Mad Bets: UFC Smith vs. Rakic Betting Odds
Minty Bets is joined by WagerTalk's Gianni The Greek to preview the UFC Fight Night main event between Anthony Smith vs. Aleksandar Rakic on Sat. August 29.
Video Transcript
MINTY BETS: UFC Fight Night is this Saturday August 29 at the UFC Apex here in Vegas. If you want to bet on this fight, head over to betmgm.com/yahoo.
Joining me today is UFC betting analyst and my colleague from WagerTalk Gianni the Greek. Gianni, this weekend the main event is a light-heavyweight bout between the number-five-ranked Anthony Smith plus 245 versus the number-eight-ranked Aleksandar Rakic minus 305. Who's your pick?
- Yeah, we saw this line opened at 300, got bet up to 335, then got bet down, and now it's right around where you say. The bottom line is what does that line mean, minus 300? Simply stated, do you think Rakic wins this fight 75% of the time? And if you think Anthony Smith would win this fight 3 out of 10 times, then that's the side you want to bet.
Personally, I think the line's close to where it should be. So what I'm going to do is I'm kind of sitting back and hoping that the betting market bets the Anthony Smith side because, unfortunately, the value appears to be on the live dog Anthony Smith, but I just don't think he matches up very well with Aleksandar at all.
MINTY BETS: Do you see this fight going all five rounds, by any chance?
- You know, the over/under's at 1 and 1/2 on this flight. The overs been bet up from 120 up to minus 160. We saw Anthony Smith take a lot of punishment from Glover Teixeira just not long ago in May. That's what worries me. We know Rakic, he is a very powerful striker. I think that's his method to victory.
Well, with Anthony Smith, he's going to want to grapple. He's going to want to take it to the ground, take it into deeper waters, and that's where the difficulty comes in. If he's chinny now, I would look that this one gets over quick because we know the finishes usually happen early in MMA, unlike other combat sports.
So for me, I'll go against the market. Gun to my head, I'd go under. I haven't touched it, but that's where I would look for a quick finish. But again, I think this is Rakic's fight. And it's the light-heavyweight division. We know the majority of those fights do not go to the judges. I think this has a high probability of not doing that as well.
MINTY BETS: Very cool. Thank you so much, Gianni.
- Thanks for having me.
MINTY BETS: If you want in on the action, head over to betmgm.com/yahoo. New users get a 100% match up to $1,000. Available in Colorado, New Jersey, West Virginia, and Indiana.
