Fight fans are fired up for UFC 298 on Saturday, February 17th, and with good reason! The featherweight title bout will be on the line between Alexander Volkanovski and Illia Topuria. Check out our best bets for the Main Event and more below!
There is no question that Volkanovski has been nothing but a fight champion and one that has proven he deserves the title of pound-for-pound after going toe-to-toe with Islam in their initial fight.
It was a mistake for him to take the rematch on short notice and he paid the price by getting finished by Islam. Against anyone else in the division, we would be on Volk but Topuria is a different animal.
The man is 14-0 with 12 of his 14 wins coming via finish. He is an absolute savage on the ground and has some of the strongest striking in the division.
The only way we see him taking an L here is if he goes for the finish early and empties his tank and Volk drags him into the 4th and 5th rounds to pick up a decision.
However, even there, we saw Topuria go 5 with Josh Emmett and grab a unanimous decision. In the end, the speed and youthfulness of Topuria are going to be too much for Volk to overcome.
Amanda faces off with Mackenzie Dern here and in my opinion, should be a much heavier favorite. I believe Dern’s name recognition is keeping this line lower than it should be.
In her last fight, Dern got finished by Jess Andrade. She is no slouch, but if Dern had problems with her striking, she is in for a world of hurt against Lemos who is a superior striker and will have the reach advantage.
Lemos also does not allow her opponents to take her to the mat and control much as she has been controlled only 34% of the time in her fights.
We can keep the handicap of Merab short and sweet. He is facing Henry Cejudo who should have never come out of retirement. He got embarrassed by Aljo and now he is going after Aljo’s training partner who is arguably a better version.
Merab’s takedown defense is nearly 85%, Cejudo will not be able to wrestle him to the ground and pick up a decision, it’ll be Merab getting his hand raised one way or the other. Robert Whittaker is facing an in-shape Paulo Costa.
This will be Costa’s 1st fight since August of 2022 where he got a decision win over Luke Rockhold. The cage rust is going to be tough to overcome against an opponent like Whittaker.
While he lost his last fight to now champion Du Plessis, Whittaker seems to only lose to champions (Israel Adesanya) at this point in his career. Costa is not likely to ever be champion and Whittaker’s high fight IQ will carry him through this one with Costa.
Geoff Neal (+195)
Justin Tafa (+125)
Miranda Maverick (-190)
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