UFC 328: Chimaev vs. Strickland takes place on Saturday, May 9, at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. The offshore sportsbooks recently opened up the betting odds for the event, and MMAOB staff writer Adam Martin looks at the opening odds below.
UFC 328 Odds
Khamzat Chimaev -325
Sean Strickland +260
Tatsuro Taira -185
Joshua Van +160
Alexander Volkov -185
Waldo Cortes-Acosta +160
Sean Brady -300
Joaquin Buckley +250
King Green -200
Jeremy Stephens +170
Ateba Gautier -1000
Ozzy Diaz +675
Jared Gordon -250
Jim Miller +210
Joel Alvarez -400
Yaroslav Amosov +330
Roman Kopylov -225
Marco Tulio +190
Grant Dawson -120
Mateusz Rebecki +100
Pat Sabatini -270
William Gomis +230
Jose Ochoa -185
Clayton Carpenter +160
Here are my quick thoughts on the UFC 328 Opening Odds:
- The main event of UFC 328 sees UFC middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev defending his title against top contender Sean Strickland. Chimaev last fought at UFC 319 last August, where he defeated Dricus Du Plessis via lopsided unanimous decision. Chimaev is 9-0 in the UFC, fighting at both welterweight and middleweight, and has never lost in his career to date. As for Strickland, he is coming off an upset TKO win over Anthony Hernandez that earned him this title shot. That was a huge win for Strickland, as he bounced back from a decision loss to Du Plessis the year before. Strickland is going to need to stop the takedowns of Chimaev to win this fight, and it won’t be easy to do that. It makes sense that Chimaev is the betting favorite for this fight, but you shouldn’t completely count Strickland out of winning it.
- In the co-main event, UFC flyweight champion Joshua Van defends his belt for the first time since winning it when he takes on Tatsuro Taira. Van is riding a six-fight win streak, and he beat Alexandre Pantoja via injury TKO in his last bout to win the belt in an upset. As for Taira, he is coming off back-to-back wins over Brandon Moreno and HyunSung Park to earn his first UFC title shot. Although Van is the champion, the oddsmakers opened up Taira as the favorite, likely due to being the superior grappler.
