UFC
Yas Island
Abu Dhabi, UAE
Saturday, July 25th
What a wild two weeks in the Middle East it has been as Dana White and his people have put together not only four solid cards from Abu Dhabi, but they have done it constantly through this pandemic whether in Brazil, Jacksonville, or Sin City. The UFC will be returning to Las Vegas next week but before they do here are my plays for the final installment from “Fight Island”.
UFC
2 Fighter Parlay of the Night
-425 Nathaniel Wood over John Castaneda
&
-400 Ramazan Emeev over Niklas Stolze
Both these fighters should get the job done with ease on Saturday night from “Fight Island”. Nathaniel “The Prospect Wood” is 16-4 and 14 of his wins have come by TKO or submission. The Russian Ramazan Emeev is 18-4 and has won seven of his last eight fights and lifetime is 7-1 in fights decided by submissions.
Main Event
-110 Darren Till 18-2-1
-120 Robert Whittaker 21-5
Till has fought some excellent competition of late beating Kelvin Gastelum by a split decision back in November of ’19. His two previous fights he lost however to Jorge Masvidal and Tyron Woodley. “The Reaper” Whittaker has won nine of his last ten fights and his only loss was to Israel Adesanya.
-120 Whittaker
-175 Alex Oliveira 20-8-1
+145 Peter Sobotta 17-6-1
Here is another underdog play that makes a lot of sense. Oliveira is just 1-3 in his last four matches and both of these fighters have a common opponent. Both of these guys have fought Nicolas Dalby who just happens to be fighting on Saturday as well. Sobotta took care of Dalby, meanwhile Oliveira lost to him. I’m thinking that Las Vegas has the wrong guy favored here.
+145 Sobotta
-210 Tom Aspinall 7-2
+170 Jack Collier 11-4
Collier is just 2-2 in his last four fights and Aspinall has won all of his fights in the first round.
-210 Aspinall
-275 Nicolas Dalby 18-3-1
+215 Jesse Ronson 20-10
Ronson has lost two matches in a row and Dalby in 4-0-1 (includes win over Oliveira) after suffering three straight losses. Laying -275 is a bit steep but I like the direction Dalby is going of late.
-275 Dalby
-120 Gadzhimurad Antigulov 20-6
-110 Paul Craig 12-4-1
Antigulov has lost two fights in a row and when it comes to height and reach, Craig has a dominating 11 total inches over his opponent.
-110 Craig
-155 Marina Rodriguez 12-0-2
+125 Carla Esparza 17-6
Rodriguez is still undefeated and is five inches taller than the 5’1 Esparza.
-155 Rodriguez
-230 Tanner Boser 18-6-1
+185 Raphael Pessoa 10-1
The Brazilian Pessoa has 30 pounds and a three inch reach advantage over the -230 favorite. In six of Pessoa’s victories he has won them by TKO. Boser is an average 6-4-1 in his last eleven matches.
+185 Pessoa
There are my plays for the final card in Abu Dhabi. Fighting will return to the United States on August 1st in Las Vegas. Everyone out there have a great weekend watching and winning on the UFC.