Three title fights, several Moneyline tossups, and a bevy of betting angles mark UFC 259 Saturday from Las Vegas.
Middleweight champion Israel Adesanya is decisively favored as he tries to dethrone newly-minted light-heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz.
Female superstar Amanda Nunes drives bettors to the prop line as a prohibitive favorite against Megan Anderson in a featherweight title defense for the co-main.
Petr Yan and Aljamain Sterling are trading bets as quickly as they will trade blows in their bantamweight championship bout. UFC 259 betting odds have shifted as each obtain wagering support.
They are the headlines. Here is the card, with updated odds.
UFC 259 Betting Odds
Here is an early look at the card. Odds updated September 6, 2024.
Final Five UFC 259 Fights – DraftKings Lines
- Israel Adesanya -230 vs Jan Blachowicz +185 (Light-Heavyweight Title)
- Amanda Nunes -1000 vs Megan Anderson + 650, (Featherweight Title)
- Petr Yan -110 vs Aljamain Sterling -110, (Bantamweight Title)
- Islam Makhachev -360 vs Drew Bober +275
- Aleksandar Rakic -167 vs Thiago Santos +138
Five Fights from Prelims and Early Prelims – FanDuel Sportsbook Lines
- Casey Kenney -140 vs Dominick Cruz + 114
- Song Yadong -162 vs Kyler Phillips +132
- Askar Askarov -138 v s Joseph Benavidez -112
- Tim Elliott -110 vs Jordan Espinosa -110
- Carlos Ulberg – 250 vs Kennedy Nzechukwu
How to Watch UFC 259
- Early Prelims 6 p.m. on Fight Pass
- Prelims 8 p.m. at ESPN and ESPN+
- Main Card 10 p.m. – Purchase on ESPN +
UFC 259 Bonuses and Boosts
Get $100
Don’t forget a dynamic DraftKings promotion, if you are a first-time user.
You can select any of the title fights and obtain $100 in free bets as soon as either fighter lands a punch.
Make a deposit of $5 or more into your sportsbook account. Following deposit, place at least a $1 wager on either fighter to win.
One qualifying bet per user and it can’t be redeemed for cash. It is valid for seven days
The interesting thing about this payout is its method. It is paid as four $25 free bets. That takes the pressure off making one crucial selection with the free pick.
For four $25 picks, a better can take a combo, perhaps a lopsided favorite, two modest underdogs and a bomb.
PointsBet listed its first boost of the fight
Adesanya has been hiked to +150 from +110 for a K0/TK0. That’s a nice spike for bettors leaning in that direction.
Check other books close to fight time.
The Flow of the Dough
In the last week, Blachowicz money drove Adesanya from -278 to -230 and Blachowicz went from +220 to +185.
Yan and Sterling became an essential pick-em after Sterling money came in.
Nunes went “down” to -1000. She was +1250 last week.
Wagering Overview
Adesanya is coming up in class, which should be an advantage for Blachowicz. But the early bettors have believed in Adesanya’s striking ability and his ranking of third-best UFC pound-for-pound fighter behind the retired Khabib Nurmagomedov and Jon Jones.
Adesanya is unbeaten in a career going back to 2012. He enters off of a dominating victory over Paulo Costa in September.
Blachowicz is solid, has the natural weight-class advantage and the inspired motive to keep his new title. He’s 38, which could be a drawback.
Methods of victory
Two ways to hone in. One can be with each fighter, at DraftKings:
Adesanya
- K0/TK0 +120
- Decision +240
- Submission +2000
Blachowicz
- KO/TKO +450
- Decision +700
- Submission +800
One bet for BOTH fighter victories, at FanDuel, via How Fight Will End.
- K0/TKO -165
- Points +175
- Submission +700
In this bet, it doesn’t matter who wins.
Nunes vs Anderson – UFC 259 Betting Odds
One angle is to try and nail a specific result at DraftKings and cover most of the bet with the FanDuel wager. In either case, you need to predict the right method.
Nunes presents a bigger dilemma in this case. Her moneyline is the definition of prohibitive.
But you can still make money on her by forecasting how the fight will end:
- K0/TKO -135
- Submission +400
- Points +400
Nunes is +100 to win by K0/TKO and priced at +300 to +1400 for specific round stoppages.
Anderson pays a whopping +2600 to +5000 for specific round-winning props.
Nunes has been a superstar and betting magnet.
She last fought in UFC 250 on June 6, 2020, where she drew a $1 million wager at -600 against Felicia Spencer for a total payout of $1,166,666.70. That was the largest MMA bet ever taken at William Hill.
She opened as a considerable favorite across all the major sportsbooks against Anderson and vaulted, even after hitting +1000.
Method-prop considerations:
Both fighters are aggressive. Anderson’s last four fights have all ended in the opening round.
Anderson, at 6-foot-0, will be one of Nunes’ tallest opponents. Will that enable her to keep Nunes off for a while or will Nunes’ vaunted striking ability make that moot?
Moneyline Magic
Some fights are so competitive that the first bet should be a moneyline wager. A fair return for a tough task.
That’s especially true in the Yan-Sterling fight. Yan opened at -143, a borderline moneyline consideration for his backers. But it got better for them as this became -110 on both sides.
In this case, Sterling backers got a good deal by taking him at +120 right off the bat and Yan’s bettors were smart to wait for the price to come down. Which it did.
Yan makes his first title defense, while Sterling has won five in a row and is moving up.
In the earlier fights:
- Kenney’s recent form is 9-1 with seven decisions.
- Cruz is a former bantamweight champion and has fought at a higher level. But after a three-and-a-half-year layoff, he was stopped by Henry Cejudo last May.
- Askarov is unbeaten. He’s had four submission wins, followed by three decisions.
- Benavidez suffered two straight losses to Deiveson Figueiredo, the current UFC flyweight champion, but has fought better competition overall. Which direction is his career heading?
- Both Elliott and Espinosa have lost three of four and are evenly matched.
