Bellator 290 odds: Ryan Bader favored to send Fedor Emelianenko into retirement with knockout

Bellator 290 is going down tonight from the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California and is the setting where the greatest heavyweight MMA fighter of all-time will make his last stand. “The Last Emperor” Fedor Emelianenko will rematch the promotion’s heavyweight champion, Ryan Bader, in an attempt to ride off into the sunset on top. Let’s now go check in with the betting odds for this one and see what’s what.

I don’t think anyone is surprised to see that the oddsmakers aren’t siding with the 46-year-old Fedor here. They weren’t picking him to win the first time he fought Bader in 2019, and after Ryan waxed him in 35-seconds, they surely aren’t picking him here.

Emelianenko is being offered up with sizable underdog value of +270, while Bader’s moneyline is nested around the -325 mark.

Since their initial encounter was so brief, and we are talking about Fedor here, the bookies have ample reasons to believe that this one will not be needing any judges. Fedor hasn’t been to a decision since 2016, and then before that it was in 2011. Any Fedor fight should be favored to end early, and here we have the prop bet ‘Fight doesn’t go to decision’ with a wild minus line of -2000. There’s a +750 comeback on the ‘Fight goes to decision’ option for anyone that doesn’t care too much for money.

Here comes the part that truly makes me sad, and one of the hardest parts of being a fan of such a brutal sport. Aged NFL quarterbacks throw more interceptions, past-their-primes MLB pitchers give up more runs, but combat sports veterans get absolutely shit-kicked on their way out the door... with very few exceptions (GSP).

The betting odds say that Fedor will be getting knocked out again by Ryan in his swan song. But the movie-like narrative is there for Emelianenko to pull of a miraculous upset, and walk away from MMA not only with a win, but as the champion. In an alternate universe I’m sure that’s how it is, however, that simply isn’t the world that we live in.

We just witnessed the legendary Mauricio “Shogun” Rua call it quits following a knockout loss to some guy, and now here we are faced again with another legend expected to get sparked out. At least it’s Ryan Bader, but having to watch just about all of my heroes get slaughtered before they walk away definitely hurts my heart. I have to file that angst right next to ‘weight cutting’ on my list of unfortunate realities of MMA.

Anyway, the ‘Bader wins by TKO/KO’ line is strongly favored at -225, and then the ‘Emelianenko wins by TKO/KO’ miracle is trending at +350.