In a welterweight bout in the main event, Stephen Thompson and Geoff Neal 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.
Thompson (15-4-1) bounced back from a two-bout losing streak with a unanimous-decision win over Vicente Luque at UFC 244. The two losses for “Wonderboy” were against Anthony Pettis and Darren Till, so there’s no shame in losses to those two. He is just five bouts removed from fighting for the welterweight strap, going 0-1-1 in two tries against Tyron Woodley at UFC 205 and 209.
While 2-3-1 across the past six outings might not look terribly impressive, he has fought a who’s who of the division. Six of his past seven fights have ended up going the distance, with only a second-round knockout loss to Pettis in the main event on March 23, 2019, as the only fight not to involve the judges.
The southpaw Neal (13-2) has registered 6.04 significant strikes landed per minute to 3.93 for Thompson, and he has a 49.77 to 44.34 significant strikes accuracy percentage, too. In addition, Neal has a 0.85 to 0.36 takedown average, and 0.43 to 0.00 submission average. While those statistics are all well and good, Neal doesn’t have nearly the laundry list of impressive opponents as his counterpart.
In fact, only Neal’s first-round knockout of Mike Perry last time out at UFC 245 causes anyone to raise an eyebrow. Outside of Niko Price and Belal Muhammad, his other UFC foes are tomato cans.
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Stephen Thompson vs. Geoff Neal: Betting odds, predictions and picks
Odds via BetMGM; access USA TODAY Sports’ betting odds for a full list. Lines last updated at 7:05 a.m. ET.
THOMPSON (-105) is the play in this one, even though he is listed as a slight ‘dog to Neal (-115). Wonderboy just has the better pedigree and experience against top-notch opponents. That’s not to say Neal isn’t a talented fighter, but his time is not now.
As far as the length of the fight, play YES (+145) ON ‘WILL THE FIGHT GO THE DISTANCE?’ for a good value. Six of the past seven fights have ended up involving the judges when Thompson is in the octagon. He looks to win the judges with his technical aspects, while Neal will be looking for the big shots to take him down.
But Thompson is experienced and will be able to deflect those big shots and keep his foe at bay. As such, playing THOMPSON ON POINTS (+340) is worth a roll of the dice, too, for a potential triple up and then some.
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MMA Junkie:
- UFC Fight Night 183 breakdown: Can Geoff Neal rise to challenge of Stephen Thompson? (MMA Junkie)
- UFC Fight Night 183 weigh-in highlight: Stephen Thompson, Geoff Neal sharp for main event (MMA Junkie)
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