Best Bets for UFC 219: Weekly Wagering Deep Dive

UFC 219 is set to occur this Saturday night (Dec. 30) in Las Vegas, Nevada, and let’s just say that it doesn’t scream”quality” like preceding end-of-year UFC cards.
Usually the UFC piles its card of the year from top to bottom. Rather, in 2017, we now get a main event between Cris Cyborg and Holly Holm. Though it has the potential to be a great fight, it doesn’t necessarily scream”buy this pay-per-view!”
Additionally, this is a very hard card to wager on as there aren’t a lot of fights that you can get a strong read on. Many of the favorites, like Cyborg and Khabib Nurmagomedov, deserve to be overpowering favorites, yet could also readily get merked with their competitions. Danger lurks.
That said, we need to make a few plays. So let us do the best we can to find some golden underdogs, some worthy props, along with a lucrative parlay. Additionally checking out my Best Bets for UFC Futures from a week, where I proposed a few’puppies (Carla Esparza and Neil Magny) who hold some value.
Golden Underdogs
Middleweight: Marvin Vettori (-222) vs. Omari Akhmedov (+187)
At first glance, this moneyline in BetOnline seems perfectly okay, but if you have a closer look at this preliminary matchup, you can get some strong reasons to take the puppy in Omari”The Wolverine” Akhmedov (17-4).
Even though Marvin Vettori (12-3) is a bigger fighter who loves to throw down, averaging 3.13 significant strikes landed per moment, he does not possess enough power to take Akhmedov out through (T)KO, so this battle might end up being a grappling event. While Akhmedov has shown previously he has some power in his hands (seven wins by knockout and also two”Battle of the Night” bonuses at the UFC), in which he excels is in the wrestling department. The Dagestani grappler could easily end up controlling the struggle if the majority is invested at the clinch or around the mat.
The kryptonite I see for Akhmedov is his gas tank. Will he hit a cardio wall like he did in successive knockout losses to Sergio Moraes and Elizeu Zaleski? In both of those losses, Akhmedov started strong but faded badly in the subsequent rounds.
He followed those declines with two hard-working conclusion wins Kyle Noke and Abdul Razak Alhassan, the latter an upset at UFC Fight Night 109. Right now I’m leaning towards”The Wolverine’s” hard palms and wrestling acumen for a second potentially profitable upset.

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