Cormier vs. Miocic 2: UFC 241 Odds and Predictions
The main card is expected to begin at 10 p.m. ET on pay-per-view. Here’s a look at it and the Sports Interaction UFC odds.
Daniel Cormier (22-1) vs. Stipe Miocic (18-3)
Division: Heavyweight
Is the heavyweight division the best or deepest in the UFC? No, but there’s still nothing like quite a heavyweight title fight in mixed martial arts. Or a rematch of an upset. Cormier, a 40-year-old American, is ranked as the pound-for-pound king by the UFC, but not sure that’s very accurate considering Cormier has lost twice to current light heavyweight champion Jon Jones. Their most recent meeting, though, in 2017, was changed to a no contest so Cormier kept his light heavyweight title. Cormier defended that belt in January 2018 with a second-round TKO win over Volkan Oezdemir. Then “DC” got a shot at the heavyweight belt and was an underdog against Miocic but upset the champion with a stunning first-round knockout. Cormier has since defended that belt once, beating Derrick Lewis last November. Cormier has made noise about retiring after this fight unless he gets a third shot at Jones.
Miocic has basically said Cormier got lucky in the first fight. The 36-year-old American is ranked as the No. 1 contender. Miocic won the belt in May 2016 with a first-round knockout of Fabricio Werdum and successfully defended it a division-record three times, beating Alistair Overeem, Junior dos Santos and, in an upset, against rising star Francis Ngannou. Miocic then ran into Cormier last July and hasn’t been in the Octagon since. A total of 14 of Miocic’s 18 wins are by KO or TKO.
Anthony Pettis (22-8) vs. Nate Diaz (20-11)
Division: Welterweight
UFC Odds: Pettis -125, Diaz -105
Prediction: Pettis by KO/TKO
Diaz is considered one of the UFC’s villains, but almost in a good way. The 34-year-old American raised his profile with back-to-back wars against Conor McGregor, both in 2016. Diaz won the first in a big upset by submitting McGregor but lost the second by majority decision. He hasn’t fought since; a scheduled fight against Dustin Poirier last winter was canceled because of a Poirier injury. Thus, Diaz has fallen out of the UFC rankings, but he’s clearly one of the better fighters.
Pettis, 32, is also from the USA and ranked as both a lightweight (No. 9) and welterweight (No. 7). He’s a former lightweight champion, winning the title over Benson Henderson in 2013 and defending it once before a loss to Rafael dos Anjos. Including that defeat, Pettis has dropped six of 10 but against very good competition. Diaz will likely try to get this fight on the ground (58 percent of wins by submission), while Pettis is the better striker of the two.
Yoel Romero (13-3) vs. Paulo Costa (12-0)
Division: Middleweight
UFC Odds: Romero -180, Costa +140
Prediction: Romero by submission
The Cuban Romero, a 42-year-old who now lives in Miami, is a former world champion in freestyle wrestling and won the silver medal at the 2000 Olympics in freestyle wrestling for Cuba. The “Soldier of God” is ranked second in the middleweight division despite losing two of his past three fights. Then again, both were to champion Robert Whittaker, most recently in June 2018 by a split decision. Costa is 28 and from Brazil, ranked seventh in the division. “Borrachina” has that nice record but had some iffy competition until the past two fights when he beat Uriah Hall and Johny Hendricks. None of Costa’s fights have gone to the judges yet.
Gabriel Benitez (21-7) vs. Sodiq Yusuff (9-1)
Division: Featherweight
UFC Odds: Yusuff -265, Benitez +195
Prediction: Yusuff by decision
Neither fighter is ranked in the featherweight division. Benitez, 31, is from Mexico – which is usually boxing country not MMA. He hasn’t fought since May 2018 when he knocked out Humberto Bandenay at UFC Fight Night 129. “Moggly” is a former Ultimate Fighter: Latin America 1 cast member. Yusuff is a 26-year-old American. His lone loss came to Luis Gomez in the Titan FC organization. “Super” is 2-0 in the UFC, beating Sheymon Moraes and Suman Mokhtarian. Yusuff is yet to win a fight by submission.
Derek Brunson (19-7) vs. Ian Heinisch (13-1)
Division: Middleweight
UFC Odds: Heinisch -180, Brunson +135
Prediction: Brunson by KO/TKO
Brunson, a 35-year-old American, is ranked eighth in the division. His losses have all essentially come against top competition, including two to Ronaldo Souza and against Israel Adesanya, Robert Whittaker, all-time great Anderson Silva and Yoel Romero, who is also on this card. Brunson usually wins by knockout or TKO (58 percent of the time). Heinisch, a 31-year-old American, is ranked 10th in the division and this will be the best opponent he has faced yet. Heinisch’s lone loss was in the LFA organization to Markus Perez in September 2017.