Rockhold vs Romero Odds For UFC 221 – This Satuday, the UFC is in Perth Australia for their UFC 221 PPV and the card is headlined by Luke Rockhold vs Yoel Romero. The middleweight showdown pits two former titleholders in the 185 pound weight class and the matchup winner will likely earn the next title shot at champion Robert Whittaker.
Romero lost the belt to Whittaker in his last fight this past July and he is being asked to fight a #1 contender match before getting a rematch. Romero will enter the octagon at 40 years old so he cannot afford any more losses or delays. With a win, Romero will push for a title shot on a short turn around time if he can get it, he has no choice.
Rockhold had an impressive return to action in his last outing when he took out former World Series of Fighting champion David Branch in round two of their September meeting. That was Rockhold’s first match since his embarassing title loss to Michael Bisping back in June of 2016.
That will go down as a historic loss by Rockhold. He had beaten Bisping easily before and he was expected to do so again. His fast knock out left Bisping the champion and Bisping eventually lost the belt to returning legend Georges St Pierre. After St Pierre added the middleweight title to the checks on his bucket list, he vacated the belt. Whittaker holds the title now but St Pierre devalued the belt a lot with his actions. A lot of that fiasco is blamed on Rockhold and his only path to redemption is to keep winning. Rockhold can beat just about anybody but with him the story will always be the same – gotta keep that chin hidden. With that said, Romero may be Rockhold’s toughest challenge, as the stocky Romero brings ground game and power he feels can match Rockhold’s.
The UFC is rolling out veteran slugger Mark Hunt in Australia, as usual. Hunt has been a reliable headliner for years even though father time has been catching up to him for a long time. Now 43 years old, Hunt is in a true gatekeeper roll as he faces 26 year old Curtis Blaydes. Blaydes is 4-1 in the UFC thusfar and his loss came to Francis N”Gannou in his UFC debut back in April of 2016. In his last fight, BLaydes took a major step up, beating Russia’s Aleksey Olyenik via ref stoppage in round 2. The knock on Blaydes is inexperience but in Olynik he was able to put on a great showing against a guy with over 60 professional fights. Though Hunt is experienced, he brings a less varied attack than the veteran Oleynik and he may find himself growing old and slow in the octagon against the springy Blaydes.
Below are the odds for the PPV portion of UFC 221. You can check the undercard odds in a separate blog here at GMS.
UFC 221 – Perth Arena – Perth, Australia – PPV
Middleweight 5 rounds –
Luke Rockhold -145 o1½ -175
Yoel Romero +125 u1½ +155
Heavyweight 3 rounds –
Mark Hunt +135
Curtis Blaydes -155
Heavyweight 3 rounds –
Cyril Asker +250
Tai Tuivasa -300
Welterweight 3 rounds –
Jake Matthews +165
Li Jingliang -190
Light Heavyweight 3 rounds –
Saparbek Safarov +235
Tyson Pedro -275
Perhaps a subject for a future blog – what does it mean to the UFC roster if anything that 2/4 main event fighters on UFC 221 are north of 40? Rockhold vs Romero Odds For UFC 221 / Into boxingas well? Check out boxing news and features at The Sweet Science.
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