On the heels of an excitement filled weekend in Miami for UFC 299, the UFC is back in Las Vegas at the Apex this weekend for UFC Vegas 88. The card features 13 bouts and will be headlined by a heavyweight clash between Tai Tuivasa and Marcin Tybura. While the card features some fun matchups, the overall depth of the lineup does leave a bit to be desired. This card is the first of several upcoming events where you can feel the lack of available top-end talent at the moment due to the promotion stacking the UFC 299 and UFC 300 cards as deeply as they did. Fair trade off, at least in my opinion, as UFC 299 absolutely lived up to the hype this past weekend, and UFC 300 next month should live up to it as well.

My favorite picks on today’s card are Kennedy Nzechukwu, Thiago Moises, Gerald Meerschaert and Tai Tuivasa. Nzechukwu will be the bigger fighter in this matchup and nearly a decade younger than Ovince Saint Preux as well. I expect Nzechukwu to get this one done relatively easily via KO/TKO in the early rounds. Moises will have a sizable experience advantage over the debuting Mitch Rameriz and should be able to get this fight to the ground for a submission win to welcome Rameriz to the promotion. GM3 has an opportunity to break Anderson Silva’s divisional record for most finishes this weekend, and I think he’ll be able to do it with a submission win over Bryan Barberena. In the main event, I like Tuivasa’s chances of finding an early KO/TKO, but Marcin Tybura will be extremely live in this one as the minutes tick by if it gets extended past the opening rounds.

For the betting card this weekend, I’m keeping things relatively light since I had a short week traveling home from UFC 299 and didn’t get to put in my usual amount of focus and preparation for this one. I have a pair of parlays out for this card, with one of them also being run as a round robin, as well as a Same Game Parlay for the main event. The SGP for the main event is: Tuivasa ML + Method KO/TKO + U2.5 Rounds (+135 for .5 units on DraftKings). The first parlay: GM3 by Submission + Nzechukwu by KO/TKO (+249 for .5 units). And the final parlay: Moises by Submission + GM3 by Submission + Nzechukwu by KO/TKO + Tuivasa by KO/TKO in R1/2 (+2075 for .3 units and .2 units on the round robin by 3s, .5 units total). That’s three bets, plus the round robin, for a total of 1.5 units on this card. For safer alternatives to my plays, you can stick to money lines only for some or play the Double Chances that include decisions. Best of luck to everyone betting and enjoy the fights!

Since I didn’t have a chance to create an individual post for them this week, here are the fighter graphics that I put together for this weekend’s card. For more of my graphics work, be sure to check out the OddSmokerMMA Gallery! If you’re interested in a custom graphic or a shirt/hoodie/mug featuring one of my designs, please let me know through the OddSmokerMMA Contact form.

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