Champions Anchor UFC 281 Parlay

There are three fights included in what should be an incredible night in Las Vegas.

Stay tuned as we’ll be covering the most important UFC fight card and we’ll also be sharing our UFC predictions for the upcoming tournaments.

Adesanya vs Pereira

There has been plenty of hype surrounding Pereira, but Adesanya is the champion and he’s undefeated in the middleweight division.

He’s also one of the smartest UFC fighters, so he’s unlikely to engage with Pereira. He’ll instead pick his spots to attack and win rounds like he always does, which will in turn frustrate Pereira into making mistakes.

Fans are often left disappointed when watching Adesanya fight, but he’s clinical and he doesn’t care how it looks. He’s not there to entertain, he’s there to win and we like the -215 odds with the sportsbook.

We can’t see Adesanya losing to a guy with only seven fights on his record and we don’t care that Pereira knocked him out in their kickboxing days. There has been a lot of water under the bridge since then.

• Pick: Israel Adesanya -220

Take a Look at These Other 2 UFC Special Articles

• UFC 281 Betting Recap
• UFC 281 Props: Not for Faint of Heart

Esparza vs Zhang

Much like the main event, there is plenty of hype surrounding the women’s strawweight co-main event between Carla Esparza and Weili Zhang.

Zhang is 22-3 after scoring a knockout win, but we think UFC betting online markets have a recent bias toward the Chinese fighter. There is much better value with Esparza, who scored consecutive wins over Rose Namajunas.

That form stacks up nicely as Zhang was unable to beat her, so if Esparza can use her grappling skills to frustrate Zhang, the +260 odds are excellent value.

We thought Esparza would be around +120, so she’s being included in our UFC parlay as the best value bet on the UFC 281 card.

“I have done my studying and I have seen holes and things I can take advantage of,” Esparza said about Zhang. “But at the end of the day, at this level and being a former champ, everyone’s going to be really good. I think it’s because she’s so dangerous and she comes out really strong that she has had these explosive first-round finishes.

“I’m definitely not looking past how dangerous she is and her knockout power and how strong she is because I think that’s obvious to see.”

• Pick: Carla Esparza +260

Riddell vs Moicano

Brad Riddell faces Renato Moicano in the lightweight division on the prelim card and we fancy Moicano.

The Brazilian fighter was defeated by Rafael dos Anjos at UFC 272, but he’s facing a much easier fighter in Riddell, who was submitted in the first round by Jalin Turner at UFC 276.

The only thing going against Moicano is that he hasn’t fought since March, but he’s a quality fighter who owns wins against Alex Hernandez, Jai Herbert, and Calvin Kattar.

UFC betting markets have Moicano at -125 and that’s well worth including in our UFC parlay. Moicano has the ability to score another win in a feature fight and the odds could shorten on fight night.

• Pick: Renato Moicano -125