Matthew Lowrimore
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UFC Fight Night 217 takes place on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada. This card features a light heavyweight fight between Nassourdine Imavov vs Sean Strickland as the Main Event.
Here is our favorite parlay for this card, with odds of +713 at DraftKings Sportsbook. Be sure to check out the rest of our UFC Fight Night 217 predictions for all of the Main Card picks.
Punahele Soriano ML Roman Kopylov (-150)
Punahele Soriano comes into this fight with an MMA record of 9-2. He is 4-2 in the UFC, most recently beating Dalcha Lungiambula by KO/TKO back in July of 2022. Soriano is averaging 3.95 significant strikes per minute and has a striking accuracy of 47%. He is absorbing 3.42 strikes and has a striking defense of 52%. His grappling is also decent, averaging 1.02 takedowns per every 15 minutes. He has a takedown accuracy of 57% and has a takedown defense of 31%.
Soriano is a medium-sized favorite in this fight, and looks to the right side as well. He has the better striking and grappling and has overall been more consistent. For that reason, backing Soriano to win will be the play.
Umar Nurmagomedov Win by decision over Raoni Barcelos (-200)
Umar Nurmagomedov has an MMA record of 15-0. He is 3-0 in the UFC, most recently beating Nate Maness by unanimous decision back in June of 2022. Nurmagomedov is averaging 4.35 significant strikes per minute and has a striking accuracy of 70%. He is absorbing 0.37 strikes and has a striking defense of 85%. Nurmagomedov also has elite grappling, averaging 5.02 takedowns per every 15 minutes and 1.1 submission attempts during the same time period. He has a takedown accuracy of 45% and has not been taken down in the UFC so far.
Nurmagomedov is by far the biggest favorite on this card, so backing his money line is pretty much unplayable. He has won 7 times by submission and decision, however; Raoni Barcelos has only lost once by submission and that was back in 2014. He has never lost by KO/TKO, therefore backing Nurmagomedov to win by decision looks to be the best play.
Claudio Ribeiro ML over Abdul Razak Alhassan (-115)
Claudio Ribeiro registers with an MMA record of 10-2. He is 1-0 in the UFC, however; this will be his official UFC debut. Ribeiro is averaging 9.60 significant strikes per minute and has a striking accuracy of 66%. Through his first Contender Series fight, he did not take any strikes.
This may be the debut for Ribeiro, but Abdul Razak Alhassan has been much too inconsistent. He is 1-4 in his last 5 UFC Fights, therefore backing Ribeiro to win will be the play.
Javid Basharat vs Mateus Mendonca – Fight to go the distance – No (-135)
This fight should be wild, as both Javid Basharat and Mateus Mendonca are undefeated. Basharat has won 11 of his 13 career fights by finish, while Mendonca has seen 7 of his 10 career fights end inside the distance. Because of the finish rate for these fighters, backing this fight to end inside the distance will be the play.
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