Champions listed as favorites ahead of weekend’s UFC 245 card
The Ultimate Fighting Championship will hold their final pay-per-view event of the 2019 calendar year this Saturday night with UFC 245. The event which will be held at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada features not one, not two, but three title fights.
Headlining the historic event will the welterweight title fight between champion Kamaru Usman (15-1) and challenger, former interim champion Colby Covington (15-1).
The featherweight title is up for grabs as Max Holloway (21-4) defends his strap against Alexander Volkanovski (20-1).
In the first of the three title bouts, the current UFC women’s bantamweight and featherweight champion Amanda Nunes (18-4), defends her position at 135-pounds as she is challenged by former foe Germaine de Randamie (9-3).
As we are now less than 48 hours from start time, the MMA betting lines are currently showing the three defending champion as the favorites to win.
As of Thursday, Usman is listed at -186 while his opponent, Covington comes in at +152. What this means is that in order to win $100 when betting on Usman, you have to put down $186. If you put down $100 on Covington you would win $152, meaning you would walk away with $252.
Recently, Covington opened up and said that his persona is an act that he created after the UFC told him and his management that he would likely be cut because he was not interesting enough. The character that he generated, began to develop a feud with Usman, spilling over to social media and at times in public appearances. How will Usman respond inside the octagon now knowing that the entire thing was devised for hype?
In the co-main event, Holloway is favored at -167 and the challenger currently sits at +138.
Nunes is the most heavily favored of the three champions with a line set at -305 compared to her opponent’s +240. Nunes already holds a win over de Randamie, a first round finish from elbows dating back to 2013.
Remember the days when José Aldo always found himself in the main event spot or in a position where he was either defending or challenging for a UFC title? Aldo now sits lower on the pay-per-view portion of the card, taking on former bantamweight title contender Marlon Moraes. A lot of speculation is stirring around as to whether or not Aldo will make the bantamweight limit of 136-pounds after photos of a pale, thin fighter surfaced online.
Current UFC 245 fight card:
Kamaru Usman vs. Colby Covington – 170 lbs – for welterweight title
Max Holloway vs. Alexander Volkanovski – 145 lbs – for featherweight title
Amanda Nunes vs. Germaine de Randamie – 135 lbs – for bantamweight title
José Aldo vs. Marlon Moraes – 135 lbs
Petr Yan vs. Urijah Faber – 135 lbs
Mike Perry vs. Geoff Neal – 170 lbs
Ketlen Vieira vs. Irene Aldana – 135 lbs
Ian Heinisch vs. Omari Akhmedov – 185 lbs
Matt Brown vs. Ben Saunders – 170 lbs
Daniel Teymur vs. Chase Hooper – 145 lbs
Brandon Moreno vs. Kai Kara-France – 125 lbs
Jessica Eye vs. Viviane Araujo – 125 lbs
Punahele Soriano vs. Oskar Piechota – 185 lbs
