UFC 299: Preview, odds, picks and best bets

Discover the updated UFC 299 odds as well as our predictions and the best bets to make for the highly-anticipated event. UFC 299 is headlined by a featherweight world title bout between current champion Sean O’Malley and first-time challenger, Marlon Vera. That might be where the night’s action ends, but it’s not where it begins, as the main card features four other much-looked-forward-to-fights.

Sean O’Malley and Marlon Vera are running it back, this time for the featherweight world title. The pair originally faced off back in August 2020, a fight that Vera won, in part due to O’Malley suffering an injury.

Now, O’Malley is more motivated than ever before to prove his doubters wrong, and in turn, solidify his status as the world’s best featherweight. Meanwhile, Vera is 5-2 since that win over the champ — and notably — he has never been finished in his career.

The odds are in favor of O’Malley, and we are inclined to agree. Any doubt that we had in his stardom was eliminated with his TKO win over former champ Aljamain Sterling.

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Dustin Poirier has one of the most impressive resumes on the entire UFC roster, and things won’t get any easier for him when he steps into the octagon across from Benoit Saint Denis.

France’s Saint Denis is riding a five-fight finish streak that includes a trio of performance bonuses. Conversely, Poirier has dropped two of his previous three bouts, albeit against far stiffer competition.

This will be a matchup between two southpaws who couldn’t be further from one another in terms of experience. We’re taking the underdog.

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This might be the most intriguing bout on the entire card, as fan-favorite Kevin Holland welcomes Michael ‘Venom’ Page to the UFC.

Let’s start with Holland, who has fought a staggering 20 times dating back to August 2018. The welterweight/middleweight has struggled against the division’s top performers, but he’s very talented.

Now for Page, who carved out a substantial career over at Bellator where he lost just twice over the course of his 19-fight tenure. The 36-year-old possesses an eerily similar build as his upcoming opponent, and they are both incredibly explosive.

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Brazil’s Gilbert Burns has been competing under the UFC’s banner for a decade, and he’s aiming for one last push towards welterweight gold.

At UFC 299, it will be rising star Jack Della Maddalena who stands in his path. The Aussie is a perfect 6-0 inside the octagon, including a quartet of opening-round stoppage victories.

This will likely be a high-level contest between two welterweights who aren’t strangers to performance bonuses.

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You know it’s a top-tier even when someone like Petr Yan is opening the main card. The former bantamweight champ has stunningly lost his last three bouts. At UFC 299, he will take on Song Yadong, who has quietly put together a 5-2 record since the start of 2021.

There’s no denying that the level of competition faced between these two shows a disparity, leaning in favor of Yan. Of note, however, Song owns a decision win over Marlon Vera.

We like Yan to get back on track, as he remains one of the best boxers in the organization. This bout will largely take place on the feet if we had to guess.

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