UFC 298 Betting Tips
Saturday night/Sunday morning
03:45 Merab Dvalishvili v Henry Cejudo – Merab Dvalishvili to win by Points
04:15 Geoff Neil v Ian Garry – Ian Garry by KO/TKO or DQ
05:15 Alexander Volkanovski v Ilia Topuria – Alexander Volkanovski to win by Points
- A treble with these selections pays at approximately 24/1 with Paddy Power. CLICK HERE TO ADD TO YOUR BETSLIP.
UFC 298
Honda Center in Anaheim, California, United States
TV: TNT Sports
03:45 Merab Dvalishvili v Henry Cejudo – Merab Dvalishvili to win by Points
Merab has been waiting in the wings while his training partner Aljamain Sterling defended the featherweight title. They refused to fight each other, leaving Merab with no route to the belt. But after Sugar Sean O’Malley defeated Aljo last year, this fight against Cejudo is most likely a number one contender’s match.
Cejudo is 37 now and hasn’t been very active – in the last 3 and a half years, he’s had just 1 fight – a close decision loss to Merab’s teammate, Aljo Sterling. He retired, he was a coach, and now he’s back. But he surely can’t be the same fighter as he once was.
While Merab is on a completely different trajectory – a 9-fight undefeated streak, with his latest being a five-round mauling over a previous title holder, Petr Yan. Confidence should be sky-high.
Merab lands more strikes per minute than Cejudo, gets hit less and gets more takedowns. Now, Dvalishvili will struggle to finish takedown attempts against Cejudo, a Freestyle Wrestling Olympic gold medallist. But he won’t need to put Cejudo on his bum to win this fight. The volume of strikes, volume of takedown attempts, and control time against the cage will add up in his favour.
For all of the dominating victories Dvalishvili has had on this 9-fight win streak, he’s only finished one fight inside the scheduled time. The remaining 8 went the distance. Henry is a tough opponent. I think this will go to the judges’ scorecards as well.
Merab Dvalishvili to Win by Points.
04:15 Geoff Neil v Ian Garry – Ian Garry by KO/TKO or DQ
The Irishman’s 6th fight in the UFC will be against 8th-ranked welterweight Geoff Neil. This is his toughest opponent yet. Neil has notable wins against 2 of the division’s best, Vicente Luque and Belal Muhammad.
We have yet to get a gauge on how good exactly Ian Garry is. We’ve seen him knock unranked guys spark out. He most recently smoked Neil Magny. That was meant to be a big step up in class, but the prospect schooled the UFC veteran. He’s 13-0, and he’s getting better every time he goes out there.
Ian Garry is accurate in his striking and defensively sound, dishing out about twice as many strikes as he absorbs, while Geoff Neil likes a fair-trade landing and absorbing around 5 strikes per minute.
Both fighters implement a striking-based game plan with very few takedowns, so Garry shouldn’t have to worry about getting dragged down to the canvas. This fight should play out on the feet, giving us ample opportunity to win our bet – Ian Garry to win by KO/TKO or DQ.
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05:15 Alexander Volkanovski v Ilia Topuria – Alexander Volkanovski to win by Points
Volkanovski has been the reigning champion of the featherweight division since December 2019. Ilia Topuria, although looking very impressive, hasn’t fought any of the top guys in the division. I thought Volk would be a short-price favourite, and we could back El Matador here as a big underdog.
But I was very much mistaken. It’s a pick’em fight with Topuria at EVS to win at the time of writing. Not an attractive price for me.
I do think there’s value in Alexander the Great. It’s a proven track record. He made lightwork of Yair Rodriguez, bested Max Holloway three times, beat up Bryan Ortega, Jose Aldo and the Korean Zombie.
I won’t bore you with Volk’s striking and wrestling stats. There’s no need for the hard sell when we’re talking about the featherweight GOAT.
I will say that Volk doesn’t put his opponents away. They tend to get to the final bell. If Volk defends his title again, it will most likely be after Bruce Buffer reads out the judges’ scorecards.
We are going with Alexander Volkanovski to win by Points.
UFC 298 Betting Tips
Saturday night/Sunday morning
03:45 Merab Dvalishvili v Henry Cejudo – Merab Dvalishvili to win by Points
04:15 Geoff Neil v Ian Garry – Ian Garry by KO/TKO or DQ
05:15 Alexander Volkanovski v Ilia Topuria – Alexander Volkanovski to win by Points
- A treble with these selections pays at approximately 24/1 with Paddy Power. CLICK HERE TO ADD TO YOUR BETSLIP.
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