Two bad ass Lightweight fighters, one title ... all for free this Saturday night (Dec. 19, 2015)!
For the first time since summer, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) will hit FOX Sports proper with a quality four-fight main card. In the main event, 155-pound kingpin Rafael dos Anjos squares off with Donald Cerrone in his first title defense, while Junior dos Santos and Alistair Overeem collide in the Heavyweight co-feature years in the making.
Elsewhere on UFC on FOX 17, Michael Johnson takes on Nate Diaz and Randa Markos welcomes top prospect Karolina Kowalkiewicz to UFC's Strawweight division.
It's the last UFC card of the year, so let's see if we can't end on a high note.
UFC On FOX 17 Odds For The Undercard:
Myles Jury (-125) vs. Charles Oliveira (+105)
C.B. Dollaway (-360) vs. Nate Marquardt (+300)
Sarah Kaufman (-220) vs. Valentina Shevchenko (+180)
Josh Samman (-170) vs. Tamdan McCrory (+150)
Nik Lentz (-120) vs. Danny Castillo (EVEN)
Jim Alers (-145) vs. Cole Miller (+125)
Kamaru Usman (-210) vs. Leon Edwards (+160)
Hayder Hassan (-110) vs. Vicente Luque (-110)
Luiz Henrique (-135) vs. Francis Ngannou (+115)
Thoughts: I’m a tad disappointed that Usman didn’t stay below -200, but we can still work with it. Miller and Ngannou seem like decent picks, too.
Edwards seems like he has a bright future ahead of him with his power and overall striking acumen, but Usman is just an absolute beast. He is the better technical wrestler on top of boasting a significant physical edge. The odds of Edwards staying upright long enough to bring said striking to bear are more or less zilch, so go for the Nigerian.
Alers has the kind of explosiveness to live up to his "Beast" moniker and some darn fine grappling to go along with it. Dude is just too easy to hit -- he has been dropped in both of his last two fights and Miller, average as he may be on the feet, can do some real damage with his straight right.
I expect he’ll drop and stop Alers midway through.
Henrique and Ngannou are in the stages of their careers where anything could change from one fight to the next, but it’s hard to ignore the fact that Henrique, a natural light heavyweight, is going to give up a pretty ridiculous amount of size here. This isn’t always a guarantee of failure, as Nikita Krylov-Walt Harris showed us, but Henrique’s skills aren’t exactly eye-catching to begin with.
Therefore, a bit on the big Frenchman makes sense.
UFC On FOX 17 Odds For The Main Card:
Rafael dos Anjos (-220) vs. Donald Cerrone (+180)
Junior dos Santos (-360) vs. Alistair Overeem (+300)
Michael Johnson (-470) vs. Nate Diaz (+375)
Randa Markos (-175) vs. Karolina Kowalkiewicz (+155)
Thoughts: To be perfectly frank, there’s pretty much nothing here.
More specifically, I expect the favorites in the top three fights (dos Anjos, dos Santos and Johnson) to all win, but each of their opponents can end the fight in an instant. Further, in the opening bout, Markos has a tendency to make fights closer than they should and Kowalkiewicz is more than capable of taking advantage of those lapses, making it unpredictable as well.
I say just stick with the undercard.
UFC On FOX 17 Best Bets
- Parlay -- Kamaru Usman and Cole Miller: Bet $45 to make $104.40
- Single bet -- Francis Ngannou: Bet $40 to make $46
Lots of folks are going to get hurt in fairly spectacular fashion, methinks.
See you there, Maniacs!
Remember that MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC on FOX 17 fight card on fight night, starting with the Fight Pass "Prelims" matches online, which are scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m. ET, and then the remaining undercard balance on FOX Sports 1 at 5 p.m. ET, before the FOX main card start time at 8 p.m. ET.