Bellator 254: Macfarlane vs. Velasquez takes place on Thursday, December 10 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. The offshore sportsbooks recently opened up the betting odds for the event, and MMAOB staff writer Adam Martin takes a look at the opening odds below.
Bellator 254 Odds
Ilima Lei-Macfarlane -200
Juliana Velasquez +160
Magomed Magomedov -300
Matheus Mattos +375
Goiti Yamauchi -260
Nate Andrews +200
Cody Law -180
Kenny Champion +150
Robson Gracie Jr. -600
Billy Goff +425
Romero Cotton -155
Justin Sumter +125
Linton Vassell -155
Ronny Markes +125
Mike Jasper -135
Fabio Aguiar +105
Shamil Nikaev -500
Kemran Lachinov +375
Davion Franklin -130
Anthony Garrett +100
Grant Neal -215
Maurice Jackson +175
Here are my initial thoughts on the Opening Odds For Bellator 254:
- The main event of Bellator 254 sees Bellator women’s flyweight champion Ilima-Lei Macfarlane (11-0) taking on Juliana Velasquez (10-0) in a battle of undefeated fighters at 125lbs. Macfarlane has been in Bellator since 2015, going 9-0 in the promotion so far. She has been the Bellator women’s flyweight champion since 2017, having defended it four times so far. At just 30 years of age, Macfarlane is in the prime of her MMA career, and she puts her belt on this line this Thursday against Velasquez, who joined Bellator in 2017. Since then, Velasquez has gone 5-0 with three of those wins by finish. Velasquez is a really good flyweight and arguably one of the toughest opponents that Macfarlane has had in Bellator so far, but I still like the champ to retain her belt in what I believe is going to be a 25-minute contest.
- In the co-main event, Russian prospect Magomed Magomedov (16-1) takes on Brazilian Matheus Mattos (12-1-1) in a bantamweight contest. Magomedov is just 28 years old and is most well known for being the only man to beat UFC bantamweight champion Petr Yan back in 2016 in ACB. Magomedov lost a decision to Yan in their rematch in 2017 and has since then won three straight fights in ACB, but he hasn’t fought since November 2018. Despite the layoff, Magomedov is a blue-chip prospect and it makes you wonder why the UFC didn’t sign him. As for Mattos, he trains with the Pitbull brothers and he’s making his Bellator debut here. Ironically, Mattos is also an ACB veteran, and his last fight was in March 2018 so he’s actually had a longer layoff than Magomemedov. In fact, Mattos also lost to Yan in 2017, bouncing back with a win in his next fight. So you have a battle here between two prospects who have only lost to Petr Yan. That’s pretty good, and this is maybe the best fight at Bellator 254.
- Another fight that figures to draw the attention of bettors is Linton Vassell (20-8) against Ronny Markes (19-7) in the heavyweight division. Vassell has been one of the top 205lbers in Bellator for several years now and in his last fight he moved up to heavyweight and knocked out former PRIDE star Sergei Kharitonov. As for Markes, he hasn’t stepped into the MMA cage since June 2019 for PFL, having had several issues preventing his Bellator debut from happening until now. Based on Markes’ recent inactivity, I have to favor Vassell to get his hand raised.
