The octagon is headed Down Under this weekend for UFC Perth, and we have a super early start time here in the US, with prelims kicking off at 4AM ET and the main card set for 7AM ET.

The UFC Perth lineup features 13 matchups and will be headlined by what should be a welterweight firefight between former champ Jack Della Maddalena and rising contender Carlos Prates.

25 out of 26 fighters successfully made weight for the event with Gerald Meerschaert coming in 4 pounds over the middleweight limit at 190 lb.

He will be fined 30% of his fight purse and his matchup with Jacob Malkoun is set to proceed.

UFC Perth Picks & Predictions

My favorite picks for UFC Perth are Malkoun, Marwan Rahiki, Quillan Salkilld and Steve Erceg.

In a bit of a rarity, there aren’t any underdogs that I’m particularly high on this week, although it’s possible the line on Prates will flip since it’s currently hovering around -115 at most sportsbooks.

Despite GM3 missing weight, I still really like Malkoun in their matchup and expect him to be better pretty much everywhere in this one except pure submission skills.

Malkoun should dictate where this fight goes, be the more dangerous and durable striker in exchanges on the feet and stay safe if this one does end up on the ground.

I think Malkoun will eventually connect on a big shot for a KO/TKO win or a dominant decision.

Rahiki is getting an opponent on extremely short notice with Ollie Schmid stepping up midweek as a late replacement.

With a 4-2 record out of City Kickboxing, I don’t think Schmid would’ve sniffed the roster in any other scenario and I expect Rahiki to put a highlight reel performance on him in this spot for a stoppage win.

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Salkilld is getting a huge opportunity at home to continue climbing the ladder through the lightweight division and I think he matches up well with Beneil Dariush these days.

Unless Dariush can ground and/or control this one for 15 full minutes, I expect Salkilld to connect big at some point and likely put this one away by KO/TKO.

Erceg bounced back into the win column last time out after a tough stretch losing to a pair of former champions and a title challenger and I love this spot for him against Tim Elliott.

I think Erceg will be able to ride the energy of fighting at home, land the more meaningful strikes on the feet and be live for a submission if he works in his takedowns.

UFC Perth Betting Card

For the UFC Perth betting card, I took several shots on prop bets and ran a couple of small parlays.

The prop bets are Micallef by Submission (+200 for .5 units), Tafa by R1 KO/TKO (+165 for .5 units), Tuivasa by R2 KO/TKO (+525 for .25 units), Erceg by Submission (+375 for .5 units) and Prates by KO/TKO (+165 for .5 units).

The parlays are Tuivasa by KO/TKO + Erceg ML + Salkilld ML (+198 for .5 units) and Malkoun -7.5 Point Spread + Rahiki to Win in R1/2 + Salkilld by KO/TKO or Decision Double Chance (+162 for 1 unit).

Micallef should be the more dangerous fighter in his matchup with Themba Gorimbo, and if they make it to the ground, I expect “The Captain” to be live for a finish and likely by sub.

As long as Junior Tafa can keep this fight standing, I think he’ll be the significantly more dangerous striker and have a great chance for a quick finish.

Tuivasa has dropped six straight and might not get another to bounce back after this one if he loses again.

I think these two will start a bit cautious before throwing heavy later in the first round with a potential finish coming then or early into the second.

We haven’t seen a ton of Erceg’s submission skills on display in the UFC, but they are definitely in the toolkit and likely to be used here against a fairly durable opponent on the feet.

Elliott has been subbed in 6 of his 13 losses and I think he’ll be on the wrong end of another one here.

This main event is one of the better matchups so far this year in my opinion and should be a straight up firefight.

I expect JDM to potentially be a bit reserved in this fight out of the gates after such a rough outing in his last one where he was visibly in tears during the fight from how badly it was going against Makhachev.

If Della Maddalena isn’t aggressive from the start, I expect Prates will sneak in some heavy and damaging blows in the early rounds and likely find a home for a nasty knee or elbow to jumpstart a finish.

That’s a total of 7 bets for 3.75 units for the UFC Perth tracked bets this week.

UFC Fighter Merch Collab Announcements

We’re extremely excited to announce that we have several UFC fighter merch collaborations in the works for this summer and the first one with Dione Barbosa is already available to grab on MILLIONS!

Dione is set to face Veronica Hardy at UFC Oklahoma City on July 18th, so be sure to pick up a shirt from this drop and show her some support during camp and thank her for giving us the chance to cook on this one!

We’ll also have at least one more merch collaboration with another fighter on this card, so stay tuned for details on that one to drop during this upcoming week and more coming soon on the rest.

On top of the multiple collaborations that we have confirmed for drop, we’ve also shot our shot on some other pretty high-level ones, so keep your fingers crossed with us on those to get across the finish line too.

UFC Perth Wrap-Up

Other than the early start time here in the US, I’m pretty hyped for this lineup at UFC Perth and expecting a ton of violence after a weekend that saw a record number of decisions at UFC Vegas 116.

The picks and bets were subpar last weekend, so hopefully we can get both categories back on track with this one after finishing up -2 units on the bets at the APEX.

As we mentioned last week, be sure to check the bottom of this post for our list of amazing partners and sponsors and show them some love for continuing to help us grow and make moves.

Also, big apologies to our friends at Next MMA, we had been using a bad link under the Quick Picks recently for their website and we’ve gotten that corrected, so go check them out.

This weekend kicks off what should be a fun month of fights with UFC 328 next weekend, followed by UFC Vegas 117 and UFC Macau to round out May and get us ready for summer.

Speaking of summer, check out Kala’s interview with Alvin Hines on The CageWalk Podcast ahead of his impending return at UFC Oklahoma City in July against AJ Frye and shoutout to Big Marcel for crediting her with the fight news!

Overall, I’m expecting this to be a pretty entertaining card after a bit of a dud last weekend and wouldn’t be shocked if see a high number of finishes for UFC Perth.

As always, best of luck on the bets and hope everyone enjoys the fights tomorrow!

UFC Perth Quick Picks

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