In a heavyweight bout on the main card, Alexander Volkov and Walt Harris meet at UFC 254 Saturday at the UFC’s Fight Island facility in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The early prelims kick off at 11 a.m. ET on ESPN+, followed by the main card set for 2 p.m. ET on Pay-Per-View.
Volkov (31-8) stands two inches taller than his counterpart, and he’ll try to use his three-inch reach advantage to keep Harris (13-8) at bay. Volkov enters this fight with a 4.65 to 2.97 significant strikes landed per minute advantage, and he also has a 58.81 to 39.10 significant strikes-accuracy percentage, too. While the ground game isn’t a huge part for either fighter, Volkov leads there, too, going 0.72 to 0.32 in takedown average, and 70.00 to 33.33 in takedown-accuracy percentage with a meager 0.21 to 0.16 in submission average. In other words, these fighters each prefer to go toe-to-toe.
Volkov is coming off a unanimous-decision loss to Curtis Blaydes on June 20, and he has dropped two of his previous three fights. However, losses to Blaydes and Derrick Lewis are nothing to hang your head about. Volkov also has a solid UD win over Greg Hardy with two KO/TKO victories against Fabricio Werdum and Stefan Struve in the past five, so he can dance and hold his own with anyone.
Harris is looking to bounce back after a second-round knockout to Alistair Overeem on May 16 in Jacksonville. Win or lose, Harris’ recent events have been exciting. All but one of his previous eight have ended up finishing inside the distance, and his decision at UFC 232 against Andrei Arlovski was overturned to a no-contest after a violation of the UFC Anti-Doping Coverage. He was suspended four months for that infraction.
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Alexander Volkov vs. Walt Harris betting odds
Odds via BetMGM; access USA TODAY Sports’ betting odds for a full list. Lines last updated Friday at 6:50 p.m. ET.
VOLKOV (-189) is worth playing straight up on the 2-way fight result line, although it’s slightly over my personal limit. Still, I think Volkov gets it done in this one, as he is just way more accurate with his significant strikes, and this one is going to be an upright brawl.
As such, I also like VOLKOV BY KO/TKO or DQ (+240) on the 7-way line for a rather significant payout. If he’s able to knock out Harris, like Overeem did last time out, you can more than double up to add to your bankroll. In addition, play both UNDER 2.5 ROUNDS (-139) and NO (-176): “WILL THE FIGHT GO THE DISTANCE?” as a knockout win by Volkov will help hit all of those props.
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Also see:
- UFC on ESPN+ 38 predictions (MMA Junkie)
- Volkov: UFC 254 will mark start of title run (MMA Junkie)
- MMA Junkie – The latest UFC/MMA coverage
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