UFC Denver: Namajunas vs Cortez comes to us this weekend from the Ball Arena. Two flyweights with title aspirations headline the card. Can Rose Namajunas make one more run to the top? Is Tracy Cortez the future? It’s sure to be an intriguing one that’ll answer a lot of questions, but that’s not all that’s worth looking at on Saturday. In fact we dug deeper into the card as well to give you all our UFC Denver best bets. Come check out these UFC Denver picks and tail along.
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UFC Denver: Namajunas vs Cortez – Predictions & Best Bets
Rose Namajunas ML (-200) vs. Tracy Cortez
I really like Rose in this spot and it’s less of a play on the skill discrepancy and more of one on the circumstances. While I do believe that Cortez could pose some challenges to Namajunas, not having a full camp dedicated to game planning around her will be a huge detriment.
She was preparing for Miranda Maverick, who is primarily a wrestler and now gets a talented distance striker. Additionally, her fight camp was cut a week short, and the fight was moved to elevation. With Namajunas not only preparing for the elevation and a five-round fight, but having been acclimated to Denver for years, I think the home field advantage is too much.
Jasmine Jasudavicius – Wins via Dec (+140)
Speaking of short notice, this is another spot where I think it plays a big factor. Jasudavicius gets UFC newcomer Fatima Kline on about 14 days notice. While Kline is a deserved prospect, she is better suited for the strawweight division, which she has said she is going to return to. Jasudavicius does really well using her size, particularly in the grappling side of things. She was able to handle the wrestling of the aforementioned Miranda Maverick and take a decision. I think she’ll do the same here.
Santiago Ponzinibbio vs Muslim Salikhov – U2.5 (-120)
This fight pits a pair of fighters whose best days are certainly behind them. Salikhov is coming off of a knockout loss and has been KOed in two of his last four fights. Ponzinibbio too is coming off a KO loss at the hands of Kevin Holland. Neither seem to have the chins that they once did.
They may not have the chin they once did, but both have the power still. Each of their last wins came by KO and both have over a dozen in their career. With the elevation playing a part, I expect them to have trouble recovering late from big shots as well, which makes this one of my favorite UFC Denver bets.
Andre Petroski ML (-105) vs Josh Fremd
Petroski is being disrespected on the line a bit coming off the first two-fight losing streak of his career. However, those two losses seem pretty excusable in retrospect. He lost once to Michel Pereira, who looks phenomenal at middleweight. Then he saw a fluke loss when he knocked himself out shooting a takedown.
The fact remains that Petroski is still a high level grappler and a great wrestler. Like all of the Marquez MMA guys, he’s powerful and has tough top control. Fremd, meanwhile, has only a 31% takedown defense and was submitted by Tresean Gore.
Jean Silva ML (-105) vs Drew Dober
“Up a weight class on short notice? I thought you said those things are a bad idea for fighters at elevation!”
Well that is usually true, but Silva is going to be the exception here. The main reason is that I don’t think he’ll have to take this fight into the later rounds. He is very fast, particularly for the lightweight division, and he clearly has knockout power. Plus, Dober has a habit of eating punches early in the fight – see the McKinney and Frevola fights. I think Silva brings better accuracy and more power than either of those other two that have tagged Dober.
Joshua Van – Wins via (T)KO (+550)
If you’ve followed my work here, you know I always have to end these things with a bomb.
Joshua Van is a fighter I’m all in on. He’s got incredible pace and cardio. He also works the body extremely well. I think those things play really well into a fight at elevation. He’s already become great at taking the wind out of his opponent’s sails and now he’ll have the environment to help. Charles Johnson may have never been stopped in his career, but this is a nice mixture of factors to get it done for the first time.
If you’d like even more UFC Denver: Namajunas vs Cortez Picks, be sure to check out the MMA Gambling Podcast. The guys are dropping weekly episodes to make you the smartest guy at the bar.
