Ronda Rousey is back in the octagon to defend her title this Saturday night Australia. This time around she’s up against Holly Holm, an old boxing champion who has committed to MMA. She only has a couple decision wins in the UFC, but this ex-boxer vs Rousey storyline was good enough for the UFC.
In the other title fight Joanna Jedrzejczyk faces off against Canadian Valerie Letourneau. This is another fight that is expected to be fairly easy for the champion.
Luckily for us the rest of the main card features some interesting match-ups, with two heavyweight fights including a rematch between Mark Hunt and Antonio Silva. Uriah Hall will also continue to climb the Middleweight rankings in a fight with New Zealander Robert Whittaker.
Below I’m giving you my sports betting picks for each of the fights, but I also have a post about UFC 193 DraftKings targets at SportsBettingCandian.ca.
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Ronda Rousey vs Holly Holm
I’m not even going to take much time talking about this fight. Rousey will win this fight and it should be in the first round. She’s not going to want to stand with Holm, so I expect her to get in tight, throw Holm to the mat and finish her off. It should only last about 30 seconds.
Play: Rousey wins in round 1 (1.37) @ 5Dimes.eu
Joanna Jedrzejczyk vs Valerie Letourneau
JJ is far faster than Letourneau and should be able to light up the Canadian on the feet. The problem I see here is that Letourneau can take a ton of damage so I’m not fully convinced that Joanna will be able to finish this fight early. That said, Letourneau won’t be able to take punishment for a full 5 rounds, so I like JJ to finish inside the distance.
Play: Jedrzejczyk inside distance 1.315 @ 5Dimes.eu
Mark Hunt vs Antonio Silva
These two fought to a draw in a five round war in a fight night event a couple years ago. That was a ridiculous fight that deserved being called a draw. I’m not sure how these guys were able to stay standing because both men were able to land some big punches. This time around I don’t think there is any chance we don’t see a knockout and and early one at that. Silva was finished in the first round in 2 of his last 3 fights since his bout with Hunt, via punches from Frank Mir and Andrei Arlovski. I just see Hunt as the more durable fighter, so if both of these guys land bombs I expect it to be Silva’s lights that go out early, not Hunts.
Play: Mark Hunt inside distance 1.45 @ 5Dimes.eu
Urijah Hall vs Robert Whittaker
Urijah Hall is coming off the biggest win of his career when he stepped in and finished top Middleweight Gegard Mousasi in Japan a couple months ago. He’s right back into the Octagon against a home town favourite in Whittaker. Uriah has a 5-3 record in his UFC career and 4 of his 5 wins have come via a finish, while every one of his 3 losses came via split decision. I think that Hall has finally realized that he can’t leave the fight up to the judges because he looked like he thought he had won every one of his split decision losses. Hall needs to take his opportunity and use his devastating skills to finish his opponents.
Whittaker was able to be finished by Wonderboy Stephen Thompson in February of 2014, but he’s won 3 fights since including finishes of Clint Hester and Brad Tavares. Whittaker throws bombs, but I think Hall is the more dangerous fighter of the two and if he can catch Hall at some point in these three rounds I think Hall can finish and win this fight.
Play: Uriah Hall inside distance 2.67 @ 5Dimes.eu
Stefan Struve vs Jared Rosholt
The first fight of the main card is another one between a couple of big men, but it doesn’t have quite the guarantee of a knockout as the Hunt vs Silva fight. Stefan Struve is coming off a decision win over Big Nog that was really a boring fight between two big men you don’t normally see boring fights between. It’s actually been three years since Struve has finished a fight and I have my doubts as to his ability and willingness to put himself in harms way in order to get that big strike against Rosholt.
Rosholt on the other hand is the rare heavyweight that wins his fights via decision. Of his five wins in the UFC he has won 4 of these fights by decision.
Rosholt has not fought the quality of competition that Struve has throughout his career and if Struve brings his A-game and looks for a finish I think Struve will be able to get the win the first couple of rounds. Struve should know that he needs a finish to regain relevance in the heavyweight division and Rosholt could be the perfect opportunity to look for a finish against a fighter who doesn’t have a ton of finishing weapons of his own.
Play: Stefan Struve inside distance 2.20 @ 5Dimes.eu
Holly Holm • ronda rousey • UFC 193 • ufc betting