In a lightweight bout on Saturday’s main card, Diego Ferreira and Beneil Dariush meet at UFC on ESPN+ 48 at the UFC’s APEX Facility in Las Vegas. The event – also known as UFC Fight Night 184 or UFC Vegas 18 – has the prelims kick off at 5 p.m. ET on ESPN+, followed by the main card on ESPN+ at 8 p.m. ET.
Ferreira (17-2) puts his solid record on the line against the UFC veteran Dariush (19-4-1) in an intriguing fight early on the main card.
Ferreira checks in with a two-inch reach advantage, while leading 5.07 to 3.98 in significant strikes landed per minute. However, the Iranian fighter Dariush is much more pinpoint, posting a 49.56 significant strikes-accuracy percentage to just 36.56 for Ferreira. Dariush is slightly better on the ground numbers, too, ahead 1.75 to 1.04 in takedown average and 32.73 to 27.27 in takedown-accuracy percentage.
Ferreira is unbeaten across his past six fights, including a Round 2 submission against Anthony Pettis at UFC 246 Jan. 18, 2020 in his last bout. Three of his past six fights and six of his last 10 at the UFC level have finished inside the distance.
The southpaw Dariush is also on a roll, winning five straight bouts. In his most recent fight, he claimed a Round 1 KO/TKO against Scott Holtzman in this very same facility Aug. 8, 2020. He has had four straight fights finish inside the distance, including two KO/TKO wins and a pair of victories via submission.
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Diego Ferreira vs. Beneil Dariush: Betting odds, predictions and picks
Odds via BetMGM; access USA TODAY Sports’ betting odds for a full list. Lines last updated Friday at 3:13 a.m. ET.
This is going to be a great bout between two red-hot fighters to kick off the main card. I like DARIUSH (+100) at even money to get it done on the 2-way line. He is just a nicer value. In addition, DARIUSH BY KO/TKO, DQ OR SUBMISSION (+250) on the 5-way line is even more attractive. As mentioned above, he has four straight finish wins and he can do it a number of ways, so don’t go to the 7-way line and try and get too pinpoint. He isn’t a one-track fighter.
In addition, if you’re not feeling Dariush, but want action on the fight still, take NO (-105): “WILL THE FIGHT GO THE DISTANCE?” Both of these fights have a history of plenty of stoppages.
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MMA Junkie:
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