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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

UFC 307 takes place this Saturday at Delta Center in Salt Lake City, featuring two title fights and 10 other marquee matchups. In the main event, Alex Pereira puts his light heavyweight title on the line against Khalil Rountree Jr., and in the co-main event, women’s bantamweight champion Raquel Pennington makes the first defense of her belt against former champion Julianna Peña. Let dive into which bouts are worth betting on this weekend.

All odds are courtesy of our friends at FanDuel Sportsbook.

Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC

Straight Bets

Julianna Peña (+140)

Let’s start with the downsides of this bet: Peña has not fought in two years, she hasn’t won a fight in nearly three years, and she doesn’t have any victories over fighters currently competing in the UFC. That’s not great!

However, Peña does have two very important things working in her favor. First, she’s a good grappler and wrestler. Pennington is a bit of a jack-of-all-trades but historically, one of the most successful strategies against her has been scoring takedowns, as Pennington isn’t a threat off her back.

Second, Peña is tougher than advanced algebra and has absolutely zero quit in her. If something doesn’t work, she will doggedly keep trying it until it does work. That sort of relentless effort makes her a more effective striker than she should be, and should play into her hands in the championship rounds of this fight.

Ultimately, this is a coin flip fight since Pennington is good but not incredible, and so there’s value on Peña.

Jose Aldo (+118)

Jose Aldo is one of the six greatest fighters of all time. Mario Bautista is a very good fighter, but the ocean of distance between “very good” and “Pantheon level” is vast. Even at his advanced age, Aldo is still a master and creating the fight he wants. More to the point, he’s one of my favorite fighters of all time and I’m always going to back him to win.

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

Prop Bets

Kayla Harrison by KO/TKO or Submission (+105)

Harrison faces Ketlen Vieira on the main card in a matchup that is more or less a setup fight to get Harrison to the bantamweight title.

Harrison is a two-time Olympic gold medalist judoka and a physical force of nature. If Vieira could keep this fight on the feet, she’d stand a chance. But she simply will not be able to do that against Harrison meaning the question is whether or not Harrison can get the finish. Vieira has proven very durable in her career but this version of Harrison is a different beast and I think she gets the statement finish.

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

Parlays

There’s nothing I love more than a gimmick parlay and there are two prime opportunities this week. The first is the Pennington Parlay, which I’m passing on given my support of Peña this week. The second is the Glory Parlay.

Pereira is a famously a two-division Glory Kickboxing champion, where he (less) famously had a rivalry with Cesar Almeida. Now the two men are in the UFC and train together under Glover Teixeira, and are heavy favorites at UFC 307.

Alex Pereira (-506)

As far as the actual fight goes, I wrote a big breakdown over on SB Nation, so you should check that out, but the short version is that Pereira is most likely going to clobber anyone who willingly engages in a kickboxing match with him, which is what Rountree is going to do.

Cesar Almeida (-400)

And on the prelims, that same dynamic takes places when Almeida takes on Ihor Potieria, the man who famously ended Shogun Rua’s MMA career. This is basically an off-brand version of the main event, and the outcome should be similarly expected.

Parlay these two bets together for -212 odds

Wrap Up

UFC Paris was a mixed bag. We spiked a big underdog in calling Renato Moicano’s win, but lost everything else which is obviously less than ideal. Let’s hope we do better this weekend,

Until next week, enjoy the fights, good luck, and gamble responsibly!

All information in this article is provided to readers of MMA Fighting for entertainment, news, and amusement purposes only. It is the responsibility of the reader to learn and abide by online gambling laws in their region before placing any online sports betting wagers.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Mike Tyson appears ready to go for next month’s blockbuster return to the boxing ring against Jake Paul.

The former heavyweight champion faces Paul Nov. 15 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, headlining an event that streams on Netflix for subscribers. The bout was initially scheduled for July, but Tyson withdrew after suffering a medical emergency.

With a lot of questions about the 58-year-old Tyson’s age, and overall health, “Iron” made an attempt to thwart some of the negative press with a pad melting training session, which he posted on Instagram.

