A score will be settled and an epic MMA career could come to a close at UFC 252 on Saturday night as Daniel Cormier battles champion Stipe Miocic for the UFC heavyweight title as a slim -125 favourite on the UFC odds at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.
The third bout between these two American veteran fighters, Cormier will be looking to reclaim the title he lost to Miocic by fourth-round TKO at UFC 241. But win or lose, Cormier has said he’ll call it a career following Saturday night’s matchup at UFC APEX in Las Vegas.
Cormier claimed the win the first time these fighters met two years ago at UFC 226, taking just 4:33 to knock out Miocic and win the UFC heavyweight championship as a +140 underdog, while also earning a Performance of the Night bonus. The 41-year-old followed up with a second-round submission win over Derrick Lewis at UFC 230 to pay out on -450 odds. However, he disappointed bettors as -140 chalk in their second clash a year ago.
Idle since that victory, Miocic returns to the octagon on Saturday night set as a strong -105 underdog at sports betting sites. The 37-year-old Ohio native has finished opponents with regularity while winning seven of his past eight fights. Among the opponents that Miocic has knocked out in the first round are Andrei Arlovski, Fabricio Werdum and Junior dos Santos. However, he needed five rounds and a unanimous nod from the judges to escape with a win as a +145 wager in an epic clash with Francis Ngannou at UFC 220.
Earlier on Saturday, bantamweight Sean O’Malley will put his perfect 12-0 professional MMA record on the line when he takes on Marlon Vera as a heavy -285 favourite on the UFC 252 odds. O’Malley has continued to dominate since joining the UFC almost four years ago. He has claimed Performance of the Night bonuses while tallying first-round knockout wins in each of his past two outings, capped by his one-punch finish of Eddie Wineland just 1:54 into their clash at UFC 250 that paid out on -600 odds.
Vera returns to the bantamweight division as a +225 underdog after dropping a three-round unanimous decision to featherweight Song Yadong as a +170 wager. That defeat ended a five-fight win streak, with all those victories coming against bantamweight opponents.
Another heavyweight matchup on Saturday has Jairzinho Rozenstruik taking on dos Santos as -140 chalk. As well, Merab Dvalishvili vies for a fifth-straight victory as he battles fellow bantamweight John Dodson as a -240 betting favourite, while -285 odds favour Herbert Burns in his featherweight tilt with Daniel Pineda.
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