The UFC returns to Toronto, Canada for the first time since 2019 for UFC 297 later today. The card features 12 bouts and will be headlined by a pair of title fights. In the main event, Sean Strickland will attempt to defend his UFC Middleweight title against Dricus Du Plessis in what should be an awesome matchup. For the co-main event, Raquel Pennington and Mayra Bueno Silva will compete for the vacant UFC Women’s Bantamweight title to finally crown a new champ in the post-Amanda era. There were several notable moments from the weigh-ins yesterday, including a pair of misses: Malcolm Gordon was 1.5 pounds over the flyweight limit, while Ramon Taveras missed the bantamweight limit by a more surprising 3.75 pounds. Also of note, Cachoeira vs Jasudavicius was moved to bantamweight after Cachoeira reportedly said she wasn’t going to cut to 125.

My favorite picks for this card are Mike Malott, Chris Curtis, Movsar Evloev and Jasmine Jasudavicius. Malott will be facing his toughest test to date in the UFC against Neil Magny, and while he might not keep his 100% finish rate intact, I think he will a way to get this one done. Curtis had a rough 2023 but has an excellent chance to bounce back here against Marc-Andre Barriault. These two have pretty similar styles, but I feel like Curtis will be slightly better everywhere. Evloev vs Arnold Allen is my pick for Fight of the Night and should be a really close one. While I think Allen will have moments of success on the feet, ultimately, I think Evloev will be able to land some of his takedowns and keep his perfect record intact with a close decision win. Like Malott, Jasudavicius is one of the most popular Canadian fighters on this card and she will certainly have the crowd behind her in this one. While I liked the matchup better for her at the originally scheduled weight at 125, I still think she will weather the early storm of Cachoeira and be able to get this one done via decision or late stoppage.

For the betting on this card, there aren’t very many spots that I just absolutely love and trust, so I played mostly took shots on prop bets that stood out and a small parlay with UFC and NFL together. The prop bets that I took a flyer on: Flick by Submission (+350 for .25 units), Sidey by KO/TKO in R2/R3 (+500 for .25 units), Curtis by KO/TKO in R2/R3 (+600 for .25 units), Allen/Evloev Split Decision – Yes (+350 for .5 units), Malott by Decision (+450 for .5 units), and Strickland to win in R4/R5/Decision (+200 for .5 units). For the parlay, I’m playing George Kittle Anytime TD/Niners -2.5 + Curtis ML + Du Plessis +5.5 spread (+494 for .5 units). I also have a pre-existing parlay out with legs that needs Malott and Curtis money lines to cash, but that won’t be included with the tracked bets. That’s 2.75 units out total across seven plays for today for the tracked ones. Be sure to check out my social pages for any potential late additions to the card. If you want to hear more of my thoughts on each fight for this weekend, be sure to check out my debut on Friday Night Fight Talk from last night with my co-host James where we breakdown each matchup on the card. Unfortunately, thanks to an issue with X/Twitter, the segment is broken into two parts: Prelims and Main Card. We’ll be doing these in the future for UFC PPVs, so be sure to come and hang out for the next one! Best of luck to everyone and enjoy the fights!

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