It’s Fight Day for UFC Vegas 97 and we’re back to the Apex to kick things off for September with an early start time (prelims start at 4PM ET). The card features 12 fights and will be headlined by a welterweight clash between Gilbert Burns and Sean Brady. Overall, this is a pretty fun lineup from top to bottom and a great way to get the month started before Noche UFC at The Sphere next weekend. There were two weight misses for the event, with both fighters fined and their bouts still scheduled to proceed (Kyle Nelson and Dylan Budka both missed their respective marks by 2.5 pounds).

My favorite picks for this weekend are Isaac Dulgarian, Steve Garcia, Natalia Silva and Andre Petroski. Dulgarian is on the verge of closing as one of the biggest betting favorites in UFC history in his matchup against Brendon Marotte, and while I don’t love that line, I do love this matchup for him. Dulgarian has heavy hands and good submission skills for the division and Marotte is coming down in weight after a nasty 20-second KO loss to Terrance McKinney in his UFC debut. I’d be surprised if Dulgarian doesn’t find the finish sometime in the first round where he’s found most of his pro and amateur wins. Garcia vs Nelson has potential to be one of the best fights of the night with both fighters entering with four-fight winning streaks. While Nelson has shown vast improvement over his last few fights, I still worry about his chin in a matchup like this, and like Garcia’s chances of finding the KO at some point.

Natalia Silva has been one of the hottest prospects in the UFC women’s flyweight division and she gets a huge test in this one facing Jessica Andrade. Silva is 4-0 in the UFC and while Andrade is never an easy out, she has proven to struggle from time to time when she’s at 125 pounds and can’t bully opponents the way she does at strawweight. I think Silva will get the better of the striking exchanges for a decision win or late stoppage. Petroski is getting a very favorable matchup in my opinion against Budka, who looked absolutely terrible on the scales yesterday. Budka isn’t particularly dangerous, especially in the striking, and is unlikely to ground out Petroski in this one. I expect the first round to be competitive, but Petroski should take over and possibly find a stoppage down the stretch via ground and pound or submission.

For the betting card this weekend, I have four prop bets and a small two-leg parlay on the official card. The prop bets for today are: Petroski to Win Inside the Distance (+215 for .5 units), Trevor Peek by KO/TKO (+290 for .5 units), Garcia by KO/TKO in R2/3 (+390 for .5 units) and Gilbert Burns by Decision (+500 for .5 units). The parlay for the card is Dulgarian to Win in R1 + Silva ML/Over 599.5 seconds/Most Sig Stikes SGP (+186 for .5 units). That’s a total of five bets for 2.5 units across them. If you want to mix and match some NFL or Noche UFC into your plays for today, I’m liking Marvin Harrison Jr Anytime TD, Devon Achane Anytime TD, Tyreek Hill 120+ rec yards and Sean O’Malley ML. If you want to catch O’Malley before his line starts to soar during fight week, now is definitely the time to get in if you aren’t already.

Overall, this should be a pretty good card to kick off things for September and it’s actually a solid month overall with Noche UFC and UFC Paris coming up as well. Be sure to check back in the future and also make sure you’re following us on social media. I haven’t been able to post as early and frequently as I would like recently, so always feel free to reach out on one of our accounts if you want to know my thoughts on a matchup, DWCS or anything during fight week. I hope everyone enjoys the card today and best of luck on the bets!

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