UFC on ESPN+ 23 takes place Saturday, December 21 at Sajik Arena in Busan, South Korea. The offshore sportsbooks recently opened up the betting odds for the full card, and here they are.
UFC on ESPN+ 23 Opening Odds
Chan Sung Jung -175
Frankie Edgar +150
Aleksandar Rakic -145
Volkan Oezdemir +115
Ciryl Gane -280
Tanner Boser +220
Dooho Choi -280
Charles Jourdain +220
Said Nurmagomedov -165
Raoni Barcelos +135
Alexandre Pantoja -160
Matt Schnell +130
Marc-Andre Barriault -130
Jun Yong Park +100
Ryan Benoit -160
Heili Alateng +130
Kyung Ho Kang -260
Liu Pingyuan +200
Seungwoo Choi -160
Suman Mokhtarian +130
Da Un Jung -400
Mike Rodriguez +300
Omar Morales -150
Dong Hyun Ma +120
Miranda Granger -350
Amanda Lemos +250
And here are my initial thoughts on the UFC on ESPN+ 23 Opening Odds:
- The main event was booked on short notice after Ortega was injured and forced to pull out of the event. Now steps in Edgar to take on Jung in his home country. Remember, Edgar was set to drop down in weight and fight Cory Sandhagen next month at 135lbs. Instead, he sticks at his usual weight class of 145lbs to fight Jung. I don’t like this matchup for Edgar. There’s a reason he was moving down in weight and that’s because he has trouble dealing with the bigger featherweights, and Jung qualifies as one of them. Jung has big KO power and Edgar’s chin isn’t what it once was. Sure, Edgar has the wrestling advantage, but Jung is hard to get down, and he has a really underrated ground game if the fight does hit the mat. I predict Jung batters Edgar on the feet and possibly even finishes the fight.
- The Rakic vs. Oezdemir fight should be a good one too. Rakic is one of the top prospects at light heavyweight with a 4-0 record in the Octagon and he’s coming off of an insane KO win via head kick over Jimi Manuwa. Oezdemir, meanwhile, just snapped a three-fight losing skid with a KO win over Ilir Latifi. Oezdemir has turned into a gatekeeper at 205lbs and while he should put up a good fight, I fully expect Rakic to get his hand raised.
- The heavyweight bout between Gane and Boser should also be interesting. Gane is one of the top heavyweight prospects in the UFC with two submission wins in the UFC while Boser picked up a win in his own UFC debut. Not sure why the UFC decided to match up two prospects here, but I favor Gane to get the win as he has more ways to win the fight.
- The Choi vs. Jourdain fight should also be fun. Choi hasn’t fought since 2018 due to military service requirements in his native South Korea and he now takes on Jourdain, who lost to Des Green in his UFC debut. Jourdain is actually a very talented prospect but I feel like he’s been given a tough draw here. My lean in this one is towards Choi to get the win. Despite the long layoff, the fact he’s fighting in his home country should give him the boost he needs to get his hand raised and get back in the win column.
