UFC Vegas 20 prelim card preview. Another UFC Fight Night and another heavyweight headliner is upon us. Last week’s preliminary card sure was entertaining with five out of the six fights leading to a KO/TKO finish, so here’s hoping the UFC Vegas 20 prelims can keep the ball rolling. Here are our UFC betting predictions for the Rozenstruik. Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is bringing more “Prelims” fights to ESPN+ this weekend (Sat., Nov. 28, 2020) when UFC Vegas 15: “Blaydes vs. Lewis” returns to UFC APEX in Las Vegas.
UFC 247 will take place on Saturday, February 8 at Toyota Center in Houston, TX. The headliner of the event is the Jon Jones vs Dominick Reyes bout, while there are four other fights in the Main Card. In addition, there are also six UFC 247 prelims.
As we have covered previews of Main Card bouts already at Vegas Odds, it’s time to discuss the preliminaries. We’re now going to preview each of those bouts.
A native Texan, Trevin Giles is fighting out of Houston, meaningthat fighting inside the Toyota Center means fighting on his own turf. This isgoing to be his fifth UFC bout, having previously won two and lost two. The twobouts he lost both happened in 2019.
Giles has a chance to get back on the winning track this Saturday when he steps in the Octagon together with Brazilian fighter Antonio Arroyo, who’s fought in the UFC only once in his career. It happened last November when he lost to Andre Muniz by unanimous decision. A similar scenario should happen this time as well.
Prediction: Trevin Giles
Despite being only 29 years old, Alex Morono is already aveteran in the MMA, having started his professional career almost a decade ago.During that period, he featured in nine UFC events, winning on six occasions.
Born and raised in Houston, Morono is welcoming a fightercoming from Michigan, Kallin Williams. With peculiar nickname ‘Khaos the OxFighter’, the 25-year-old is making his debut in the UFC this weekend.
Prediction: Alex Morono
The only women’s bout in the UFC 247 Prelims is the fight between Lauren Murphy and Andrea Lee. According to online sportsbooks, Lee is a big favorite here, but we might be in for a surprise.
Andrea Lee has been doing very well in the UFC since signingfor this promotion back in 2018. However, she did lose her previous bout to JoanneCalderwood in September 2019.
She surely wants to get back on the winning track with a winover 36-year-old fighter coming from Alaska, Lauren Murphy. However, Murphy isan experienced fighter with a long history of UFC fighting, having started herjourney in 2014.
Murphy is also ranked very high in the UFC Women’s FlyweightRankings, one spot above Lee, which is another proof she’s a world-classfighter.
Prediction: Lauren Murphy
Another bout from the UFC 247 Prelims that seems like a potential surprise is the fight between 32-year-old Andre Ewell and a rising star, Jonathan Martinez, who’s seven years his junior. Ewell is going into this bout after losing to UFC star Marlon Vera by TKO in October.
Martinez, on the other hand, has won both of the UFC boutshe had in 2019. However, the fact is that he hasn’t fought as tough opponentsas Ewell.
Prediction: Andre Ewell
Miles Johns is coming into the Octagon with a 100% winning percentage in his professional career. In September 2019, he made his UFC debut, winning against Cole Smith by split decision. His opponent this time is Mario Bautista, who’s a bit more experienced in the UFC than him.
Batista has fought in the UFC on two occasions, winning oneof those two bouts. The win happened last July when he beat Jin Soo Son. Thistime, he’s faced with a much tougher opponent and it seems unlikely he’ll beable to get his third UFC win.
Prediction: Miles Johns
Both fighters have fought only once in the UFC and both of them have lost on their debuts. Another similarity is that they’re both 30-year-olds and that they both weigh 135lbs. Pilarte, however, is significantly taller than his rival, with a much longer reach.
Another advantage of Pilarte is that he’s fighting in front of his home crowd, which can give him the morale boost he needs to beat Newson.
