UFC 82 Odds

After picking Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira to defeat Tim Sylvia in the featured match in UFC 81, we’re all set to take a look at the UFC 82 odds and predictions. UFC 82: Pride of a Champion is set to take place on March 1, 2008 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. This event won’t have quite the same flair being outside of Vegas, but it is still sure to provide plenty of bone crunching action.

The main event will be a middleweight title unification match between UFC champion Anderson Silva and PRIDE FC Welterweight champion Dan Henderson.

Anderson “The Spider” da Silva is a Brazilian Muay Thai champ and also holds a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. The 32-year-old fighter stands 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighs in at 185 pounds. The current UFC middleweight champ is also the current Cage Rage World middleweight champion, which is something that many don’t know about this guy. With professional wins over Rich Franklin, Carlos Newton, Jeremy Horn, Hayota Sakurai, Chris Leben, Travis Lutter, and Nathan Marquardt, he has quite the resume. Silva is currently a member of the Black House with the Nogueira Brother among others.

A number of publications, including MMA Weekly and Sherdog, have all ranked Silva as the number one middleweight in the world and back last October, Sherdon ranked him as the top pound for pound fighter on the planet. With 6 consecutive wins and a professional record of 20-4, Silva apparently has things figured out.

Dan “Hollywood” Henderson, also known as Hendo and Dangerous, stands 6 feet 1 inches tall and also weighs in at 185 pounds, but at 37 years of age may not have quite the stamina it’s going to take to upset Silva. While Henderson has had his fair share of success a loss to Quinton Jackson in his last fight and two losses in his last four bouts, suggest that he is not ready for a fighter of Silva’s caliber. With a professional record of 22-6 in MMA competition and with such feats as being the only fighter to ever hold titles in two weight classes simultaneously. Henderson does have wins over Wanderlei Silva, Vitor Belfort, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Renato Sobral, Kazuo Misaki, Kazuhiro Nakamura, Renzo Gracie, and Murilo Bustamante under his belt. While he has an extensive history in wrestling, having competed in the Olympics, we feel Henderson’s time at the very top is now over.

We’ll bet Silva as the -170 favorite at Bookmaker.com with our UFC predictions.

Josh D. Koscheck, also known as “Kos”, is a huge favorite in this event in his Welterweight bout against Dustin Hazelett. Hazelett is about as big an underdog as you’ll find and rightfully so as he is giving up a lot to Kos. Koscheck specializes in taking guys down and using his wrestling background as his main weapon. He is coming off a loss to Georges St. Pierre last August at UFC 74 and will be out for blood against an inferior fighter. The loss to St. Pierre cost Kos a shot at the 170-pound title and you’ll see him take out his frustration in this one.

Hazelett is on a bit of a low-key run, winning his last three fights since dropping his UFC debut to crafty veteran Tony DeSouza via submission back in October 2006, which is more of an indicator of what we can expect. Hazelett is giving up much in experience department and this will be his most difficult MMA opponent yet. In our opinion, Hazelett stands no chance against a guy that MMA Weekly has ranked as the number five welterweight in the world. We’ll have to lay some cheese to get Koscheck, but it will be worth it.

Here are the UFC odds listed below:

Dustin Hazelett +350
Josh Koscheck -500

Heath Herring +140
Cheick Kongo -160

Dan Henderson +140
Anderson Silva -170

Yushin Okami -220
Evan Tanner +170

We can help you with your UFC betting on each event.

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