Updated UFC 101 Odds
UFC 101: Declaration is just a few days away, taking place on Saturday, Aug. 8 from The Wachovia Center in
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 -250, while Florian is posting at +195. Early betting lines had Penn at -210 and Florian at +160, but the odds makers are now favoring Penn by a great margin. 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. Since the loss to
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
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 -125 to Hendricks’ -105. The early lines showed Sadollah at -120 to Hendrick at -110, but Sadollah has slightly become more of a favorite in the fight. 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
UFC Lightweight Championship
BJ Penn -250
Kenny Florian +195
UFC Light Heavyweights
Forrest
UFC Middleweights
Amir Sadollah -125
Johny Hendricks -105
UFC Middleweights
Ricardo Almeida -170
Kendall Grove +140
UFC Lightweights
Josh Neer -220
Kurt Pellegrino +170
UFC Middleweights
Thales Leites -360
Alessio Sakara +255
UFC Lightweights
Aaron Riley -165
Shane Nelson +135
UFC Welterweights
Tamdan McCrory -220
John Howard +170
UFC Welterweights
Matt Riddle -175
Dan Cramer +145
Posted: 8/04/09 12:55 PM ET