MMA Betting Matchups & Fight Card
UFC 101 is just a few weeks away, taking place on Saturday, Aug. 8 from The Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, Penn.
The card features an anticipated lightweight championship fight as well as the middleweight champion moving up a weight class to fight a former light heavyweight champion.
UFC Lightweight Championship
The main event of UFC 101 is the lightweight championship fight between champion B.J. Penn (13-5-1) against challenger Kenny Florian (12-3). Penn enters the fight as the favorite at -210, while Florian is posting at +160. Florian contested for the UFC lightweight title once before, losing a decision to Sean Sherk for the vacant title in October of 2006. Since that loss, Florian has been on a six-fight winning streak, with five of the six fights ending by submission or TKO. Florian has improved with each fight and seems to be looking the best he ever has. Penn is coming off a loss to welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre back in January. Penn was challenging for St. Pierre’s title and looking to avenge a prior loss, but instead was unable to come out of his corner after four rounds of domination from St. Pierre. The loss looked bad for Penn, who was considered to be an unstoppable force, but now has many believing he is as beatable as ever. Penn seems to have the stand up in each area of fighting, but Florian has the better cardio and the potential to cut Penn with his sharp elbows that have stopped fights in the past.
Silva’s biggest test
UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva (24-4) will face former UFC light heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin (18-5) in a light heavyweight bout. Silva is unbeaten in the octagon with a record of 9-0 in the UFC. Silva has run through the middleweight division and is 1-0 at 205-pounds, beating James Irvin last July. Because of his dominance, Silva is favored at -350 to beat Griffin (+250). In Silva’s last two fights, he has not looked himself, mainly due to his opponents not engaging in striking with him. Griffin will not have that same attitude. Griffin has improved greatly since winning the Ultimate Fighter original series and is coming off a TKO loss to Rashad Evans last December. Prior to that loss, Griffin was on a three-fight winning streak with wins over top light heavyweights Quinton Jackson and Shogun Rua. Griffin won’t be afraid to trade punches with Silva, which can be dangerous, but Griffin’s evolving ground game could be in his favor due to the size advantage he will have.
Ultimate Fighter winner’s awaited debut
One of the other featured bouts is a middleweight fight between Amir Sadollah (5-0) and Johny Hendricks (5-0). Sadollah was the Ultimate Fighter season seven winner, but has not competed since winning the show’s finale back in June of 2008 over C.B. Dollaway. Since that fight, Sadollah has had to pull out of two fights due to injury, but seems set to debut at UFC 101. Sadollah is a slight favorite at -120 to Hendricks’ -110. Hendricks has won four of his five fights by stoppage and his punching power is superior to Sadollah, who will be looking more for submissions. This fight is very even-matched, and whichever fighters have improved more in his weak area should get the victory.
UFC 101 takes place live from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on August 8 starting at 10 p.m. ET. Below are the currently listed odds for the event. Odds are provided by online sports book SPORTSBETTING.
UFC Lightweight Championship
BJ Penn -210
Kenny Florian +160
UFC Light Heavyweights
Anderson Silva -350
Forrest Griffin +250
UFC Middleweights
Amir Sadollah -120
Johny Hendricks -110
UFC Middleweights
Ricardo Almeida -165
Kendall Grove +135
UFC Lightweights
Josh Neer -220
Kurt Pellegrino +170
UFC Middleweights
Thales Leites -350
Alessio Sakara +250