It’s almost time for UFC Abu Dhabi and we have a pretty entertaining lineup on the way with an early start time.

The lineup features 13 matchups and will be headlined by a short notice scrap between former UFC Light Heavyweight champ Magomed Ankalaev and Bogdan Guskov.

All 26 fighters set to compete on the card successfully made weight for the event.

UFC Abu Dhabi Picks & Predictions

My favorite picks for UFC Abu Dhabi are Magomed Ankalaev, Islam Dulatov, Abdul Hussein and Magomed Tuchalov.

My favorite potential UFC Abu Dhabi betting upsets are Mike Davis and Ramazan Temirov, depending on where he closes since he’s currently a slight favorite or pick em.

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Ankalaev should put on a really measured effort this week coming off his loss to Alex Pereira and I expect him to work his range, avoid and counter the pressure of Guskov and to wear him down as the fight progresses.

Guskov will likely look to pressure hard early, but barring landing something big, I think Ankalaev takes over to a find a KO/TKO stoppage in the middle rounds.

Dulatov is the biggest betting favorite of the card with his moneyline hovering at or above -1000 at most sportsbooks and it’s easy to understand why with Wellington Turman returning from a 3-year layoff.

I expect Dulatov to pressure early, dictate where the fight goes and to likely land a fight-ending shot sometime early.

Hussein is making his UFC debut and getting an excellent matchup to shine against veteran Cody Gibson.

I think Hussein will be the significantly more dangerous fighter in this one and expect him to get it on the ground eventually to find a submission win.

Tuchalov is also making his debut with a great opportunity to start his run with a highlight reel finish.

I expect Tuchalov to have better movement and footwork than Brendson Ribeiro and that he’ll be able to put it to use early to find a big KO/TKO win.

UFC Abu Dhabi Betting Card

For the UFC Abu Dhabi betting card, I tried to mix things up a bit with a couple of prop bets and a few small parlays.

The prop bets for tomorrow are Hussein by Submission (+230 for .5 units) and Temirov by Decision (+325 for .5 units).

The UFC Abu Dhabi parlays are Kuniev ML + Zaynukov ML + Ankalaev by KO/TKO (+190 for .5 units), Zaynukov to Win Ov1.5 Rounds + Ankalaev to Win Ov1.5 Rounds (+209 for .5 units) and Hussien to Win Inside the Distance + Tuchalov to Win ITD + Dulatov to Win ITD + Temirov ML (+359 for .5 units).

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I think Hussein will make relatively easy work of Gibson in this one when the fight goes to the ground and like his chances of finding a 15th finish in his 16th win.

Temirov and Steve Erceg should be a competitive scrap, but I expect Temirov to be the one squeezing out a potentially narrow win on the scorecards.

For the parlays, I tried to mix and match some different spots I like without overloading too heavily on anyone, so we’ll see how they turn out if mostly big favorites can follow through.

That’s a total of five bets for 2.5 units on the UFC Abu Dhabi bets.

UFC OKC Quick Recap

We had an awesome time in Oklahoma City last week and a fantastic all-around weekend with UFC OKC going 11-1 on the picks and hitting for +1.04 units on the bets.

It was an all-time week that we’ll never forget and special shout out to Tabatha Ricci in particular for going out of her way to make it a truly unforgettable weekend for my daughter, who attended her first UFC event thanks to Baby Shark.

Another big thank you to Dione Barbosa and Alvin Hines for letting us cook and work on their fight shirts for the event.

They’re both fantastic people who we’re hoping to work with more in the future and thank you to everyone who picked up shirts from our collabs with them to show support, it was amazing seeing them in the crowd at the event.

UFC Abu Dhabi Notes & Wrap-Up

Overall, this should be a pretty decent card with a handful of highlight finishes to end things for July before we kick off a loaded run next month with 5 UFC cards and the return of DWCS in August.

Be sure to check back next weekend for picks and bets on UFC Belgrade as we enter one of my favorite times of the year with the NFL returning with the preseason.

Expect a lot of cross-sport plays with UFC and NFL this fall if you’re new to the site, it’s by far my second favorite sport to bet, so we’ll be having some fun with that soon.

I’ve been a bit under the weather this week getting back into town, but we’ll still be launching a string of giveaways coming up too, so stay tuned for more on that and follow our socials to make sure you don’t miss out.

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

UFC Abu Dhabi Quick Picks

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