The UFC heads back to the original Sin City this Saturday with a headliner pitting too possible lightweight championship contenders against each other in Kevin “The Motown Phenom” Lee and Edson “Junior” Barboza. Additionally, Frankie Edgar gets to fight on his home turf, taking on the always game Cub Swanson.
The main card kicks off at 10pm eastern on Fox Sports 1, while the prelims start at 8pm, also on FS1. The early pre-lim card gets the fun started at 6:30pm on FightPass.
I use DraftKings for my UFC daily fantasy fix, so if you don’t have an account you can sign up here (and get a 50% bonus on your initial deposit). Also, you can check out the scoring criteria here.
Now let’s get down to business.
Value Picks
- Luan Chagas ($8,000) might have the best nickname on the card in ‘Tarzan”. Luckily, he fights like a wild man as well, landing 95 shots in his last fight before getting a second round finish. His opponent this weekend, Siyar Bahadurzada, is nine years his elder, and, while possessing decent pop in his hands, won’t be able to handle Tarzan’s physicality.
- The Fight Pass prelims give us Merab Dvalishvili ($7,500) against Ricky Simon. Dvalishvili is the local boy in this bout, fighting out of Serra-Longo, and in a match-up of two wrestlers, has shown the better ability to land the shots on the feet, as his kicks are no joke. Hell, he also landed ELEVEN takedowns in his last fight, against another wrestler! Serra-Longo boy in Jersey? I say ride with it.
Avoid
- I would agree that Tony Martin ($8,800) is the favorite in his fight against Keita Nakamura, but his style does not lend itself to good DFS scores, landing only 2.6 strikes per minute. On top of that, his opponent, Keita Nakamura, is not one to draw anyone into a fire fight, as he fights at a relatively slow pace himself. Slow, workmanlike, decision victories have their place, but you want to try to avoid those if you can in DraftKings.
- Ricky Simon ($8,700) is another young fighter on the card who has shown some promise, capturing the LFA championship before moving to the UFC. Unfortunately, he draws the above mentioned Merab Dvalishvili in his second UFC bout. Two wrestlers are facing off, but as I said above, Dvalishvili seems to have the better striking.
BROEST BROS YOU KNOW 