Matthew Lowrimore
Show Bio
UFC on ESPN 31 takes place on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada. The card will feature a bantamweight fight as the main event.
Here is our favorite 4-fight parlay for UFC on ESPN 31 that pays at odds of +684. Be sure to check out the rest of our UFC on ESPN 31 predictions for the full 15-fight card.
Jared Vanderaa vs Azamat Murzakanov ML (-210)
Azamat Murzakanov comes into this fight with an MMA record of 10-0. He is 1-0 in the UFC, though this was a Dana White’s Contender Series event, making this fight his official UFC debut. He is averaging 3.00 significant strikes per minute and has a striking accuracy of 52%. He is absorbing 1.33 strikes and has a striking defense of 63%. Through his lone Contender Series fight, Murzakanov has not shown any grappling.
Jared Vanderaa’s chin will likely be an issue here, seeing that he has lost both his UFC fights by TKO/KO. Murzakanov has won 8 of his 10 career fights by finish, but just backing him on the money line looks to be a solid play.
Jake Matthews ML (-180) vs Jeremiah Wells
Jake Matthews comes into this fight with an MMA record of 17-5. He is 10-5 in the UFC, most recently losing to Sean Brady by submission back in March of this year. Matthews is averaging 3.03 significant strikes per minute and has a striking accuracy of 44%. He is absorbing 2.16 strikes and has a striking defense of 61%. His grappling is solid as well, averaging 1.93 takedowns per every 15 minutes. He has a takedown accuracy of 41% and his takedown defense is 66%.
Even though Jeremiah Wells managed to win his UFC debut by TKO/KO, his striking defense looks to be a slight concern. Matthews biggest area of concern is the threat of being submitted, but he will not likely have to worry about that as much with Wells. Overall, Matthews is still the more balanced fighter so backing him to win will be the play.
Bryan Barberena vs Darian Weeks ML (+105)
Darian Weeks comes into this fight with an MMA record of 5-0. This will be his UFC debut. So far, Weeks has won all of his fights by finish, 3 coming by TKO/KO and 2 by submission. All of his wins have come before the 3rd round. In fact, Weeks has never entered a 3rd round in any of his fights.
Bryan Barberena has been pretty inconsistent as of recently, losing 3 of his last 4 fights. Weeks on the other hand, does not have a blemish on his MMA record so far, so backing him to stay undefeated will be the play here.
Brendan Allen vs Chris Curtis – Fight to go the Distance – No (-150)
Brendan Allen is a huge favorite here, but backing him does not feel very appetizing. Chris Curtis has won both of his UFC fights by TKO/KO, while Allen has seen 5 of his 7 UFC fights end inside the distance. With the power from Curtis and the potential grappling from Allen, backing this fight to end inside the distance will be the play.
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