UFC Tips: We've a 20/1 treble for Saturday night's UFC 296 card
UFC Betting Tips
04:10 Shavkat Rakhmonov v Stephen Thompson – Shavkat Rakhmonov to Win by KO/TKO
04:40 Alexandre Pantoja v Brandon Royval– Alexandre Pantoja to Win
05:15 Leon Edwards v Colby Covington – Colby Covington to Win by Points
- A treble with these selections pays at approximately20/1 with Paddy Power.
Shavkat Rakhmonov looks like a perfect fighter. He has a perfect record at least. 17-0 stopping every opponent he’s faced with 9 wins by submission and 8 by knockout.
Wonderboy Thompson, which is now an ironic nickname at 40 years old, displayed just how dangerous he still is putting a vicious beat down on Kevin Holland in his last fight. But that was over a year ago now and he has shown signs of slowing down losing 4 of his last 7 fights.
In Stephen Thompson’s domain, which is striking on the feet, Rakhmonov’s stats compare quite well against the veteran. Shavkat lands 60% of his attempted strikes while Wonderboy lands just 45%. Per minute, Shavkat also lands more and absorbs less strikes too.
Wonderboy has actually never been submitted in his professional career. But he has been knocked out. I like the knockout price. I’ll have Shavkat Rakhmonov to win by KO/TKO.
Pantoja is a level above his opponent in this fight. That’s not just my opinion. They’ve fought before. Pantoja landed more strikes, got 3 takedowns and submitted him in the 2nd round.
That was 2 years ago and the only meaningful thing that’s changed since is Pantoja has gone on to become the Flyweight Champion.
It’s a bad matchup for Royval on paper. Pantoja gets a lot of takedowns and Royval successfully defends just 39% of takedown attempts. Royval leans on his jiu-jitsu with 2.3 submission attempts per 15 minutes. 4 of his 5 wins in the UFC came by submission. Pantoja hasn’t lost by submission before and probably has better jiu-jitsu than the American.
Even if this fight is a lot closer than their first encounter I expect Pantoja to do enough to retain the title. I’m picking Alexandre Pantoja to win.
Leon beat Kamaru Usman to win the Welterweight strap before defending it in the rematch in March of this year. While Colby’s last two losses came from Championship fights also against Kamaru Usman.
Despite the stark difference in results against their mutual opponent, I still like Colby to win by decision. I’m aware the math ain’t mathin’. But MMA math doesn’t always work.
It’s not like Edwards breezed past Usman. He had to pull it out of the fire with a 5th round last-minute head kick to win the belt. He was more convincing in the trilogy fight but it was still competitive. He still got taken down 4 times. And not to mention, his last loss came to Usman the first time they fought in 2015 where he was taken down 6 times and lost by judges’ decision.
Colby can cause the same problems Usman caused. He’s a wrestler with a gas tank and he’ll be looking to get takedowns and control time in all 5 rounds. 6 of his last 7 wins have gone the distance. If Colby wins, it will surely be by points. That’s why I like this pick. Colby Covington to win by points.
UFC Betting Tips
04:10 Shavkat Rakhmonov v Stephen Thompson – Shavkat Rakhmonov to Win by KO/TKO
04:40 Alexandre Pantoja v Brandon Royval– Alexandre Pantoja to Win
05:15 Leon Edwards v Colby Covington – Colby Covington to Win by Points
- A treble with these selections pays at approximately20/1 with Paddy Power.
- Grapple with our best UFC betting tips at Paddy Power News
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