UFC Vegas 66 will unfortunately be the final UFC event of the year for the promotion. However, the lineup is loaded with entertaining fights throughout the card, and we’ve already placed a couple of bets we like really like for this weekend.

Outside a few of outliers, a vast majority of the fights scheduled for this weekend should be pretty close matchups and most of the betting lines are reflecting that. As of right now, there are only five fights where the favorite has average odds that are higher than -200.

The first bet that I really like for this weekend is for the main event, which will see Sean Strickland vs Jared Cannonier in a battle of highly ranked UFC middleweight contenders.

Both fighters are coming off losses at UFC 276 earlier this year, however, the winner of this fight will likely still find themselves within striking distance of potentially getting a future title shot.

Strickland is 25-4 in his career and coming off a brutal knockout loss to newly crowned UFC Middleweight champion Alex Pereira back in July. However, he had won his previous six fights before that and two of his last three losses came to Pereira and Kamaru Usman.

Cannonier enters with a 15-6 career record and is coming off a disappointing loss of his own this past summer to former champion Israel Adesanya. Cannonier is one of the most dangerous fighters in the division and his last five losses have all come to either former champions or title challengers.

Both of them are solid strikers, and while Cannonier clearly has the advantage in the power department, Strickland is historically a higher volume striker and will have clear advantages in the grappling if he decides to try and take things that route.

While Strickland obviously didn’t show the best fight IQ when he decided to stand and hang out in front of Pereira enroute to being KOed in the opening minutes of his last fight, that is unlikely to happen again, as that was only the second knockout loss of Strickland’s career.

Strickland should be able to hold his own in the striking, avoid the early danger from Cannonier, and mix in his grappling to work his way towards a decision win or potentially even a late stoppage.

Those are some of the reasons we went with Strickland as our first prop bet of the weekend for UFC Vegas 66: Sean Strickland to win in R4/R5/Decision at +170 available on FanDuel Sportsbook.

There are also a lot of underdogs that look pretty appealing on this weekend’s card as well, and we decided to take an early shot on one of them as are our second bet for this weekend.

Bobby Green is coming off a first-round TKO/KO defeat in his most recent fight, however, it’s hard to hold it against him since it occurred during an extremely short notice, catchweight fight against now-UFC Lightweight champion Islam Makhachev.

Drew Dober has earned each of his previous five wins via knockout and while it’s entirely possible he could find another one here, Green has historically been durable and not easy to put away on the feet (his KO/TKO loss to Makhachev came via ground and pound).

Both fighters have positive striking differentials, but Green has the higher volume, he’s hit fewer times per minute on average, and should have an advantage in the grappling as well.

This fight opened as a -110 Pick Em, however, Dober is now currently in the -150 range at most sportsbooks, while Green can be found around +130 depending on which book you are using.

We decided to go ahead and place a one unit on Bobby Green’s ML at +135 and see if the line continues moving heading into the weekend. Green should be able to pick up a comfortable decision win and it wouldn’t be surprising if he found a late finish either.

OddSmokerMMA UFC Vegas 66 Full Card & Early Thoughts

Make sure to check back here tomorrow for our complete OddSmokerMMA UFC Vegas 66 Picks and Predictions to find out which sides we are on for the other twelve fights for this weekend!

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