Best Bets for UFC 219: Weekly Wagering Deep Dive

UFC 219 is set to take place this Saturday night (Dec. 30) in Las Vegas, Nevada, and let us just say that it doesn’t scream»quality» like preceding end-of-year UFC cards.
The UFC piles its final card of this year from top to bottom. In 2017, we get a major event between Holly Holm and Cris Cyborg. While it has the potential to be a great fight, it doesn’t necessarily scream»buy this pay-per-view!»
This is also an extremely hard card to bet on as there aren’t lots of fights which you can get a powerful read on. A number of the favorites, like Cyborg and Khabib Nurmagomedov, deserve to become overpowering favorites, yet might also easily get merked by their competitions. Danger lurks.
Nevertheless, we need to generate a few plays. So let us do the best we can to find some golden underdogs, a few worthy props, along with a rewarding softball. Additionally checking out my Best Bets for UFC Futures from a week, where I proposed a couple of’puppies (Carla Esparza and Neil Magny) who hold some value.
Golden Underdogs
Middleweight: Marvin Vettori (-222) vs. Omari Akhmedov (+187)
At first glance, this moneyline in BetOnline seems perfectly okay, but when you have a better look at this preliminary matchup, you can get some solid reasons to take the puppy in Omari»The Wolverine» Akhmedov (17-4).
Even though Marvin Vettori (12-3) is a larger fighter who loves to throw , averaging 3.13 significant strikes landed per minute, he doesn’t possess enough power to take Akhmedov out via (T)KO, therefore this fight might end up being a grappling affair. While Akhmedov has revealed in the past he has some power in his hands (seven wins by knockout and also two»Battle of the Night» bonuses at the UFC), where he excels is in the wrestling section. The Dagestani grappler could easily wind up controlling the fight if the majority is invested at the clinch or around the mat.
The kryptonite that I watch for Akhmedov is that his gas tank. Will he hit a cardio wall just like he did in successive knockout losses to Sergio Moraes and Elizeu Zaleski? In both of those losses, Akhmedov started strong but faded badly in the subsequent rounds.
He followed up those declines with two hard-working conclusion wins Kyle Noke and Abdul Razak Alhassan, the latter an upset at UFC Fight Night 109. At the moment I’m leaning towards»The Wolverine’s» hard palms and wrestling acumen for another possibly rewarding upset.

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