Tag: Sports Odds

Just two years ago, Chris Weidman was the unbeaten three-time defending UFC middleweight champion and on top of the world.

But this Saturday in his own backyard, Weidman will be looking to avoid a fourth consecutive loss at UFC on FOX 25 as an underdog against Kelvin Gastelum at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.

Weidman (13-3) is a New York native and will get the opportunity to fight Gastelum (13-2, 1 no-contest) at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale. However, Weidman’s previous two bouts have also taken place in his home state, and both ended with knockout losses just like the one that saw him lose his title belt against Luke Rockhold at UFC 194 on December 12, 2015.

He is a +150 underdog (wager $100 to win $150) this time around on the UFC betting lines, with former TUF 17 winner Gastelum the -185 favorite (wager $185 to win $100) in his fifth UFC middleweight bout.

Gastelum is coming off a no-contest vs. Vitor Belfort at UFC Fight Night 106 on March 11 after he tested positive for marijuana. He originally scored a first-round TKO of Belfort before the win was overturned.

The 25-year-old from Yuma has battled weight-cutting issues throughout his MMA career, bouncing between welterweight and middleweight on multiple occasions before eventually finding his current home at 185 pounds.

 

The four-bout main card also features three other local fighters, including Dennis Bermudez (Long Island), Gian Villante (Bellmore) and Jimmie Rivera (Manhattan). Unlike Weidman, though, Bermudez, Villante and Rivera are all listed as chalk on the board at sports betting sites.

Bermudez (16-6) will take on Darren Elkins (22-5) in the featherweight co-main event after Villante (15-8) faces Patrick Cummins (9-4) at light heavyweight.

Rivera (20-1) will kick off the action against Brazilian Thomas Almeida (22-1) in what could be the favorite for Fight of the Night honors. Almeida has earned a post-fight bonus in five of his six UFC bouts, while Rivera has prevailed on the judges’ scorecards in each of his last three since scoring a first-round KO of Marcus Brimage in his debut.

This is the first time Almeida has been a dog in his career, at +170 at online sports betting sites, with Rivera at -200. Rivera is ranked as the No. 5 bantamweight in the UFC, and Almeida is No. 9.

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Many feel that top title contender Valentina Shevchenko (14-2) would have beaten women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes (14-4) had their first fight gone five rounds.

Shevchenko will get the chance to prove them correct Saturday, when she faces Nunes for the title as a minus-125 betting favorite (wager $125 to win $100) at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark in the main event of UFC 213.

Shevchenko opened as a slight underdog but has since flipped to chalk status, while some books have this championship bout listed as a pick ’em.

Regardless, it is an intriguing matchup between arguably the best striker in the UFC (Nunes) and the top tactician in the division (Shevchenko). In their first meeting, at UFC 196 in March 2016, Nunes won a unanimous decision by scores of 29-28, 29-27 and 29-27. She started fast but faded in the third round, holding on to win on the judges’ scorecards.

This time around, the 29-year-old Nunes is a minus-105 underdog, and she remains the lone Brazilian champ in the UFC after Jose Aldo lost the featherweight title to Max Holloway at UFC 212 in Rio de Janeiro.

Nunes upset former champ Ronda Rousey as an underdog at UFC 207 on December 30 with a first-round TKO. She took the title away from Miesha Tate with a first-round rear-naked choke submission at UFC 200.

Meanwhile, Valentina has a strong kickboxing background, losing just twice in 60 fights. She is 3-1 in the UFC, with back-to-back wins over Holly Holm and Julianna Pena since falling to Nunes. Her only other MMA loss came against UFC vet Liz Carmouche via second-round TKO (doctor stoppage) in C3 Fights back in 2010.

The co-main event will also see a championship belt on the line, when Australian Robert Whittaker (18-4) meets Cuban Yoel Romero (13-1) for the interim middleweight title. Whittaker is the minus-135 favorite and has gone 6-0 since moving up to 185 pounds from 170, earning four performance bonuses along the way.

Whittaker’s last loss came as a welterweight against Stephen Thompson by first-round TKO at UFC 170 in February 2014.

The 40-year-old Romero is listed as a plus-105 underdog despite going unbeaten in the UFC, at 8-0. He has picked up five performance bonuses in his eight bouts with the promotion, knocking out six opponents, with five of those KOs coming in the third round.

