In a heavyweight bout on the main card, Marcin Tybura and Greg Hardy meet at UFC Vegas 17 at the UFC’s APEX facility in Las Vegas. The event is also known as UFC Fight Night 183. The prelims kick off at 4 p.m. ET on ESPN+, followed by the main card on ESPN+ at 7 p.m. ET.
Tybura (20-6) steps into the octagon against Hardy (7-2), the former NFL player, in a battle of titans. The Polish-born MMA fighter isn’t as impressive from a physical standpoint, standing two inches shorter while he also has a 2 1/2-inch reach disadvantage, too.
However, Tybura has been a lot more successful with 50.36 significant strikes accuracy percentage to 49.75 for Hardy, and he has an even bigger lead in takedown average at 1.63 to 0.24. Tybura also has a 47.22 to 33.33 takedown accuracy percentage, too.
Tybura is coming off a unanimous-decision win over Ben Rothwell on Oct. 10, 2020, and each of his past three fights has been unanimous decision victories. He hasn’t won by stoppage since a KO/TKO against Luis Henrique at UFC 209, so it’s been a while. He has been knocked out, though. In fact, each of his past three losses in the past seven fights has come via KO/TKO, and Hardy would like to add to that.
Hardy is a brawler who is coming off a second-round KO/TKO win over Maurice Greene on Halloween. Since arriving at the UFC, he is 4-2-1 across the past seven fights, and he enters with wins in back-to-back fights.
He hasn’t won three straight MMA fights since his pro debut on June 12, 2018 through Sept. 29, 2018. He has never won three in a row at the UFC level, so that bodes well in Tybura’s favor.
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Marcin Tybura vs. Greg Hardy: Betting odds, predictions and picks
Odds via BetMGM; access USA TODAY Sports’ betting odds for a full list. Lines last updated at 6:10 a.m. ET.
HARDY (-130) is a good bet on the 2-way line as a short favorite, even though he has never won three in a row at the UFC level. He is a brawler, and Tybura is susceptible to the big punch.
As long as Hardy can keep this fight upright and off the mat, which is where Tybura might have an advantage, the former linebacker is going to win. If you want to get even more specific, playing HARDY BY KO/TKO, DQ OR SUBMISSION (+135) is a decent value. However, if he wins via decision, you lose.
Playing NO (-175) ON ‘WILL THE FIGHT GO THE DISTANCE?’ is also a good play here, as Hardy isn’t usually interested in letting the judges decide his fate. He comes up throwing punches early and often.
Playing UNDER 2.5 ROUNDS (-145) is a little bit cheaper, and should still get you a winning ticket.
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