Betting Odds! Who Leaves 2021 As UFC Champion?

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Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Most are glad 2020 is coming to an end, but some are already prepared to predict a further 12 months ahead! No champion coughed up his/her title to a challenger — Jon Jones may have vacated, but he didn’t lose — in 2020, which could set us up for another strong year of title retention or quite a bit of change.

Have a strong feeling either way? Check out these betting odds courtesy of BetOnline.ag.

Flyweight

Deiveson Figueiredo-125
Brandon Moreno+350
Cody Garbrandt+450
Askar Askarov+600
Alexandre Pantoja+800
Manel Kape+900
Alex Perez+1000
Brandon Royval+1000
David Dvorak+1600
Joe Benavidez+1600
Raulian Paiva+1600
Tim Elliott+2000

Bantamweight

Petr Yan+300
Aljamain Sterling+350
TJ Dillashaw+450
Cory Sandhagen+650
Rob Font+750
Cody Garbrandt+900
Henry Cejudo+900
Frankie Edgar+1000
Pedro Munhoz+1200
Deiveson Figueiredo+1400
Dominick Cruz+1400
Jimmie Rivera+1600
Merab Dvalishvili+2000

Featherweight

Alexander Volkanovski+150
Max Holloway+275
Brian Ortega+400
Calvin Kattar+600
Zabit Magomedsharipov+700
Yair Rodriguez+900
Chan Sun Jung+1000
Jeremy Stephens+1400
Josh Emmett+1600
Sodiq Yussuff+2000

Lightweight

Curiously, Lightweight was the only division unavailable. Perhaps it’s because of the general uncertainty regarding Khabib and fast-approaching Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier bout?

Welterweight

Kamaru Usman+100
Colby Covington+300
Gilbert Burns+550
Khamzat Chimaev+650
Leon Edwards+800
Jorge Masvidal+900
Stephen Thompson+1000
Conor McGregor+1600

Middleweight

Israel Adesanya-250
Robert Whittaker+350
Marvin Vettori+700
Jared Cannonier+900
Darren Till+1000
Paulo Costa+1200
Derek Brunson+1400
Khamzat Chimaev+1600
Kevin Holland+2000

Light Heavyweight

Israel Adesanya+175
Jon Jones+300
Jan Blachwicz+400
Glover Teixeira+600
Aleksander Rakic+650
Dominic Reyes+900
Magomed Ankalaev+1000
Jiri Prochazka+1400
Thiago Santos+2000

Heavyweight

Francis Ngannou+150
Stipe Miocic+250
Jon Jones+500
Ciryl Gane+600
Curtis Blaydes+600
Jairzhino Rozenstruik+1000
Derrick Lewis+1600
Allistair Overeem+2000
Israel Adesanya+2200

Women’s Strawweight

Weili Zhang+100
Rose Namajunas+300
Joanna Jedrzejczyk+400
Tatiana Suarez+600
Carla Esparza+800
Yan Xiaonan+800
Amanda Ribas+900
Marina Rodriguez+1000
Nina Ansaroff+1000
Mackenzie Dern+1400
Claudia Gadelha+2000

Women’s Flyweight

Valentina Shevchenko-600
Jessica Andrade+650
Cynthia Calvillo+1000
Katlyn Chookagian+1200
Lauren Murphy+1200
Joanne Caderwood+1400
Vivianne Araujo+1600
Maycee Barber+2000

Women’s Bantamweight

Amanda Nunes-400
Holly Holm+700
Aspen Ladd+800
Germaine de Randamie+900
Ketlen Vieira+1000
Irene Aldana+1200
Raquel Pennington+1400
Julianna Pena+2000

Women’s Featherweight

Amanda Nunes-1500
Megan Anderson+800
Felicia Spencer+1000
Norma Dumont+1600

Safe to say, the oddsmakers do not expect Amanda Nunes to lose any time soon! Otherwise, perhaps the most interesting revelation is that Francis Ngannou is favored over both Stipe Miocic and Jon Jones, despite the former having a win over “The Predator.”

If I had to name a single bet that I like best for the value, Jiri Prochazka at 16-1 underdog seems like a decent play. At the same time, a warning to any prospective bettors: becoming UFC champion is equally about avoiding injuries, COVID-19, and UFC politics as it is being really good at fighting!

Insomnia

Kevin Holland is the type of guy to have a fight announced AND call someone out on the same day!

This Israel Adesanya highlight is FIRE!

Georges St. Pierre is the king of creating hype then killing it himself.

Yoshihiro Akiyama deserves this clip:

Someone should DM Charles Oliveira and let him know that wholesome responses seldom lead to title shots.

Leon Edwards absolutely deserves a step up in competition/title eliminator, but at the same time … Yeah, I’d watch this rematch!

This column SUPPORTS ARTISTS! Paulo Costa is my favorite piece.

Slips, rips, and KO clips

In Southpaw vs. Orthodox exchanges, lead leg strikes are rarely the focus, but Ennahachi did a great job with them here!

Lerdsila punishes a missed kick in style:

Bare Knuckle shares a handful of Bare Knuckley scraps!

Random Land

Unintended consequences:

Midnight Music: Tonight, I checked out the latest LP, We Will Always Love You, from Australian plunderphonics group The Avalanches. The group builds up tracks piece-by-piece by layering dozens and dozens of samples; their first album supposedly contains 3500 different samples! At any rate, the new album continues that style with another dozen quality features for good measure.

Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.