Dee Friedman
Etihad Stadium in Melbourne, Australia, hosts UFC 193 on November 15. Ronda Rousey is heavily favored to improve to 13-0 when she faces Holly Holm for the Women’s Bantamweight title. In undercard action, Joanna Jedrzejczyk meets Valerie Letourneau in a Strawweight title fight, and Heavyweight Mark Hunt will go toe-to-toe with Antonio Silva.
How should you bet the fights? Let’s take a look.
Rousey vs. Holm:
To say that Rousey (12-0) works quickly is perhaps the understatement of the century. The champ has been taken past the first round just once in a dozen career fights and her 34-second knockout of Bethe Correia in August was her longest match since early 2014. In February, Rousey dismissed Cat Zingano in 14 seconds and then, in July, swept aside Alexis Davis in 16 seconds. She has three career KOs and has forced opponents into submission nine times.
Holm (9-0) was 33-2-3 as a boxer before transitioning to MMA in 2011. She remains undefeated in the octagon but all of her fights have gone past the first round. She won a unanimous decision against Marion Reneau in July, and got a split decision victory over Raquel Pennington in February. Six of her wins have come by KO.
Holm is more than a 10-1 underdog and you would need at least 25-1 to bet on her. In fact, Rousey is a bargain at that price, but you need a large bankroll to make a decent profit.
Jedrzejczyk vs. Letourneau:
Jedrzejczyk (10-0), the Strawweight champ, kept her perfect record intact with a TKO (punches) over Jessica Penne in June. She also TKO’ed Carla Esparza via punches in March, but half of her wins have come by decision. Letourneau (8-3) has three consecutive wins via decision over Maryna Moroz, Jessica Rakoczy, and Elizabeth Phillips in the past 15 months. She also has four knockout victories on her resume, but the challenger is a 20-1 underdog and there is no compelling reason to think this match will be tightly contested, though it should last longer than the Rousey/Holm fight.
Hunt vs. Silva:
Hunt (10-10-1) and Silva (19-7-1) are both getting up there in age. The two fought to a majority draw in December 2013. Since then, the 41-year-old Hunt is 1-2 with a win over Roy Nelson and losses to Stipe Miocic and Fabricio Werdum. Silva is also 1-2 since fighting Hunt, losing to Andrei Arlovski and Frank Mir before beating Soe Palelei in August. The 36-year-old Brazilian has a 19-7-1 career record and will be a bargain as a 2-1 underdog.
(Photo Credit: Zennie Abraham (Flickr) [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/].)
