Puppies come through at UFC 89
It was another nice night for underdog players in Birmingham as several favored fighters fell on their faces. Brandon Vera, a 2-to-1 favorite, was the most notable on the main card losing to Keith Jardine. The 'Dean of Mean' raked in +170 with narrow decision victory over Vera. UFC president Dana White was so uninspired by Vera's lack of aggression in the fight that he ripped him to shreds after the event:
“I’m not seeing what I expected from Brandon Vera. It’s like he’s lost something. He doesn’t have that killer instinct since he took that year off. He doesn’t go after people. He used to be so cocky. He wanted to fight everybody."
The Venetian is the one sportsbook in Las Vegas that puts up lines on most UFC fights booking 9-of-11 fights at UFC 89. If you bet $100 on all nine underdogs you walked with away +160 because the favorites went just 5-4. The Yahoo! MMA blog played just two fighters, Marcus Davis and Shane Carwin. Both came in as winners. That makes it nine straight wins for the actual plays at the last three UFC events - UFC 88, UFN 15 and UFC 89.
Luiz Cane pulled the mild upset on Sokoudjou and it came pretty easily. There was late steam on Cane dropping the line from +150. Cane dealt with Sokoudjou's early onslaught and then took out 'The African Assassin' easily in the second round.
Dan Hardy (pictured) was the upset of the night. The Brit took a split decision from veteran Akihiro Gono to haul in +240. Paul Taylor nearly made it five wins for the underdogs with his close decision loss to Chris Lytle.
Photos via UFC.com
