Matthew Lowrimore
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UFC 298 takes place on Saturday at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. This card features a featherweight title fight between Alexander Volkanovski and Ilia Topuria as the Main Event. Here are our best bets for this UFC card, which will include 2 fights on the Main Card and 1 on the Preliminary Card.
Be sure to also check out the rest of our UFC predictions for all of the UFC 298 Main Card fights.
UFC 298 Main Card Best Bets
Ilia Topuria ML over Alexander Volkanovski (+105)
The Main Event at UFC 298 will see Alexander Volkanovski take on Ilia Topuria in the UFC Featherweight division and will be for the UFC Featherweight title. Topuria comes into this fight with an MMA record of 14-0 and he is 6-0 in the UFC. He is averaging 4.44 significant strikes per minute and has a striking accuracy of 46%. Topuria is absorbing 3.05 strikes and has a striking defense of 67%. Grappling is also prominent for Topuria, as he is averaging 2.19 takedowns per every 15 minutes and 1.5 submission attempts during the same time period. His takedown accuracy is 56%, while his takedown defense is 92%.
This fight is very even with Volkanovski as the slight favorite. That being said, Topuria is perfect in his MMA career and has solid enough striking defense and takedown defense to limit Volkanovski’s strengths. For that reason, backing Topuria to pull off the slight upset will be our best bet.
Robert Whittaker win by decision over Paulo Costa (+110)
Robert Whittaker comes into this fight with an MMA record of 25-7 and he is 15-5 in the UFC. Whittaker is averaging 4.47 significant strikes per minute, and has a striking accuracy of 42%. He is absorbing 3.39 strikes and has a striking defense of 60%. His grappling has been decent, averaging 0.85 takedowns per every 15 minutes. His takedown accuracy is 39% and his takedown defense is 82%.
Whittaker is a heavy favorite in this fight, making his money line too risky. With that, we will be looking at how Whittaker will win this fight. In the UFC he has 10 wins by decision, including each of his last 4 UFC wins. Further, Costa has only lost once by finish in the UFC and that was in 2020. Because of this, backing Whittaker to win by decision will be our best bet.
UFC 298 Preliminary Card Best Bet
Miranda Maverick ML over Andrea Lee (-185)
Miranda Maverick comes into this fight with an MMA record of 14-5 and she is 5-3 in the UFC. She is averaging 3.71 significant strikes and has a striking accuracy of 46%. Maverick is absorbing 2.62 strikes and her striking defense is 59%. Her grappling is also solid, averaging 2.41 takedowns per every 15 minutes. She has a takedown accuracy of 48% and her takedown defense is 42%.
Maverick is the heavy favorite in this fight, but the value still looks to be worth a play. Andrea Lee has simply been poor in the UFC, losing her last 3 fights in a row and 6 of her 8 UFC fights overall. Because of that, backing Maverick will be our play.
You can also read our UFC 298 parlay for Saturday’s action, featuring 4 fights at +338 odds!
