UFC 265 takes place tonight from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. Headlining the card is the controversial interim Heavyweight title bout between Houston’s own Derrick Lewis and France’s Ciryl Gane.
The Rest of the Card:
Looking at the remaining 4 fights on the UFC 265 card that are not the interim title fight main event, betters are met with a lot of toss up action. The card kicks off with a Bantamweight bout between rising division prospects Song Yadong (-106) and Casey Kenney (-110).
Next up on the card is a women’s Strawweight bout between contenders #10 Tecia Torres (-152) and #12 Angela Hill (+128), who exchanged some words at their press conference on Thursday.
The third match on the card is a highly anticipated bout between two Welterweight top contenders between #5 Michael Chiesa (-116) and #6 Vincente Luque (-102). For me, this is the fight I’m looking most forward to on this card. Additionally, I believe this to be the closest fight on the card. Look for this one to be a close decision, however it’s too close for my comfort for me to touch this with any bets.
Co-main eventing the PPV is a Bantamweight bout between former Featherweight champion #5 Jose Aldo (-116) and #9 Pedro Munhoz (-102). This fight will be key for Aldo to see how close he can legitimately get to a Bantamweight run, or if the best of his career is behind him.
The Card’s Hottest Bet:
As promised, the hottest bet on the card falls within the main event between #2 Derrick Lewis and #3 Ciryl Gane for the interim Heavyweight championship. The line for this fight has been all over the place all week, moving constantly.
Update on these lines:
* Derrick Lewis by KO/TKO or DQ: opened +450, yesterday+400, now +375
* Yesterday, 63% of handle was on Lewis to win fight. Now, 71% of handle on Lewis to won.
(Courtesy of @BetMGM) https://t.co/PodXGyS9qu
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) August 7, 2021
Lewis remains a large underdog, although the line has settled down considerably as he is now a +270, with Gane sitting at a -335 favorite, according to FanDuel.
The hottest bet on this card that intrigues me is the Lewis KO/TKO odds. Lewis (25-7) is the all-time leader in UFC knockouts, with 20 of his 25 career wins coming by KO/TKO. With that being said, it’s hard to pass up +390 odds for a Lewis KO/TKO victory. I put $5.32 on this for a nice $26.07 payout.
(All odds are from FanDuel as of time of writing on 8/7/21).
