UFC 276 main card preview & best bets – Saturday, July 2

An exciting middleweight matchup between Sean Strickland and Alex Pereira is one of the three non-title fights currently scheduled for this Saturday’s UFC 276 main card in Las Vegas. Here’s a closer look at those three bouts leading up to the night’s co-main event of Alexander Volkanovski vs Max Holloway and its main event of Israel Adesanya vs Jared Cannonier.

Middleweight: Sean Strickland (-110) vs Alex Pereira (-110)

Sean Strickland (25-3-0) extended his current winning streak to six straight fights with his split decision win over Jack Hermansson in February. Strickland has climbed up to No. 4 in the UFC Middleweight rankings with this winning streak and will look to take another step towards a UFC Middleweight Championship shot with a win over Alex Pereira.

Pereira (5-1-0) was an elite kickboxer as a Glory middleweight and light-heavyweight double-champion. He lost his first professional mixed martial arts match back in 2015, but he’s a perfect 5-0 since then with victories over Andreas Michailidis and Bruno Silva in his first two UFC fights. This is a huge test for Pereira; he’s got the talent to pass it, but we’re going to take the more experienced fighter to survive Pereira’s dangerous striking and to do enough to earn a win.

Bantamweight: Pedro Munhoz (+270) vs Sean O’Malley (-330)

Sean O’Malley (15-1-0) suffered a foot injury in the first round of his fight against Marlon Vera at UFC 252 on August 16, 2020, and went on to lose that fight by TKO. O’Malley bounced back from his only career loss in style with three straight knockout wins in 2021. The exciting bantamweight is 6-1 in the UFC, and each of his last five wins have all come by way of knockout.

Pedro Munhoz (19-7-0) earned his fourth Fight of the Night bonus in his last six fights at UFC 269 in a decision loss to Dominick Cruz. Munhoz has lost four of his last five fights, but he has still never been knocked out or submitted with all seven of his career losses coming by decision. It will be interesting to see if Munhoz’s strong chin can survive the show-stopping O’Malley, but either way, look for O’Malley to control the tempo en route to a win.

Welterweight: Robbie Lawler (-120) vs Bryan Barberena (+100)

Robbie Lawler (29-15-0) snapped a four-fight losing streak with a technical knockout win over Nick Diaz in September. He’ll attempt to win back-to-back fights for the first time since January of 2016 this Saturday when he clashes with Bryan Barberena. Barbarena has earned consecutive wins over Darian Weeks and Matt Brown since going 2-4 over his previous six fights.

Lawler certainly faces a beatable opponent in Barberena, but it’s hard to pick the former champion when his only win since 2017 came against an opponent in Diaz who hadn’t fought professionally in over six years. Until we see something from Lawler against more legitimate opposition, he makes for a good fade, especially when he’s listed as the favorite.

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