UFC 277 main card preview & best bets – Saturday, July 30

A heavyweight bout between Derrick Lewis and Sergei Pavlovich will be the final non-title fight on this Saturday’s UFC 277 card in Dallas, Texas. We’ve got betting picks for that fight and the other two on the main card leading up to the co-main event of Brandon Moreno vs Kai Kara-France and the main event of Julianna Pena vs Amanda Nunes.

Heavyweight: Derrick Lewis (+118) vs Sergei Pavlovich (-138)

Sergei Pavlovich (15-1-0) has picked up three straight knockout wins since suffering the first loss of his career via knockout to Alistair Overeem in his UFC debut back in 2018. Derrick Lewis’s last five fights have all been decided by knockout with wins over Alexey Oleynik, Curtis Blaydes and Chris Daukaus and losses to Ciryl Gane and Tai Tuivasa. All signs point to these two heavy-hitters deciding this bout long before it has the chance to reach the judge’s table.

This is about as even of a matchup as you’ll find on paper. Pavlovich is younger and has the superior reach in this bout, but Lewis is the UFC’s all-time leader in knockouts with the far more impressive resume to date. Both of these fighters will be happy to trade blows and the first one to connect with the right strike will win. With this in mind, we’ll take the underdog odds at Bovada on the veteran Lewis to come out on top.

Flyweight: Alexandre Pantoja (-190) vs Alex Perez (+165)

Alexandre Pantoja (24-5-0) earned a submission win over Brandon Royval to move to 6-2-0 over his last eight fights. That stretch includes a win over Brandon Moreno, and his only two losses have come against elite competition in Deiveson Figueiredo and Askar Askarov. Alexd Perez (24-6-0) has been out of action since UFC 255 in November when he lost by submission to Figueiredo. This would be a tough fight against Pantoja under any circumstances, but factor in the potential ring rust after his long layoff and the choice becomes even clearer in Pantoja’s direction.

Light Heavyweight: Anthony Smith (+400) vs Magomed Ankalaev (-600)

Anthony Smith (36-16-0) is enjoying a career resurgence with a 3-0 record over his last three fights since going 1-3-0 over his previous four bouts. But that recent hot streak likely comes to an end this Saturday at the hands of Magomed Ankalaev (17-1-0), who scored a convincing decision win over Thiago Santos in March to improve to 8-0-0 over his last eight fights. As the odds on all the top betting sites indicate, this figures to be another very winnable fight for Ankalaev as he continues to work his way towards a shot at the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship.

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