With roughly one month until the next big UFC PPV, UFC 253 is already creating quite the buzz with fans, pundits and fighters themselves.
Recently, it was announced that the light heavyweight title would be up for grabs in the co-main event between Dominick Reyes and Jan Blachowicz with Reyes opening as a large betting favorite. He also opened up about this fight and expressed frustrations over it.
The main event for UFC 253 is a middleweight title bout between Israel Adesanya and Paulo Costa. These two men absolutely despise each other and their public rivalry is creating a massive buzz for the upcoming PPV.
With only a few UFC 253 fights confirmed, and available to wager on, let’s take a look at the opening lines for UFC 253 via Bovada.lv and see if there’s any reason to place wagers right now.
LET’S SETTLE IT.
🏆 @Stylebender vs @BorrachinhaMMA is official for September 26. #UFC253 pic.twitter.com/zyShnD9UOh
— UFC (@ufc) August 16, 2020
UFC 253 Fight Card
The following fights have been tentatively scheduled for UFC 253:
- (c)Israel Adesanya vs Paulo Costa
- Jan Blachowicz vs Dominick Reyes
- Claudia Gadelha vs Yan Xiaonan
- Hakeem Dawodu vs Zubaira Tukhugov
- Kai Kara-France vs Brandon Rovyal
As of now, only the top three fights have betting odds.
Claudia Gadelha vs Yan Xiaonan
- Claudia Gadelha (+110)
- Yan Xiaonan (-140)
This fight is a battle of Top 10 women’s strawweights as the 6th ranked Claudia Gadelha takes on China’s #2 female fighter Yan Xiaonan who’s ranked 10th in the division.
Gadelha is the higher ranked fighter, but comes in as the slight underdog. She opened at -130 odds, but has seen her odds move all the way to +128 at the highest. Currently, she can be found in a range of +110 to +128.
Gadelha last fought in May and defeated Angela Hill via split decision. She’s won two fights in a row and is 3-1 in her last four contests.
Yan Xiaonan last fought in February and defeated Karolina Kowalkiewicz via unanimous decision. Yan is 5-0 inside the octagon and is aiming to fight Joanna Jedrzejczyk next, if she can get past Gadelha. Yan opened as a +110 underdog, but can now be found with odds ranging from -130 to -149.
As you can see, these odds have shifted dramatically on UFC betting sites and I can see more movement as we get closer to the UFC 253 event.
Gadelha’s odds are appealing as they do provide some value for a higher ranked fighter looking to get back into the title hunt.
Jan Blachowicz vs Dominick Reyes
- Jan Blachowicz (+175)
- Dominick Reyes (-225)
Reyes suffered the first loss of his career via unanimous decision to Jon Jones in February. However, there were many fans and pundits that felt Reyes had won the fight. Team Dominick asked for an immediate rematch, but was left in limbo for nearly six months.
However, that rematch is not going to happen now since Jon Jones is moving up to heavyweight and has decided to relinquish the light heavyweight title. On the bright side, Reyes will get to fight for the title again. Yet, his initial reaction wasn’t one of joy, but frustration instead:
“It’s a championship fight, and you’re gonna give me six weeks’ notice on a co-main? Come on, bro. It takes time to prepare, man,” Reyes said. “I want to go out there and freaking put on a hell of a show for the fans. I want to do some dope s***. I want to sleep him, choke him out, whatever. I want to get an astonishing finish, and that takes film study, it takes time, it takes a little bit more than six weeks.”
If anyone should be frustrated, it should be Blachowicz who opened as a +170 underdog only to see his odds rise as high as +210. Reyes opened at -200 and now sits within a range of -210 to -260.
This is going to be an exciting fight between two deserving title contenders. Blachowicz last fought in February and knocked out Corey Anderson in the first round.
I think these odds might come down some as Blachowicz is a live dog in this fight and has the kickboxing skills to stand and strike with Reyes. If you think Jan will win then hop on these early odds as I would imagine they come down closer to where he opened at (+170).
Israel Adesanya vs Paulo Costa
- Israel Adesanya (-165)
- Paulo Costa (+135)
The main event for UFC 253 is a middleweight title fight between two unbeaten combatants who hate each other. In other words, it doesn’t get any better than this.
Speaking of “words,” these two have had a war of words for several months now. And, Costa’s latest barrage of bantering caught the attention of fans and pundits:
“He’s fragile. He knows that. He knows he’s fragile. He knows he cannot get two or three very hard hits on his face, on his body. He will be broken. He knows that already because he knocked out two times, with big gloves in kickboxing to a guy named Alex Pereira with big gloves, 14 or 16 oz gloves. Imagine what I can do with him, with his skinny, fragile body with 4oz on my hands.”
Costa would go on to declare that he’s the “toughest guy on the planet” based on his intense training camps for his upcoming fights. Costa believes he’s going to destroy Adesanya in their title bout.
This fight has been pushed back some due to a recent injury from Costa. He fought one year ago and defeated Yoel Romero via unanimous decision to earn this title opportunity. 11 of his 13 pro wins have come via TKO/KO.
The champ Israel Adesanya fought Romero in March and won via unanimous decision in a very boring fight. Where Costa and Romero exchanged brutality for five rounds, Adesanya and Romero shadowboxed for five rounds.
You have to go back to Adesanya’s impressive performance in beating the former champ Robert Whittaker last October to see what he truly brings to the table. Speaking of Whittaker, he’s “got next” as the former champ wants an opportunity to win his title back.
This UFC 253 main event fight first saw odds all the way back in late-October of 2019. At that time, Adesanya opened at -140 and Costa at +120. Since then, the champ can be found at a range of -150 to -175 and the challenger can be found with odds ranging from +120 to +153.
I’m actually surprised that Adesanya’s odds are this high considering how flat he looked against Romero in March. Around that time, Israel’s odds against Costa were as high as -190 to -200. So, they have come down some, but I think they should come down a bit more.
Costa offers value right now and it’s worth jumping on these lines if you think he will win. I would hold off on Adesanya’s current odds until closer to fight night. I expect the disparity between each fighter’s betting odds to narrow as we get closer to the PPV.
Rick Rockwell
As a longtime freelance writer, avid sports fan, former athlete, and experienced sports bettor, Rick Rockwell has risen up the ranks at GamblingSites.org to become the self-professed “King of the Blog” in his first year with the site. …