The interim belt is up for grabs because middleweight champ Michael Bisping has not fought since October 2016 and seemingly wants to fight Georges St-Pierre rather than Romero.

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The UFC heads to Oklahoma City on Sunday for UFC Fight Night 112 with 13 bouts on the action-packed card, including a lightweight matchup between Kevin Lee (15-2) and Michael Chiesa (14-2) in the main event.

Lee is going for his fifth straight win and is listed as a -140 favorite (bet $140 to win $100) against Chiesa, the +110 underdog (bet $100 to win $110), at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.

Also known as “The Motown Phenom,” the 24-year-old Lee has finished his last three opponents during his current four-fight winning streak. He pulled off consecutive rear-naked choke submissions in the second round versus Francisco Trinaldo and Magomed Mustafaev, the latter of which earned him a Performance of the Night bonus.

Meanwhile, Chiesa won The Ultimate Fighter 15 five years ago with a win over Al Iaquinta, and he has gone 6-2 in the UFC since then. He is riding a three-bout winning streak, also putting together back-to-back rear-naked choke submissions of Beneil Dariush and Jim Miller in his last two.

Chiesa has earned four post-fight bonuses in his last six bouts, and the 29-year-old will have a four-inch height advantage over Lee.

 

In the co-main event, former welterweight champ Johny Hendricks (18-6) will continue his run in the middleweight division by facing Tim Boetsch (20-11). The 33-year-old Hendricks made his debut at 185 pounds back in February at UFC Fight Night 105 and edged out Hector Lombard by unanimous decision.

Hendricks had lost three in a row at 170 before the move to 185 and struggled mightily making weight, prompting the decision.

Boetsch is a +180 underdog against Hendricks, who is the -220 favorite. Unlike Hendricks, the 36-year-old Maine native moved down from light heavyweight in 2011 and is a much bigger man with five-inch reach and three-inch height advantages.

Boetsch also fought at 205 last year and lost to Ed Herman via second-round TKO.

“The Barbarian” is coming off a first-round submission loss to Jacare Souza at UFC 208 on February 11 after winning each of his previous two fights by TKO. Overall, Boetsch is 4-7 since going on an 8-1 run that included two four-bout winning streaks.

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The two Brazilians who will be featured in the main and co-main events at UFC 212 on Saturday in Rio de Janeiro are favored to win in their home country according to sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.

Featherweight champion Jose Aldo (26-2) will look to unify belts with interim champ Max Holloway (17-3) as the -150 betting favorite (wager $150 to win $100) in the main event while women’s strawweight Claudia Gadelha (14-2) will try to move a step closer to another title shot versus Joanna Jedrzejczyk when she battles Karolina Kowalkiewicz (10-1) as the clear -350 chalk in the co-main event.

Aldo and Holloway both have one thing in common heading into their championship bout: They each suffered their last loss to Conor McGregor. Aldo rebounded to defeat Frankie Edgar for the second time to reclaim the belt at UFC 200 last July 9 after he got knocked out by McGregor in 13 seconds seven months earlier.

McGregor snapped Aldo’s 18-fight winning streak but has since gone on a leave from the UFC due to the birth of his son and in hopes of fighting Floyd Mayweather Jr. in a boxing match.

 

Meanwhile, Holloway is listed as a +120 underdog (bet $100 to win $120) and has reeled off 10 consecutive wins since losing to McGregor via unanimous decision back on August 17, 2013. That was the second of back-to-back losses for Holloway, as he dropped a split decision to Dennis Bermudez in his previous bout.

Dustin Poirier is the third fighter who has beaten the 25-year-old Hawaiian, and that occurred in Holloway’s promotional debut as a 20-year-old at UFC 143.

For Gadelha, she is hoping to get a third matchup against Jedrzejczyk for the 115-pound title if she can get by Kowalkiewicz, who is a +265 underdog on the UFC 212 betting lines. Both women have only lost to Jedrzejczyk in their respective MMA careers, with Gadelha falling short twice by decision.

Gadelha bounced back from the second loss by earning a unanimous-decision win over Cortney Casey at UFC Fight Night 100 last November 19 in Sao Paulo.

Kowalkiewicz also lost to Jedrzejczyk via unanimous decision in her last fight at UFC 205 last November 12. She had beaten No. 3 contender Rose Namajunas in her previous bout by split decision and remains the second-ranked strawweight behind Gadelha and the champ.

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