It’s been a long couple weeks since the last UFC events. There were a couple back on October 1st, but I only got my picks up for the Fight Night event that took place in Sweden. Gunnar Nelson had a surprising loss to Rick Story that I did not see coming, but I did hit on Max Holloway adding another finish to his already very impressive resume (already 7 wins in the UFC at just 22 years of age).
This upcoming PPV won’t match the numbers from UFC 178 because the Conor McGregor hype machine is not fighting on this card. That said, the McGregor hype will still help to sell buys for this PPV because he will likely get a title fight if Aldo beats Mendes this Saturday (if Mendes wins I could see them giving Aldo an immediate rematch). McGregor will be in attendance and you can be sure that he will be hoping for an Aldo victory because that would almost surely get him a title shot.
The other high profile fight on this card is at Light Heavyweight where Glover Teixeira will take on Phil Davis as both men try to move into the title consideration in that division (Teixeira tries to move back into the discussion). Othere than these two fights the others aren’t as high profile with no other top 10 ranked fighters on the card.
2014 Record: 45-28 for +14.51 units.
Jose Aldo vs Chad Mendes
Aldo is an absolute beast in the featherweight division. He’s currently on a 17 fight winning streak, which includes 9 title fights in a row dating back to his time in the WEC when the UFC didn’t yet have a Featherweight division. He’s ripped through the who’s who of the division beating Ricardo Lamas (#4), Chan Sung Jung (#6), Frankie Edgar (#3) and Chad Mendes (#1) in his last four fights. That doesn’t even include past fights over big names such as Urijah Faber and Cub Swanson (#2) in his time with the WEC.
Aldo caught Mendes with a big knee to get the knockout in their fight two and a half years ago and Mendes will be looking for a different result now. The weird thing about Mendes is that the UFC wasn’t putting top end talent in front of him ever since that loss. He has 5 straight wins, with 4 devastating knockouts, but he never really had to face any of the top end talent in the division. His last fight was over Nik Lentz (#9) and before that the only ranked fighters he took on were #12 Clay Guida and #13 Darren Elkins. It’s surprising to me that the UFC didn’t give him Dustin Poirier, Chan Sung Jung, Frankie Edgar or Ricardo Lamas to regain his title shot. But I guess they wanted him to get the wins.
That might not be great for Mendes though because Aldo is on another level and I expect another big win to add to Jose Aldo’s legacy as a fighter. I’m actually shocked Aldo isn’t a bigger favourite.
Take Jose Aldo -225 at BetOnline.
Glover Teixeira vs Phil Davis
Glover finally lost a fight in the UFC when Jon Jones beat him by decision in their title fight at UFC 172. Jones dominated the fight, but it shows that Teixeira means business when he is able to go 5 rounds with someone as talented as Jon Jones. Teixeira is currently ranked #4 though and he hasn’t beaten any of the guys currently ranked higher than Phil Davis who is ranked #6. He was given some fairly easy fights by the UFC as well, as they seemed to try to get him a title shot, which makes me wonder just how talented Glover really is. His only win over a ranked UFC opponent was over #7 Ryan Bader and it got him the title shot.
I’m still not sold on Phil Davis, but anyone who can win a decision over Lyoto Machida automatically has to be on the map in the UFC. Davis has also beaten Tim Boetsch and Little Nog, both fairly big names in the UFC. And then let’s not forget about his huge win over Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 112. Gustafsson has since gone on to become the number 1 contender.
I like Davis as an underdog in this fight because Davis has proven himself against difficult opponents. On the other hand Glover has not had to face top tier talent and he looked very outclassed against Jon Jones. Add in the fact Davis is a big dog and you have a great bet on your hands.
Take Phil Davis +275 at 5Dimes.
Chad Mendes • Glover Teixeira • jose aldo • Phil Davis • ufc betting