We’re back in the Apex this weekend for UFC Vegas 81 and this card will be headlined by Sodiq Yusuff and Edson Barboza in a featherweight matchup. The card originally had twelve fights scheduled for the event; however, it’s now down to eleven after the late scratch of Daniel Lacerda and Edgar Chairez yesterday during the weigh-in show due a “non-weight cutting illness” on the Lacerda side.

The only fighter to miss weight was Christian Rodriguez, who was a whopping 4 pounds over the bantamweight limit at 140 lb. This is his third miss in his last five fights at bantamweight and I’d be surprised if his next one isn’t booked at featherweight. His fight with Cameron Saaiman will still proceed and he will be fined 25% of his fight purse. Other than that, there were no major issues besides the Lacerda/Chairez cancellation. This is the second straight card that a fight has fallen off after both fighters successfully made weight (Phillipe Lins last week).

My favorite picks on this card are Sodiq Yusuff, Terrance McKinney, Chris Gutierrez and Jennifer Maia. I expect Yusuff and McKinney to both be live for finishes in their respective fights, while Gutierrez and Maia have clear paths to decisions in my opinion. My favorite potential betting upsets on this card are Adrian Yanez and Andre Petroski. Yanez/Martinez has bonus written all over it and should be a competitive fight, but I give the edge to Yanez for the slight upset. Petroski could cause Michel Pereira a lot of issues as he moves up to 185 lbs, and I think he’ll be live for a submission or decision in this one.

From a betting perspective, I’m not a huge fan of this card, particularly after the Chairez fight was scratched and subsequently wiped out 1.5 of my plays for this week. I have one parlay and four straight prop bets out for this card, plus an untracked week-long parlay that I’ll share below. The parlay for this weekend is Gutierrez + Maia MLs for +122. Originally had Chairez ITD + Yusuff KO/DEC for +161, however, that’s now a straight bet on Yusuff KO/DEC and it’s currently at -120. Both of those were one-unit bets. The other three props are a few riskier ones I wanted to take a stab at: Yanez by Decision (+400), Petroski by Sub (+850) and Yusuff by KO/TKO R3/4/5 (+700). I placed .25 units on each of those plays.

The untracked parlay is six legs with the first three of them on today’s card: Ducote by Dec, Maia by Dec, and Yusuff by KO/Dec. If we make it through the first half, it carries over into NFL tomorrow with a Jonathan Taylor Anytime TD, and then caps off with Khamzat Chimaev and Islam Makhachev MLs next weekend at UFC 294. Would recommend a round robin by five if you intend to tail, but really liking all of these plays. Parlay odds are +2124 on DraftKings.

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