The UFC is spoiling fans with another live event this weekend, taking place in San Antonio, Texas. Headlining the main card will be a top bantamweight matchup between Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera and Cory Sandhagen. This fight has a lot of title-shot implications, especially if someone has a spectacular performance.
Let’s dive into this main event bout, find the best UFC odds, and predict the outcome of it. Will Chito continue his winning streak on his way to that elusive title shot? Or will Sandhagen stack up another win to push back into the title picture?
TOP #3 Betting Sites to Bet on UFC
UFC: Vera vs Sandhagen Betting Trends
- Marlon Vera is 4-1 in his last five fights.
- Cory Sanhagen is 3-3 in his last six fights. Granted, he only has lost to Sterling, Dillashaw, and Sandhagen–all current or former champions.
- Vera will be the betting underdog this weekend, which will be the 5th time as the underdog in his last 8 UFC bouts.
- Sandhagen is obviously the betting favorite this weekend. His career has had the opposite trend to Vera, with Sandhagen only being the underdog three times in his whole MMA career.
- Vera has an impressive 16 career finishes, 8 KO, and 8 SUB. He has also never been finished inside the distance.
- Sandhagen will be looking for his 11th career finish and being the first to ever do it to Vera.
How To Bet on Vera vs Sandhagen
When you start betting on UFC fights on the weekends, please take time to do the proper research and make intelligent bets. If you are just throwing money on fights as a casual fan, you will lose your funds very quickly.
MMA predictions are almost impossible to make on any given fight night, but when you have two of the best in the world going at it for 25 minutes, it makes room for error even smaller.
When researching a big fight like this, you need to look into all the analytics provided by the UFC statistics database, along with both fighters’ recent records and even the style of fighting that they will bring into the octagon.
In this case, the moneyline is pretty valuable for both fighters this weekend. If you don’t like a moneyline bet, you can look at your local sportsbook and find plenty of prop bets for the fight of your choice.
An interesting betting line for this main event fight is the over 4.5 total rounds being at -155. This tells us that oddsmakers believe there won’t be a finish in this fight, probably because Vera has never been finished and Sandhagen only has been submitted once.
What if you are confident in a fight prediction and think you know exactly how someone is going to get it done? There are ‘method of victory’ props that have tons of value in them available at all the major sportsbooks, usually.
Vera vs Sandhagen Betting Picks
After breaking down both fighters’ analytics and betting trends, the guy that stands out is Cory Sandhagen. It is probably safe to say, from a technical standpoint, Sandhagen is the superior martial artist.
Another big factor is that Sandhagen is coached by the great Trevor Wittman, who is arguably the best head coach in MMA. For years, he has been the head coach for champions like Rose Namajunas, Justin Gaethje, and Kamaru Usman.
The thing about Chito Vera is that he is never out of a fight. We saw him a few years ago look like he was going to get wrestled to a decision by Frankie Edgar, then land a brutal front kick to end the fight. Even when Vera is getting seemingly outclassed early by a guy like Sean O’Malley, he lands a kick that shuts off O’Malley’s leg and then takes advantage to finish the fight in the first.
It feels impossible to bet against Chito Vera after these recent performances, but the best bet has to be Sandhagen to get his hand raised at the end of the night. The experience over five rounds, the slick striking skills and ability to change up the looks, and the elite game-planning of himself and his coaches seem to be what he needs to be the favorite in this bout.
The way this fight plays out is so tough to predict. To be honest, Sandhagen will probably be the first to engage in any offensive grappling on Saturday night. He has shown a lot of growth in his wrestling and likes to mix all of it into his game plan at this stage of his career. Even with the grappling threat of both, this will be mostly a high-level kickboxing fight.
The moneyline has plenty of value, especially for an unpredictable fight like this one.
Top Sportsbooks Odds
BetOnline: Sandhagen -160
Bovada: Sandhagen -170
BetUS: Sandhagen -170
DraftKings: Sandhagen -165
Betway: Sandhagen -175
Pinnacle: Sandhagen -162
Bonus! Other Fights Worth Placing a Bet On
UFC women’s bantamweight co-main event: Holly Holm (-200) vs Yana Santos (+155)
- Holly Holm makes another appearance in the octagon at age 41, with full plans on making another run at the title. She looks to be in great shape and is going up against Santos, who has been busy the last few years starting her family. The favor goes to Holm in this one.
UFC featherweight bout: Nate Landwehr (-250) vs Austin Lingo (+200)
- This is probably the front runner, outside of the main event, to win the fight of the night. Sadly, Alex Caceres had to drop out of the fight, so the 9-1 Austin Lingo stepped in, and fans weren’t mad at that matchmaking. This is going to be a banger of a scrap, with Landwher being an absolute madman, going up against a beast in Lingo.
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