UFC 196 Main Card Odds – The UFC 196 event is less than a week away, and odds are up for the entire card.
Obviously, the buzz around the event is due to the main event between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz. McGregor has parlayed his UFC Featherweight title win into becoming the UFC’s hottest commodity. He was scheduled to face Lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos in a match that McGregor was getting a lot of props for. Unfortunately, Dos Anjos broke his foot and McGregor now faces Nate Diaz.
The re-constituted main event is a better fight than the original, and Diaz officially signing has sent the hype factor for this fight through the ceiling. McGregor is entering the fight a comfortable favorite, and he deserves a ton of credit for accepting the fight under circumstances many have turned down. Diaz too deserves credit, though he almost cost himself the bout with his rants on social media.
With Diaz, McGregor gets a guy who does not shy away from a fight, and a guy who has wenough confidence in his stand-up game that he isn’t going to come in and try to get McGregor to the ground right away. That was the risk with the efficient Jiu-Jitsu game of Dos Anjos, but Diaz is a solid boxing volume puncher who will come after McGregor.
The co-feature fight sees UFC female bantamweight champion Holly Holm defends her title against the challenge of Miesha Tate. Tate is best known for her seires of fights with Ronda Rousey that saw her consistently fall short, but she has reeled off four wins in a row and established herself firmly as the #1 contender. Holm has done a good job presenting the championship and women’s fighting with a lot of class, something Rousey lacked.
A pair of Light Heavyweight bouts are also on the schedule as Ilir Latifi takes on Gian Villante and Corey Anderson takes on Tom Lawlor. Lawlor and Villante will enter the fights as underdogs against Anderson and Latifi respectively, but the odds for the fights show them to be competitive match-ups.
The main card sees a second, high-level women’s bout on the card as Amanda Nunes takes on Valentina Shevchenko in the match with the closest line of the pay-per-view. Nunes has won 4 of 5 UFC fights and is the more experienced of the two fighters, but Shevchenko showed composure in winning her UFC debut against Sarah Kaufman.
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Check out our latest Talk ‘n’ Shoot Video Blog where we look at the odds for the UFC 196 pay-per-view matches.
UFC 196 Main Card Odds
The rest of the card is set to air on Fox Sports 1 and a trio of Lightweight fights kick of the show on UFC Fight Pass. Below are the odds for the rest of the UFC 196 card.
Welterweight 3 rounds – MGM Grand Garden Arena – Las Vegas, Nevada – FS1
Siyar Bahadurzada +255 o1½ +100
Brandon Thatch -310 u1½ -120
Featherweight 3 rounds –
Nordine Taleb +180 o1½ -145
Erick Silva -220 u1½ +125
Middleweight 3 rounds –
Marcelo Guimaraes +250 o2½ -130
Vitor Miranda -300 u2½ +110
Featherweight 3 rounds –
Chas Skelly -155 o2½ -230
Darren Elkins +135 u2½ +190
Lightweight 3 rounds – UFC Fight Pass
Jim Miller -135 o2½ -235
Diego Sanchez +115 u2½ +195
Jason Saggo -210 o2½ -125
Justin Salas +175 u2½ +105
Teruto Ishihara +200 o2½ -170
Julian Erosa -240 u2½ +150
