UFC Abu Dhabi comes to us on Saturday afternoon. Former champion Robert Whittaker defends his spot in the rankings against quick rising Dutchman, Reinier de Ridder. Can Whittaker make another claim for a shot at the throne, or has his time passed him by?
There’s plenty of other fights to like on this card, so we’ll hit that fight and dig through the rest of the card to give you our UFC Abu Dhabi best bets. Come check out these UFC Abu Dhabi picks for Saturday.
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UFC Abu Dhabi: Whittaker vs de Ridder – Predictions & Best Bets
Marcus McGhee +3.5 (+120) vs. Petr Yan
Perhaps my favorite bet of the weekend in the spread bet on Marcus McGhee. I gave serious thought to him as an underdog, but the step up in competition is just too much for me to really trust it. However, with that being said, McGhee is a quick starter and Yan is not. McGhee outlanded Jonathan Martinez 33-to-7 in the first round of his last fight. In each of his last two wins, Yan posted the fewest number of significant strikes in the first. If McGhee can win that round, he’ll just have to survive for this to cash.
Tabatha Ricci ML (+165) vs. Amanda Ribas
In her UFC career, ‘Baby Shark’ has a record of 6-3. She is 6-1 in fights where she was able to secure a takedown, and 0-2 in fights where she could not. That bodes well for her in a fight with Amanda Ribas. Ribas has struggled with takedowns in each of her last three fights, all of which were against fighters with less wrestling skills than Ricci. With the addition of Ricci’s striking skills – which seem to get better every fight – she should be able to handle Ribas here.
Marcus Buchecha – Wins via Submission (-105)
It’s not every day that we get a two-time ADCC champion in the UFC. It’s even less often that we get their submission prop at near even money. I’m assuming the reason for that with Buchecha’s debut is that he’s fighting Martin Buday. Buday has a 6-1 record in the UFC and has never been taken down. However, he has also not really ever fought a grappler or a fighter at Buchecha’s level. We’ll get to see the levels of grappling in this one and will cash on the books being silly with it.
Nikita Krylov ML (-200) vs Bogdan Guskov
This play has a bit of chalk on it, but its another where I really think we have a grappling discrapancy. In his UFC debut, Guskov came in and was utterly dominated by Volkan Oezdemir before being submitted in the first round. That same Oezdemir fought Krylov just one fight prior and had no answers for the ground game of Krylov. In fact, Krylov took him down seven times in that fight and easily cruised to a victory. MMA math is not always a good way to pick a winner, but it does seem like it demonstrates the differences in this fight.
Bryce Mitchell ML (-140) vs Said Nurmagomedov
Some people are off of Bryce Mitchell after watching him falter a few times at featherweight. Now some doubt how well his skills will translate as he comes down to bantamweight. While that’s always a bit of a crapshoot, he was never a big featherweight to begin with. Now that he’s down in a weight class where he can throw his body weight around a bit more, he should be able to bully plenty of people with his grappling.
Billy Elekana – Wins via Submission (+950)
If you read this column, you know that I always end it with a massive swing on some big odds. In Nashville, we cashed on Valter Walker’s submission prop at +650. I’m going even deeper today with Elekana’s submission line. He showed some great chops on the mat against Bogdan Guskov, but gassed out due to taking the fight on short notice. Now he’ll be up against Ibo Aslan, who has worse cardio than him and has been submitted in both of his losses.
If you’d like even more UFC Abu Dhabi: Whittaker vs de Ridder bets, be sure to check out the MMA Gambling Podcast. The guys are dropping weekly episodes to make you the smartest guy at the bar.
