UFC 226 Odds For The Main Card

UFC 226 Odds – The UFC 226 pay-per-view is set for Saturday night with two title fights at the top of the live card from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. That was the original plan, but it now appears the co-feature featherweight title fight between champion Max Holloway and challenger Brian Ortega has been scratched. This leaves Stipe Miocic’s heavyweight title defense against Daniel Cormier as the lone title fight on the UFC 226 PPV.

Check out “Miocic vs Cormier an Audition for Brock Lesnar?” right here at GMS.

This fight hs the trimmings of a superfight, as Miocic is entering his UFC-record fourth heavyweight title defense and Cormier is the light heavyweight champion moving up. Don’t let that little tidbit fool you, Cormier is a lifelong heavyweight who has scored more than half of his 20 career wins in MMA as one of the big boys. He originally cut weight to 205 lbs to avoid a showdown with teamate Cain Velasquez, but Miocic has the belt now.

Unfortunately for Cormier, he met Jon Jones at Light heavyweight, and any way you cut it, he came in second. Cormier is also approaching 40 years old, but a win here would make him and Conor McGregor the only UFC fighters to hold titles in two weight classes at the same time.

Cormier has diversified his striking well and added to his Olympic level wrestling, he has become a complete MMA artist. Miocic is big and rugged and he has a wrestling background himself. He does not have to be a better wrestler than Cormier, he just has to have enough to offset Cormier’s takedown attempts and not wind up on his back. Both men have shown the can go the full five rounds and Cormier will be fighting a bigger man, but it is still hard to pick against Cormier and his gas tank if they are still fighting in round five.

Bad and scary news surround the co-feature as UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway has had to withdraw from his title defense against hot prospect Brian Ortega after showing concussion-like symptoms all week. Holloway was announced as a late replacement for Tony Ferguson against Lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, but he was deemed medically unfit for that fight over the weigh-ins. Holloway was also pulled from a title defense against Frankie Edgar with a bad knee early this year, so Holloway is starting to be a concern for his wide range of medical issues.

SHERDOG.COM is reporting the 14-0 Ortega, who has been in top form all week, has declined a late replacement fight against veteran Jeremy Stephens. Fans will have to wait until some other time to see the spectacular Ortega again. Hopefully Holloway is OK and the match materializes quickly, it would be a shame to see Ortega face anyone else, even for an interim title.

Below are the odds for the UFC’s planned pay-per-view card as they currently stand.