Big Game Report #50
UFC 259 Special
By Chase Bailkin
Jan Blachowicz
(27-8)
VS
Israel Adesanya
(20-0)
Amanda Nunes
(20-4)
VS
Megan Anderson
(11-4)
Petr Yan
(15-1)
VS
Aljamain Sterling
(19-3)
Light Heavyweight Championship
Jan Blachowicz (Champion)
Israel Adesanya (Challenger)
Fanduel Odds
Even though Jan Blachowicz is the champion, Adesanya is the favorite because he has decimated everyone in his path to the belt at the middleweight division, showing unique and high class striking skills. He now moves up to face a very tough guy nicknamed the Polish Power, and that is for a reason as we’ve seen him knockout all-time MMA greats like Luke Rockhold, Dominick Reyes, and Corey Anderson. While I hate betting against Izzy, I do think back to his fight against Gastelum in which he struggled because of Gastelum’s power. Now he moves up a weight class to fight an even stronger opponent who has a similar style to Gastelum and I wonder if that will cause him some problems. Adesanya will look to use his range as always to keep away the more powerful opponents he faces, but they do fight at the Las Vegas Apex where the ring is smaller than normal, so he may not be able to utilize it as much. I anticipate Blazhowicz to be aggressive and he may get lucky and catch Adesanya or get rocked on a counter which Adesanya is fantastic at, but I don’t expect this fight to last long. Take the under 2.5 rounds at +112.
Women’s Featherweight Championship
Amanda Nunes
(Champion)
Megan Anderson
(Challenger)
Fanduel Odds
Megan Anderson is one tough chick, but she faces the female GOAT on Saturday in Amanda Nunes. Nunes has flawlessly and violently destroyed every challenger in her long reign as Champion, and has taken down all of the best female fighters. You cannot bet against her. She is too strong and too skillful to be beaten by anyone at this point, and that includes Megan Anderson. While I do think Nunes cannot be beaten by anyone, I do think Anderson is a fantastic fighter and will give more of fight than past fighters who stood across from Nunes, in which Nunes has dominated from start to finish in nearly every fight, never seeming to be in trouble. Nunes has gone all 5 rounds in her last 2 bouts, and given that she has only gotten older I think this fight will not be over in the first round. She is too highly favored to take her to win the fight, so just take the over 1.5 rounds at -112.
Bantamweight Chanpionship
Petr Yan
(Champion)
Aljamain Sterling
(Challenger)
Fanduel Odds
Aljamain Sterling is a scary man to stand across the octagon from. He is ripped, and has incredible explosiveness and some of the best Jiu Jitsu in the Bantamweight division. He showed this in his last fight when he choked out Cory Sandhagen in the first minute of the fight. Petr Yan is a savage who just gained the belt in a war with MMA legend Jose Aldo. They are two very different fighters and they the odds are even because no one knows who will be able to force their game-plan and who will have to adjust. Yan wants to stand and strike, but Aljamain wants to take Yan down and choke him out. This fight is really a matter of who can impose their will the best, and each fighter will not be able to make any mistakes as they can easily get caught if they get lazy for one second and allow the other to impose their game plan. Aljamain cannot keep up with Yan’s striking but Yan cannot keep up with Sterling’s Jiu Jitsu so it should be a fascinating fight. With so much on the line, the fact that these guys have very different styles and will spend time trying to figure each other out, and they do not hit that hard at only 135 pounds, take the fight to end by points at +110.