The Middle East continues to grow its reputation as combat sport’s second home with the UFC heading to the United Arab Emirates this weekend. UFC 280 will feature headline fights between Charles Oliveira vs. Islam Makhachev, Aljamain Sterling vs. T.J. Dillashaw and Petr Yan vs. Sean O’Malley with a total of 13 fights coming live out of the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi.
Several of these fights promise to be incredibly close and entertaining, including the main event. Both Oliveira and Makhachev are unbeaten in the last five years and 10+ fights, but one of these streaks will come to an end on the weekend.
Bookmaker bet365 has the odds for this match up as well as the other bouts on Saturday night.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: October 20th, 2:00 A.M. (EST)
As bookmaker bet365 shows, the main clash between Brazil’s Charles Oliveira and Russian Islam Makhachev is almost too close to call with odds of 1.58 against 2.40 slightly favouring Makhachev.
Looking a little deeper at bet365’s odds, the most likely method of victory is a Makhachev knockout or submission with odds of 2.10. Regardless, the oddsmakers see this fight finishing early with the next most likely result a finish in favour of Oliveira at 2.62. A bet on this fight to go the distance would return relatively high odds of 3.75.
Makhachev heads into this fight the slightly younger man with a 9 cm reach disadvantage. However, as his professional record of 22-1-0 shows, he is in fine form having not dropped a fight since being knocked out by Adriano Martins in 2015. Oliveira, on the other hand, is 33 years old and comes into this clash with a record of 33-8-0. He is currently on a 12 fight winning streak having submitted his last two opponents.
The two men will compete for the vacant lightweight championship title.
The co-main event of UFC 280 is also expected to be a close contest with Aljamain Sterling leading TJ Dillashaw in the odds 1.58 to 2.40. The fight will be for the UFC bantamweight championship title, which Sterling currently holds.
Sterling comes into the match-up off the back of consecutive wins over Petr Yan and is unbeaten since 2017. Dillashaw, on the other hand, dropped his penultimate fight against Henry Cejudo and holds a record of 17-4-0.
Tune in this Saturday for these two matches and eleven others all live from UFC 280 in Abu Dhabi.
Fight Details:
Date: Saturday, October 22nd, from 10:00 a.m. (EST)
Venue: Etihad Arena, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Watch on: Prelims on ESPN, main card pay per view
