With the dust barely settled from UFC 297 which saw outspoken fighter Sean Strickland surrender his middleweight title to Dricus du Plessis, fight fans are already preparing for UFC 298.
Anaheim’s Honda Center will host the event on February 17th with the main event on the fight card being the featherweight title bout between Alexander Volkanovski and Ilia Topuria.
Fans will be able to explore a variety of betting markets for the event with the most popular being moneyline bets which predict the winning fighter. Khadija Bilal explains how parlay bets on a selection of fights can improve the odds, as can proposition bets that predict the round a fight will stop in (source: https://www.sportstalkphilly.com/pa/sports-betting).
But what prices can fans expect to see on UFC 298’s fights? Volkanovski comes into the fight with a 26-3-0 record and is the current bookmaker’s favorite with odds of around -148. Topuria is priced at +124 despite his 14-0-0 record.
Despite being an inch shorter at 5ft 6″, Volkanovski carries a significant weight advantage at 154 lb to Topuria’s 146 lb. He also has a 2.5″ reach advantage that could prove decisive.
The second fight on the card sees the welterweight fight between the USA’s Geoff Neal and Ireland’s Ian Machado Garry. Garry’s height and weight advantage should see him through this fight and he is priced at -205 to Neal’s +170.
The 6ft 3″ Irishman has a 13-0-0 record compared to Neal’s 15-5-0, but Neal does have a 0.5″ reach advantage.
Georgia’s Merab Dvalsishvili takes on Henry Cejudo in their bantamweight bout with the Georgian the clear favorite. The fighters have similar records of 16-4-0 and 16-3-0 and both come in at similar weights despite Dvalsishvili’s 2″ height advantage.
American Anthony Hernandez will be hoping home advantage can give him the boost required to defeat fight favorite Ikram Aliskerov. The Russian comes into the fight with a 15-1-0 record to Hernandez’s 11-2-0 and there is nothing between the fighters in terms of height, weight, or leg reach.
Fifth on the card of UFC 298 is the first women’s bout that will be fought by two Brazilians. Amanda Lemos takes on Mackenzie Dern, with Lemos being the clear favorite with odds of -360.
Lemos has been set to take on Tatiana Suarez, but that cancellation led to this fight being arranged. Lemos has a record of 13-3-1 to Dern’s 13-4-0. Both fighters weigh in at 115 lbs and are 5ft 3″, but Lemos steals the advantage by 2″ in reach.
The remaining fights on the UFC 298 card see a heavyweight bout between the Brazilian Marcos Rogerio De Lima and Justin Tafa of New Zealand. This is preceded by the light heavyweight fight between China’s “mountain Tiger” Mingyang Zhang and Brendson Ribeiro of Brazil.
American fight fans will have plenty to cheer in the first two fights of the night with Danny Barlow taking on Yusaku Kinoshita in their welterweight bout and the all-American showdown between Andrea Lee and Miranda Maverick in the women’s flyweight division.
