Las Vegas will again play host to an exciting evening of mixed martial arts bouts with 12 fights on the card for UFC 282: Blachowicz vs. Ankalaeva on Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena.
Headlined by a light heavyweight title fight between two in-form fighters in Jan Blachowicz and Magomed Ankalaev, the card will also feature several other match-ups of intrigue. One of these is the co-main event between rising cult figure Paddy ‘the Baddy’ Pimblett and Jared Gordon. With only three fights in the UFC so far, Pimblett is already making a name for himself as a large personality and fast finisher. Can he make it four from four this weekend?
Bookmaker William Hill has all of the odds for this event, and we look at the best bets to make ahead of the first fight this evening.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: December 10th, 2:00 A.M. (EST)
Looking at the odds for the UFC 282 fight card, we can see that both of the headline fights have a strong favourite in them.
Magomed Ankalaev is a 1.33 favourite to defeat Jan Blachowicz, who is at 3.30 to come away with the light heavyweight title on Saturday night. Paddy Pimblett is at similar odds in his co-main event match-up with the bookies putting the Englishman at 1.36 for the win over Jared Gordon, who is at 3.10.
Many of the other evening’s match-ups are closer in the odds with both Bryce Mitchell vs. Ilia Topuria and Darren Till vs. Dricus Du Plessis at 2.30 to 1.61. In fact, a few mis-matches are on the card this weekend with the longest odds coming in the first fight of the night, which sees Cameron Saaiman favoured at 1.28 over Steven Koslow’s 3.60.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: December 10th, 2:00 A.M. (EST)
Looking at the two main events in more detail, both of these should be excellent fights regardless of the gap in odds.
Russia’s Magomed Ankalaev is 9-1 in the UFC and 18-1-0 as a professional having won his last eight fights in a row. He has won five of his UFC victories by knockout and has seemed on course for a title fight since bouncing back from his debut loss. Chances are Ankalaev will look to out-hit Poland’s Jan Blachowicz, who holds a 29-9-0 professional record with 12 wins and six losses in the UFC. Blachowicz is a well-rounded fighter but will likely look to avoid Ankalaev’s striking power and turn this into a grappling match.
Take Ankalaev to win by knockout here with healthy odds of 2.37 for this result.
The other main event sees Paddy Pimblett look to continue his hot streak in the UFC. This baby-faced, golden-haired 27-year-old is not to be under estimated as all of his three UFC fights have ended in first or second round finishes. Pimblett has gone on record stating that he intends to knockout Gordon and with six knockouts to his name across his 19-3-0 professional record, there’s a good chance he’ll be able to execute that.
Odds for a submission Pimblett’s way are slightly stronger however, which is the safer bet at 6.00.
