Betting: UFC 259 Preview
Minty Bets is joined by Kevin Iole to preview the 3 title bouts from the UFC APEX in Las Vegas on Sat. March 6.
Video Transcript
MINTY BETS: Before you bet on the fight, get $25 when signing up at the Yahoo Sportsbook today. UFC 259 is on Saturday, March 6 in Las Vegas, Nevada. I'm here with Kevin Iole here to give us his best bets for the three title bouts for this event. Kevin, let's start with the light heavyweight title bout between Israel Adesanya, minus 275, versus Jan Blachowicz, plus 210. What do you think about this one?
KEVIN IOLE: Boy, that's-- it's an interesting fight because you got Jan Blachowicz, who was the Yahoo Sports Fighter of the Year last year, I should add, for winning the championship. He is a black belt in Brazilian jujitsu. If that fight gets to the floor, it'll be interesting to see what Israel Adesanya can do. Blachowicz [INAUDIBLE] also, though, has very good hands, as he proved in knocking out Luke Rockhold, the former middleweight champion. But I think Luke Rockhold striking and Israel Adesanya striking is two very different things.
I think Adesanya is a master of the distance. I like Adesanya to win this fight in the five-round distance. I don't think he stops Jan. I think he has the capability of stopping him, but I think this fight is going to go the whole way. So I'm going to go ahead, and I'm going to take the favorite in this one. I'm going to say Israel Adesanya by decision.
OK, moving on to the women's featherweight title bout between Amanda Nunes, a minus 1,100 favorite, versus Megan Anderson, a plus 700 [INAUDIBLE]. Looks like the books are favoring Amanda Nunes here. How is she going to win, if she is going to win?
KEVIN IOLE: I just think Amanda is just so much better than every other female fighter at 35 and 45. There's nobody that's in her ballpark. And the only way Amanda loses the fight is if Amanda just mentally does not show up. And that's not Amanda Nunes. This is going to be her first fight as a mother. She's been posting a ton of pictures with her baby with her. So I think she's going to be very motivated for this particular fight.
I don't think you can play the minus 1,200 or minus 1,100 or whatever the number is. So I think you have to look and say, Amanda by finish, you know? And so I'm going to say, I think Megan is a big, strong girl. And I think she's going to give Amanda some trouble early in the fight. But I think Amanda will finally figure out. So I'm going to say Amanda by KO in round three.
And now, last but not least, the bantamweight title bout between Aljamain Sterling, a plus 115 [INAUDIBLE] versus Petr Yan, a minus 140 favorite. This line is pretty close here.
Yeah. I mean, this fight is, what do you like? Do you like the grappler? Then you're going to go with Sterling. Do you like the striker? Then you're going to go with Petr Yan. I think this is a fight that could go either way.
I just got off with Aljamain Sterling doing an interview, and he basically said, hey, you know what? There's a chance that I make a mistake, Petr Yan hits me, and the fight's over in one punch. There's a chance that he makes a mistake, I take him down, and I just finish him quickly on the ground. So we know that that could happen. You know, I think that this fight is going to go some distance. But I do think that Yan is going to wear Aljo down. So I'm going to say, I like a stoppage repeater Yan in the fourth round.
MINTY BETS: All right. Thank you so much, Kevin.
KEVIN IOLE: Thanks, Minty. I appreciate it.
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