UFC Fight Night 202 main card preview & best bets – 26/2/2022

UFC Fight Night 202: Islam Makhachev vs Bobby Green Latest Odds & Fight Info
Main Event odds	Makhachev -700 at Bovada | Green +450 at Bovada
When	Saturday, February 26 – main card from 4pm PST
Where	UFC APEX – Las Vegas, Nevada
Watch Live	ESPN+ (US), ESPN (AU), BT Sport (UK), UFC Fight Pass

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A middleweight bout between Misha Cirkunov and Wellington Turman will serve as the co-main event of this Saturday night’s UFC Fight Night 202 card in Las Vegas. Here’s a look at this fight and the other three bouts on the main card leading up to the main event of Islam Makhachev vs. Bobby Green.

Middleweight: Misha Cirkunov (-115) vs. Wellington Turman (-105)

Misha Cirkunov (15-7-0) opened his UFC career with four straight wins to improve to 13-2 over his first 15 fights including a then-current streak of 8-0-0 over his last eight fights. But since then, Cirkunov is just 2-5 over his last seven fights with four knockout losses and a split decision loss to Krzystof Jotko in his last bout. Wellington Turman meanwhile is off to a 2-3 start with the UFC after having entered the promotion with a 15-2-0 record.

Cirkunov has earned each of his last five wins via submission. The good news for him is that Turman isn’t much of a threat to take advantage of his weak chin, but the bad news is that Turman has never lost via submission and is solid on the ground in his own right with seven of his career wins coming by submission. This is a tough one to call, but Cirkunov’s losses have come against tougher competition than Turman’s have; we haven’t seen enough from Turman to take a shot on him at these essentially even odds.

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Women’s Flyweight: Ji Yeon Kim (-163) vs. Priscila Cachoeira (+143)

Ji Yeon Kim (9-4-2) fell to 1-3 over her last four fights and to 3-4 in the UFC overall with her decision loss against Molly McCann in September. Priscila Cachoeira also lost her last fight to Gillian Robertson in December, falling to 2-4 in the UFC since joining the promotion with a perfect 8-0 record back in 2018. Kim is the better fighter of the two, but Cachoeira’s power (with six career knockouts including both of her wins in the UFC) and underdog odds with the sportsbooks make her the more palatable play in this match between two women in desperate need of a win.

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Lightweight: Arman Tsarukyan (-227) vs. Joel Alvarez (-192)

Arman Tsarukyan (17-2-0) has won each of his last four fights to improve to 4-1 in the UFC and to 16-1-0 in his last 17 fights since the start of 2016. His only loss over that stretch came via decision against Islam Makhachev; an easy loss to forgive considering how dominant Makhachev has been in his meteoric rise in the UFC. Joel Alvarez (19-2-0) has also won four straight fights in the UFC since losing his promotional debut fight with two knockouts and two submission wins. He has never won by decision with 16 submission wins and three knockouts to date.

This is an awesome matchup that should be much closer on the betting board than it actually is. Tsarukyan is the real deal and it’s fair to have him as the favorite here, but Alvarez has looked the part of a legitimate contender too and is oozing value at this price. We’ll happily take a flier on the underdog here in what should be a good and competitive fight.

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Middleweight: Armen Petrosyan (+140) vs. Gregory Rodrigues (-160)

Gregory Rodrigues (11-3-0) is 10-1 over his last 11 fights including a 2-0 start to his UFC career with wins over Dusko Todorovic and Jun Yong Park. Armen Petrosyan (6-1-0) is set to make his UFC debut after knocking out Kaloyan Kolev in Dana White’s Contender Series to earn this spot. All six of Petrosyan’s career wins have come by knockout. This should be a great main card opener that feels destined to end in a knockout one way or the other; we’ll take the more experienced Rodrigues to be on the delivering end of the winning blow in this one.

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UFC Top Parlay Bet – Saturday, Feburary 26

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