UFC 102 Odds to Win: MMA Betting Matchups & Fight Card
UFC 102 takes place from the Rose Garden Arena in Portland, Ore. on Saturday, Aug. 29, and the main event features two of the greatest heavyweight fighters of all time.
The main card has five fights including a fight to determine a No. 1 contender for the middleweight championship later down the line. Here is a closer look at UFC 102’s top fights.
Hall Of Fame Heavyweights Clash
The main event of UFC 102 is between top heavyweight contenders Randy Couture and Antonio Minotauro Nogueira. Couture is already in the UFC Hall of Fame and Nogueira will be in someday. Both fighters are coming off second-round TKO losses in their previous fights and looking to get back into the title picture with a win. Couture’s last fight was a loss to current heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar last November. Prior to that loss, Couture, who 46-years-old, defeated top heavyweights Gabriel Gonzaga and Tim Sylvia. Nogueira is coming off a loss to Frank Mir in his last fight last December, but Nogueira later cited that he was just coming off a staph infection prior to the fight. Nogueira has not looked impressive in his three-fight UFC career. He was rattled early in his debut fight against Heath Herring before winning a decision and then was getting battered by Syliva in his second fight before scoring a submission in the third round. Many are questioning whether Nogueira has what it takes to fight in today’s UFC, and this Saturday’s fight will be a big test in proving the doubters wrong. Couture is favored to win with a line of -200 while Nogueira comes in with a line of +160.
Light Heavyweight Contenders Look To Get Back On Track
The co-headliner of UFC 102 is between light heavyweight fighters Keith Jardine and Thiago Silva. Both fighters are in the top of the heap in the light heavyweight division, but both are also looking to bounce back from recent defeats. Jardine has been a streaky fighter, beating top names like Forrest Griffin and Chuck Liddell, but losses to Houston Alexander and Wanderlei Silva have set him back. Jardine’s most recent fight was a close decision loss to Quinton Jackson in March, but a win over Silva would put him back into top contender status. Silva had a four-fight winning streak in the UFC before being knocked out by current 205-pound champion Lyoto Machida last January. Silva doesn’t hold a marquee win in his career, but a win on Saturday would allow him to take a step to the next level of contenders in the UFC. Jardine is favored to win with a line of -140, while Silva has a line of +110.
No. 1 Contender’s Match
One of the lesser-billed, but very big fights at UFC 102 is a middleweight contest between Nate Marquardt and Demian Maia. The winner of this fight will be the No. 1 contender to Anderson Silva’s middleweight championship following Silva’s fight with Dan Henderson in the near future. Marquardt already had a title shot against Silva back in July of 2007, but since losing in the first round, Marquardt has won three out of four fights, with the lone loss coming in a split decision to Thales Leites after Marquardt lost two points for penalties in the fight. Marquardt has defeated top middleweight fighters like Wilson Gouveia, Martin Kampmann, and Jeremy Horn on his way back to a rematch with Silva. Maia is unbeaten in his MMA career and is 5-0 with the UFC with submission wins in all five fights. Maia has made quick work of most of his opponents, but Marquardt will be his toughest fight to date. Marquardt is favored to win with a line of -180 while Maia has a line of +150.
UFC 102 takes place live from Portland, Ore. on Aug. 29 starting at 10 p.m. ET. Below are the currently listed odds for the event. Odds are provided by online sports book SPORTSBETTING.com.
UFC Heavyweights
Randy Couture -200
Antonio Minotauro Nogueira +160
UFC Light Heavyweights
Keith Jardine -140
Thiago Silva +110
UFC Middleweights
Nate Marquardt -180
Demian Maia +150
UFC Middleweights
Chris Leben -165
Jake Rosholt +135
UFC Light Heavyweights
Brandon Vera -200
Krzysztof Soszynski +160
UFC Middleweights
Ed Herman -140
Aaron Simpson +110
UFC Heavyweights
Gabriel Gonzaga -400
Chris Tuchscherer +300
UFC Heavyweights
Mike Russow -250
Justin McCully +195
UFC Heavyweights
Todd Duffee -165
Tim Hague +135
UFC Middleweights
Mark Munoz -210
Nick Catone +165
Betting the UFC
By Bodog.com
Whether you are a fan of mixed martial arts or not, one can’t dispute the rise in popularity of the sport, especially in bouts involving the Ultimate Fighting Championship organization. Indeed, UFC betting volume is on average much greater than that on boxing, usually between 60 and 70 percent more each month.
Frankly, boxing betting revolves mainly around a few super-fights a year. Something like a Floyd Mayweather-Oscar De La Hoya fight. The Golden Boy always was one of the top draws at the gate and in terms of betting volume, and UFC president Dana White has said De La Hoya was the only draw in boxing he feared. We do expect decent betting numbers at Bodog for the Nov. 14 fight between Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto, but neither of those guys draws much of an American audience. On the flip side, UFC usually has a great card once a month or so.
Another unique trend we notice on MMA events is that fans appear to have more interest in the undercard fights. In boxing, the undercards are usually forgotten about (and not seen on TV) by a majority of bettors, as they wait for the main event. In MMA, the betting is spread out among all the undercards. Overall, there has been only one month this year where our boxing handle was higher than MMA and that was May, which saw a big boxing fight between Pacquiao, the pound-for-pound king, and Ricky Hatton, among others.
The four major American sports are still well ahead of MMA in betting volume, and golf, tennis and soccer still have a lead over MMA in volume at Bodog, but we expect that to change with those three sports as early as mid-2010. MMA already has surpassed NASCAR, which has been sinking for a few years.
And the UFC knows marketing, as witnessed by the fact it will show UFC 105 via tape-delay on Spike TV the same night as the Pacquiao-Hatton fight. UFC also has UFC 103 scheduled for Sept. 19 (the undercard on Spike with no commercial interruptions, the main events on pay-per-view), which just so happens to be Mayweather’s return to the ring against Juan Manuel Marquez. Guess which sport will get more pay-per-view buys and more betting volume?
Promoters are trying a gimmick to get more views of Mayweather-Marquez, as they will show the bout live in about 170 theaters nationwide, with ticket prices expected to be about $15. The rise and profitability of pay-per-view ended what was a long-time U.S. trend of showing big fights in theaters. Among the last fights widely shown in them was Sugar Ray Leonard's "no mas" victory over Roberto Duran in November 1980.
We expect to see big volume for this Saturday’s UFC 102, with the main fight pitting UFC heavyweight and light heavyweight champ Randy Couture against former PRIDE heavyweight and UFC interim heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. Couture has opened as the sizable favorite despite the fact he is 46, and the early public action seems to be all over him. Both guys enter off a loss.