UFC 284: Prelim Picks and Predictions

Although the main card of UFC 284 looks stacked, the prelims are also set to provide plenty of great bouts down under. Four our UFC 284 prelim picks, we're eyeing Blake Bilder to pull off the upset victory over Shane Young.

UFC 284 comes from Perth, Australia on February 11 and history will be made as Alexander Volkanovski attempts to become a double champion moving up to lightweight to face the seemingly unstoppable Islam Makhachev. 

With the undercard riddled with big hitters like Jimmy Crute and Jack Della Maddalena, the preliminaries seem to have the most intriguing matches on the entire card — with plenty of UFC odds to dive into

Here are our free picks and predictions for the UFC 284 preliminaries on February 11.

UFC 284 prelim picks and predictions

Jenkins vs Shainis
• Prediction: Jenkins ML (-345)
• Best Bet: Over 1.5 rounds (-145)

Lookboonmee vs Reed
• Prediction: Lookboonmee (-285)
• Best Bet: Lookboonmee by decision (-135)

Young vs Bilder
• Prediction: Bilder ML (+115)
• Best Bet: Bilder by submission or decision (+200)

Click on each fight to jump to the full analysis.

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Jenkins is one of several Australian natives on the card, and his fight here against Shainis looks to be an easy night’s work. If you can recall, Shainis just made his UFC debut in a 30-second loss to Sodiq Yusuff in a less-than-inspiring performance. With Jenkins winning his last seven fights, he’s not likely to suffer a misstep here.

This could be as close of a lock as we can find on the entire card. Jenkins looks to have the better skill set, but he might not have the physicality needed to score a rapid stoppage.

Take Jenkins on the moneyline if you need a safe leg for a parlay. We’re opting to take the more rewarding route by saying this fight goes over 1.5 rounds

Prediction: Jenkins moneyline (-345 at DraftKings)
Best Bet: Over 1.5 rounds (-145 at DraftKings)

Lookboonmee is establishing herself at strawweight as a contender to watch, and Reed looks to be hitting some rough waters. Though Lookboonmee isn’t the smoothest operator with her offense, Reed’s defensive deficiencies and susceptibility to getting taken down won’t help her here.

With Lookboonmee landing 4.21 significant strikes per minute at 58% accuracy, and Reed absorbing more shots (3.57) than she lands (2.77), this could get ugly. Couple with the fact that Reed has been stopped twice in her last four fights and taken down a staggering nine times, it makes it hard to see any other outcome aside from her taking another loss.

The only thing stopping the Thai striker from scoring a stoppage is that she’s not a heavy hitter. We’ll go with Lookboonmee on points for our best bet.

Prediction: Lookboonmee moneyline (-285 at DraftKings)
Best Bet: Lookboonmee by decision (-135 at DraftKings)

Bilder is our upset pick of the prelims. With Young winless in over three years and Bilder’s momentum from his stint on Dana White’s Contender Series, this could turn into a decent score.

Young’s experience is the only real advantage he’ll have over Bilder. The rust of being out of the octagon coupled with his substandard striking defense could open up a chance for Bilder to take him down and rough him up.

The Californian isn’t a lock, but he figures to be fresher and ready to make an impression against the hometown hero. We’re confident that Bilder can get this done.

Bilder on the moneyline is good, but we’re going with the double chance that he gets a submission or decision at +200 

Prediction: Bilder moneyline (+115 at DraftKings)
Best Bet: Bilder by submission or decision (+200 at DraftKings)