Prediction: Domingo Pilarte
Poirier vs. McGregor | Chandler vs. Hooker | Calderwood vs. Eye | Ribas vs. Rodriguez | |
MMA Junkie readers’ consensus picks 2021: 5-6 | McGregor (62%) | Hooker (57%) | Calderwood (58%) | Ribas (94%) |
Mike Bohn @MikeBohnMMA 2021: 8-3 2014 Champion | Poirier | Hooker | Calderwood | Ribas |
John Morgan @MMAjunkieJohn 2021: 7-4 | Poirier | Hooker | Calderwood | Ribas |
Dan Tom @DanTomMMA 2021: 7-4 2020 Champion | McGregor | Chandler | Eye | Ribas |
Ken Hathaway @kenshathaway 2021: 7-4 2018 Champion | McGregor | Chandler | Calderwood | Ribas |
George Garcia @MMAjunkieGeorge 2021: 6-6 | Poirier | Chandler | Calderwood | Ribas |
Farah Hannoun @Farah_Hannoun 2021: 6-5 | McGregor | Hooker | Calderwood | Ribas |
Nolan King @mma_kings 2021: 6-5 | McGregor | Hooker | Calderwood | Ribas |
Brian Garcia @thegoze 2021: 6-5 2017 Champion | McGregor | Chandler | Calderwood | Ribas |
Dave Doyle @davedoylemma 2021: 5-6 | McGregor | Chandler | Calderwood | Ribas |
Danny Segura @dannyseguratv 2021: 5-6 | Poirier | Chandler | Calderwood | Ribas |
Simon Head @simonhead 2021: 5-6 2019 Champion* | McGregor | Chandler | Calderwood | Ribas |
Abbey Subhan @kammakaze 2021: 5-6 | McGregor | Hooker | Calderwood | Ribas |
Matt Erickson @MMAjunkieMatt 2021: 4-7 | McGregor | Chandler | Calderwood | Ribas |
Simon Samano @SJSamano 2021: 4-7 | McGregor | Chandler | Calderwood | Ribas |
(Editor’s note: The main card fight between Ottman Azaitar and Matt Frevola was canceled Friday during weigh-ins. The new main card fight between Makhmud Muradov and Andrew Sanchez was added too late for our picks deadline.)
The UFC wraps up its three-event stint over eight days on “Fight Island” with its biggest draw.
UFC 257 takes place Saturday at Etihad Stadium in Abu Dhabi. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and early prelims on ESPN+.
(Click here to open a PDF of the staff picks grid in a separate window.)
In the main event, former interim lightweight champion Dustin Poirier (26-6 MMA, 18-5 UFC) meets ex-lightweight and featherweight champ Conor McGregor (22-4 MMA, 10-2 UFC) in a rematch from a 2014 fight won by McGregor. McGregor is a 3-1 favorite at BetMGM, and he’s got a sizable 10-4 lead from our 14 editors, writers, videographers and radio hosts.
In the co-feature, former Bellator lightweight champ Michael Chandler (21-5 MMA, 0-0 UFC) makes his promotional debut against Dan Hooker (20-9 MMA, 10-5 UFC). Hooker is just a slight favorite at -130, but it’s Chandler with a 9-5 picks lead.
Joanne Calderwood (14-5 MMA, 6-5 UFC) may have the slimmest betting odds in her favor on the main card at -120 for her women’s flyweight bout against former title challenger Jessica Eye (15-8 MMA, 5-7 UFC), but the picks are a blowout at 13-1 for Calderwood.
And Amanda Ribas (10-1 MMA, 4-0 UFC) is a -350 favorite in her women’s strawweight fight against Marina Rodriguez (12-1-2 MMA, 2-1-2 UFC). Ribas is our only unanimous pick, and she’s also our readers’ biggest favorite at a whopping 94 percent.
In the MMA Junkie reader consensus picks, McGregor (62 percent), Hooker (57 percent), Calderwood (58 percent) and Ribas (94 percent) are the choices.
Check out all the picks above.