Fight fans are looking forward to UFC 290 on Saturday, July 8th! The Main Event will pit Alexander Volkanovski against Yair Rodriguez. Though he lost his last fight, Volkanovski is a heavy -380 favorite to win at most online sportsbooks. Is there any value on the underdog?
Need helping betting Volkanovski vs Rodriguez? Here are 6 best bets we love! Good luck with all of your Saturday action!
Prelim Top Play: Alonzo Menifield
Menifield is running it back here against Jimmy Crute. They fought to a majority draw decision back at UFC 284 in February. While Menifield out-struck Crute 99-62, Crute made the most of his takedown attempts by completing half of his 12 attempts.
We are expecting Menifield to be more conscious of the takedowns in the rematch and will force Crute to fight this one more on their feet. In that spot, Menifield has the advantage, and we believe he will once again out-strike Crute enroute to either a KO/TKO or Decision victory.
Prelim Card Underdog Play: Robbie Lawler
Ruthless Robbie has been on the downward slide ever since he lost the title to Woodley back in 2016. He is just 2-5 since that fight with wins over Cowboy Cerrone and Nick Diaz. That said, he has fought some top of the division talent in RDA, Colby, and Magny.
His latest loss was to Bryan Barberena, who had a large power advantage over Lawler. He faces Niko Price here who has never seemed to get going since joining the UFC. His 7-6-1 record reinforces that.
We like the value we are getting on Lawler here and we are likely to know how this fight is going to go after the 1st round. If Lawler comes out motivated, he will have chances to pull this upset off. If Lawler comes out hesitant, Price will likely pick him apart.
Prelim Card Top Prop: Vitor Petrino by KO/TKO/DQ
Petrino is 8-0 early in his career and 6 of those victories have come via KO/TKO. In his UFC debut back in March, one of those “non-KO/TKO” wins were had by him over Anton Turkalj. Anton had yet to be knocked out in his career.
Here Petrino faces Marcin Prachnio who, unlike Anton, has been KO’d 4 times in his 6 career losses. Petrino will have a 3-inch reach advantage and will use that in what is likely to be a fight that will stay upright as both men like to strike.
Main Event Play: Alexander Volkanovski To Win by Decision
In our opinion, Volk is the pound for pound best fighter in the world. The decision loss to Islam was controversial but it still proved just how incredibly strong and quick Volk is.
No disrespect to Yair Rodriguez here as we believe he is beyond worthy of a title shot with his recent victories over Brian Ortega and Josh Emmett. I would argue the decision loss to Max Holloway was even impressive.
However, Volk is just on another level. Yair’s only true loss via KO/TKO came back in 2012 as it was a doctor stoppage against Frankie Edgar that was his other one. We think Volk drags Yair into deep waters here like Max did and picks up the decision victory.
Main Card Top Play: Brandon Moreno
Moreno is finally getting a different opponent here. He had faced Davidson Figueiredo in 4 of his last 5 fights with another one off against Kai Kara-France. He is coming off back-to-back KO/TKO victories but picking up a 3rd here against Pantoja will be extremely difficult.
Pantoja has yet to be finished in his 30 career fights and boasts a 25-5 record with 10 of those wins coming via submission. Moreno matches him in submission as he is 11-0 via that finish.
This should be a fight that contends for fight of the night, but we love Moreno’s heart and cardio in this one. We believe he will outpace Pantoja and pick up a victory one way or another.
Main Card Top Parlay: Jalin Turner & Robert Whittaker
We believe both sides of this parlay will be victorious for roughly the same reasoning. Both Du Plessis and Hooker are extremely talented but are also susceptible to playing into their opponent’s strengths.
Whittaker is just too experienced for Du Plessis and will force him into counter opportunities that will be too much for him to overcome. For Turner, he can stand and strike with Hooker if he so chooses, but also is long and lean enough to throw submissions up at the drop of a hat.
Any and every outcome is possible for both of these fights, but we believe we have the correct winners selected no matter how the fights end.
