The UFC Fight Night: Jessica Andrade vs. Erin Blanchfield card on Saturday is bound to give bettors a chance for some value. UFC fans were treated to a dandy of a main card fight between Alexander Volkanovski and Islam Makhachev last weekend, which ended in a controversial decision in Makhachev’s favor. This weekend may feature some lesser-known fighters but has some intrigue throughout the card. Check out the best UFC Fight Night bets ahead of the Andrade vs. Blanchfield card.
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UFC Fight Night: Andrade vs. Blanchfield Best Bets
Best Bet: AJ Fletcher/ Themba Gorimbo under 2.5 rounds (-150 on BetMGM)
A.J. Fletcher has finished eight out of nine wins. His only two losses in the UFC had many potential fight-ending sequences. Both of his prior opponents are very durable fighters who survived big blows.
He faces UFC newcomer Themba Gorimbo who seems very green. He has also finished seven of his 10 wins with six via submission. He’s been finished in two of three losses: one via submission and one via KO. Themba has bad takedown defense and tends to get stuck on the bottom. That’s a place you don’t want to be against A.J. Fletcher, who has very good ground and pound with a submission game to boot.
Fletcher puts himself in bad positions at times on the ground and Themba has submissions off his back where I expect him to be throughout the bout.
Best Underdog Bet: Marcin Prachnio by decision (+440 on BetRivers)
Marcin Prachnio will have a five-inch height advantage and a one-inch reach advantage over William Knight. He will use those advantages to land kicks from distance and stay away from William Knight’s power punches.
Knight is prone to get kicked from a distance (as evidenced in the Maxim Grishin fight). Prachnio presents the same problems, which will give Knight issues when trying to close distance. Knight could land takedowns in this fight but Prachnio has a strong get-up game to match.
Prachnio should have a significant volume advantage here, but he needs to avoid the explosive moments from Knight. If he does, Prachnio should get the nod when the horn sounds.
Best Main Event Bet: Erin Blanchfield ML (+115 BetRivers)
This is a great stylistic matchup, a prolific grappler vs. a prolific striker. Jessica Andrade took this fight on short notice coming off a win less than four weeks ago. According to her Instagram, Andrade was not training for this fight since it was such short notice and will now be fighting in a five-round main event.
Andrade will look to end this early with her powerful punches. Blanchfield will need to fight through the early flurry and get this fight to the ground vs. the smaller, more compact Andrade.
I think Blanchfield will use Andrade’s aggression to get this fight to the ground where she wants to operate. And once the fight goes to the ground, Blanchfield has shown great control with a very slick submission game.
Andrade might look good early with powerful punches and explosions, but once Blanchfield gets this fight to the ground it should be her world.
Andrade is a BJJ black belt so I don’t want to act like she’s not very good on the ground, but in some of her UFC losses, she has shown she could be out-grappled and finished.
I’ll take the woman that was preparing for a five-round fight and has the wrestling edge to suit her well in a longer fight.
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