UFC Fight Night: Boetsch vs Henderson takes place this Saturday night in New Orleans, LA. The fight card isn’t the most stacked event in recent memory, but the card may be a bettor’s dream. In the entire card there is only one favorite with a line above -200(Tim Boetsch -210). There’s definitely some money to be made on a card with this many betting lines worth playing. Let’s take a look at a few of the nights key matchups.
Dustin Poirier vs Yancy Medeiros
Dustin Poirier was successful in his return to the lightweight division in his last fight. Poirier won via first round KO of Carlos Diego Ferreira back in April. He showed some great awareness in the fight, knowing not to go to the ground with Ferreira when he had him hurt. However, Poirier still took more shots in that fight than I would like and after the McGregor fight his mental toughness will always be in question.
Medeiros doesn’t have any wins against top level fighters at this point in his career. So I’ll give Poirier the advantage in this bout. Especially considering Poirier will be fighting in front of his hometown crowd of New Orleans, LA. I think Poirier takes this one, but I don’t see him rising much higher in the lightweight ranks. I believe a return to featherweight would be more beneficial to his career.
Pick Dustin Poirier -185 @5Dimes
Matt Mitrione vs Ben Rothwell
Matt Mitrione and Ben Rothwell may be the two most underrated fighters in the heavyweight division. They don’t have the name recognition of some of the other veteran heavyweights such as Andrei Arlovski or Alistair Overeem, but both fighters are on huge win streaks. Rothwell is coming off a TKO victory and is still below him in the rankings. Mitrione has 3 consecutive KO’s and is still only ranked #13. These fighters are both at the highest point in their careers so far and deserve much more recognition. The winner of this fight should be on the cusp of title contention.
I’m leaning towards Mitrione in this fight, but I feel like the much safer bet is to take the under 1.5 rounds. Mitrione’s last 6 fights have ended in the 1st round. He looks for the finish early and I don’t see why that changes here. These are heavyweights after all. One of them is going down early.
Pick Under 1.5 Rounds -105 @5Dimes
Dan Henderson vs Tim Boetsch
Dan Henderson has to be drawing near the end of his fighting career. Hendo is a legend of the sport, but he clearly isn’t the fighter that he once was. After his last loss to Mousasi you have to worry about his health going forward. At 44 years old, he doesn’t need to be taking these shots to the head any longer.
Boetsch has had his own struggles of late, but he has at least been competitive in his recent fights. Boetsch always lives up to his nickname “The Barbarian”. He’ll look to turn this fight into a brawl and if he lands some decent shots then I don’t believe Hendo will be able to take them.
Hendo always has the chance to land his patented “H-Bomb” and change a fight, but after losing 5 of his last 6 I don’t believe he belongs on this stage anymore. If he were any other fighter he would’ve been cut from the UFC a long time ago. Boetsch is the biggest favorite on this card for a reason.
Pick Tim Boetsch -210 @5Dimes