Bo Nickal vs. Val Woodburn: UFC 290 Odds, Prediction
This Saturday’s UFC 290 card from Las Vegas features a bit of a shakeup in the middleweight division as Val Woodburn will be a late replacement for Tresean Gore, who pulled out with a wrist injury. Woodburn will face Gore’s original opponent, Bo Nickal, one of the top up-and-coming stars in the UFC.
Nickal opened as a massive -1190 favourite to win on the MMA odds, while Woodburn is a +800 long shot.
Bo Nickal UFC 290 Odds
This should be an interesting fight as Nickal only made the switch to MMA last year, but he has absolutely dominated in that time. Nickal has four first-round finishes in four career fights. Three have come by submission and one by knockout. Prior to moving to MMA, the 27-year-old Colorado native was a freestyle wrestler who won three NCAA Division I National Championships.
Nickal ended two of his first three fights in under one minute. He fought twice at Dana White’s Contender Series before earning a UFC contract. Nickal defeated Zachary Borrego with a rear-naked choke submission 1:02 into the fight. He wasn’t considered experienced enough for the UFC after that win so he was given another Contender Series fight and defeated Donovan Beard with a triangle choke submission 52 seconds into the fight.
Nickal’s first official UFC fight came against Jamie Pickett at UFC 285 in March. Nickal won with a first-round arm-triangle choke submission, earning a Performance of the Night bonus.
Val Woodburn UFC 290 Odds
Woodburn is 7-0 in a professional MMA career that dates back to 2020. The 29-year-old from Florida has five knockout wins and two wins by unanimous decision. Woodburn was originally tapped to compete in the Contender Series, so this is a big opportunity and essentially serves as a win-win scenario. He claimed the Combat Nights middleweight title with a unanimous decision victory against Luis Sergio Melo Jr., last August.
The main thing to consider in this fight is obviously Woodburn’s late notice. Not only is he going up against a dominant fighter, he also had to cut weight quickly. According to Woodburn, he weighed between 206 and 211 pounds when the UFC offered him this fight, which is a fairly severe cut to the 185-pound middleweight division.