Tyson hasn’t competed in a pro boxing match in nearly 20 years, losing a technical knockout to Kevin McBride in June 2005 after not answering the bell in Round 7. Tyson returned for an exhibition bout with Roy Jones Jr. in November 2020, and fought to a no-decision after going the full eight, two-minute rounds.

After suffering his first loss to Tommy Fury in February 2023, Paul bounced back with four straight knockout victories. In his most recent outing, Paul stopped BKFC star Mike Perry in the sixth round in July.

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“I just got surgery this morning and I’m on OxyContin and I just went live on Twitch,” O’Malley told Adin Ross.

Sean O’Malley had surgery earlier this week to repair damage suffered in the buildup to his Merab Dvalishvili title fight atop the UFC 306 fight card last month inside Sphere in Las Vegas, a five-round decision loss that cost “Suga” the bantamweight title.

Not even Suga State Athletic Commission could save his strap.

“First off I wanna say, I didn’t take any pain pills — I didn’t even go to sleep,” O’Malley said. “They did the surgery, I was wide awake. It hurt a little bit, I’m not gonna lie. Whoa dude I feel like I’m peaking. Alright Twitch fam … we’re here, we’re there, we’re everywhere.”

Watch the Twitch stream replay here.

Fans on social media are calling O’Malley’s Oxy-induced Twitch stream “the dumbest thing he could have done,” which tells me they missed this bizarre procedure. The good news is, O’Malley is still cleared for that immediate title shot upon his return.

Assuming Umar Nurmagomedov is champion in 2025.

No word yet on when O’Malley, 29, is expected to make his Octagon return, but he may have to blast his way past this resurgent ex-champion, who has plans for his own 135-pound title shot in 2025. In addition, the promotion has yet to determine when Dvalishvili will make his first division title defense.

Still some missing pieces to this bantamweight puzzle.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Chad Johnson and James Harrison have some unique Super Bowl plans.

According to their chatter on social media, the former NFL stars expect to meet in an exhibition fight under MMA rules sometime prior to the upcoming Super Bowl LIX, which takes place at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans on Feb. 9.

Johnson, the flashy wide receiver who built his reputation with the Cincinnati Bengals, was first to tease the bout via a tweet on Wednesday.

“I’m fighting James Harrison in a exhibition MMA format three-round bout in New Orleans before Super Bowl, I’m so excited,” Johnson wrote.

Rather than shoot down the rumor, Harrison appeared to confirm Johnson’s announcement, replaying in a quote tweet, “It’s five rounds, [Johnson.]”

That reply led to a back-and-forth between the retired football players, with Johnson saying the number of rounds won’t matter because he’s predicting a first-round finish, and Harrison saying that Johnson won’t be able to stand when the fight is over.

Johnson, 46, went on to tout his MMA skills, boasting that he will submit Harrison with a guillotine choke using “a collection of grappling techniques and strategies where his strength won’t matter.” A one-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year, Harrison (also 46) would likely enter any contest against Johnson with a considerable size advantage.

Should the bout come to fruition, it would mark Johnson’s second foray into combat sports. He competed in an exhibition boxing bout against Brian Maxwell on June 6, 2021, on the Floyd Mayweather vs. Logan Paul undercard. Though Johnson fared well for the most part, he was knocked down in closing moments of the four-round exhibition bout. Due to the fight being an exhibition, no official winner was announced.

Harrison was a fearsome linebacker during his 15-year pro career and a key member of the Pittsburgh Steelers Super Bowl champion teams in 2006 and 2009. In 2023, Harrison was inducted into the franchise’s Hall of Honor.

No date has been announced for Johnson vs. Harrison and it sounds like the athletes themselves are still sorting out the details.

In related news, current Las Vegas Raiders star and diehard UFC fan Maxx Crosby, 27, also expressed an interest in mixing the martial arts in an interview with TMZ.

“All my guys, all my teammates are like, 100 percent, they already expect me to do it,” Crosby said. “I’m like, shit, I haven’t even thought about it that much. I love fighting. I box damn near every single day, so we’ll see.

“I love it. I truly love it, so we’ll see. If my heart desires it and I want to go in there, shit, I might. I’m not ever putting anything out the window. You live one life, so I’m going to do everything I put my heart to.”

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