories against Pettis for the lightweight championship last March and Nate Diaz following knockouts of Benson Henderson and Jason High.
His lone loss since 2011 came at the hands of top-ranked contender Khabib Nurmagomedov via unanimous decision, and he has won three Performance of the Night bonuses in his past five outings.
The co-main event will be a featured heavyweight matchup between the struggling Roy “Big Country” Nelson (21-12) and rising Derrick Lewis (15-4, one no-contest). Nelson is a slight -130 favorite despite dropping five of his last seven, including three of four.
Big Country ended his three-bout losing streak with a unanimous-decision victory against Jared Rosholt at UFC Fight Night 82 on February 6 in one of the ugliest fights of the year. His previous two losses came by unanimous decision to Josh Barnett and Alistair Overeem after he was knocked out in the second round by Mark Hunt at UFC Fight Night 52 on September 20, 2014.
Lewis is a +100 underdog and has won three in a row via knockout following a second-round TKO loss to Shawn Jordan at UFC Fight Night 68 last June 6. He is 6-2 in the UFC, with his only other setback coming against Matt Mitrione by first-round KO at UFC Fight Night 50.
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