Matthew Lowrimore
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UFC 297 takes place on Saturday at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Canada. This card features a middleweight title fight between Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis as the Main Event and Raquel Pennington against Mayra Bueno Silva for the Women’s bantamweight title as the Co-Main Event.
Here is my favorite UFC parlay for this card, with odds of +473 at DraftKings Sportsbook. Be sure to check out the rest of our UFC predictions for all of the Main Card fights.
Mayra Bueno Silva ML over Raquel Pennington (-166)
Mayra Bueno Silva comes into this fight with an MMA record of 10-2-1 and 6-2-1 in the UFC. She is averaging 4.16 significant strikes per minute and has a striking accuracy of 54%. Silva is absorbing 4.71 strikes and has a striking defense of 57%. Her grappling has not been as consistent, averaging just 0.35 takedowns per every 15 minutes, but she is averaging 1.6 submission attempts over the same time period.
Silva is a moderate-sized favorite in this fight, but given that she has the better striking compared to Pennington, backing Silva to win will be our play.
Mike Malott Win by Finish over Neil Magny (-190)
Mike Malott comes into this fight with an MMA record of 10-1-1. He is 4-0 in the UFC, having won all of his UFC fights by finish. Malott is averaging 4.21 significant strikes per minute with a striking accuracy of 42%. He is absorbing 3.07 strikes and has a striking defense of 56%. His grappling has also been elite, averaging 2.53 takedowns per every 15 minutes and 1.5 submission attempts during the same time period.
Malott is the overwhelming favorite in this fight and because his money line looks to be too risky, we will be looking at how Malott will win this fight. He has won all 10 of his career MMA fights by finish, while Magny has lost eight times by finish, most notably six times by submission. Because Malott has a perfect finish rate and has the advantage in both striking and grappling, backing Malott to win by finish will be our play.
Chris Curtis ML over Marc-Andre Barriault (-185)
Chris Curtis comes into this fight with an MMA record of 30-10 and is 5-2 in the UFC. He is averaging 5.36 significant strikes per minute and has a striking accuracy of 50%. He is absorbing 6.30 strikes and has a striking defense of 54%. He has yet to show any grappling ability, but does have a takedown defense of 92%.
Curtis is the heavy favorite in this fight, but still looks to be the right play. He has overall been more consistent in the UFC and while his striking is slightly worse compared to Barriault, his ability to prevent takedowns makes him our play.
Movsar Evloev ML over Arnold Allen (-192)
Movsar Evloev comes into this fight with an MMA record of 17-0. He is 7-0 in the UFC, most recently beating Diego Lopes by unanimous decision back in May of 2023. Evloev is averaging 4.57 significant strikes per minute and has a striking accuracy of 49%. He is absorbing 2.74 strikes and has a striking defense of 61%. His grappling has been elite, averaging 4.71 takedowns per every 15 minutes. His takedown accuracy is 50% and his takedown defense is 71%.
Evloev is the heavy favorite and has simply been dominant in the UFC. He has superior striking and grappling. Therefore backing him to win will be our play.
You can also read our UFC 297 best bets here
