For the first time ever, the UFC comes to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and boy, they brought a stacked card for free television. You’re going to want to keep reading this because we’re offering three free betting picks for UFC Saudi Arabia!
- What: UFC Saudi Arabia
- When: Saturday, June 22
- Where: Mingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
- How To Watch: ABC
Robert Whittaker vs. Ikram Aliskerov Betting Pick
Originally, Khamzat Chimaev was scheduled to fight Whittaker but an “illness” forced Chimaev out. We put illness in quotation marks because, well, Chimaev has a nasty habit of pulling out of fights and at this point, we can’t give him the benefit of the doubt. Nonetheless, Aliskerov steps in on short notice. Personally, we’re most interested in betting the Aliskerov-Whittaker over/under:
Whittaker is about -150 on the moneyline to win. He should be the favorite too. Whittaker doesn’t get the credit he deserves, but he’s an all-time top middleweight in the UFC. In the last 10 years, he has losses to Israel Adesanya and Dricus Du Plessis — two division championships — and that’s it. He’s only 33 years old too so far from “over the hill” despite being in the UFC since 2012.
Not only that, but Aliskerov is at a huge disadvantage with the short notice. It’s not that he was sitting at home and not training. No, he was scheduled for last weekend’s Fight Night card in Vegas and was actually cutting weight for it when he was told about the matchup change. That means Aliskerov had to pause his cut, travel across the country, adjust to the new time zone, and re-start his weight cut once more. That can’t be good for the body whatsoever.
If not for that, we would be inclined to take Aliskerov to win. That’s saying a lot because of how high we are on Whittaker, but Aliskerov is the real deal himself. He’s another Dagestan wrestling machine, however, Aliskerov is a far better striker than most wrestlers from the region. Matter of fact, he’s won his last two fights mostly standing up before securing knockouts.
For this reason, we’re betting the over/under line because either guy could win. We expect this one to be close and to go the distance. Both are elite fighters who likely won’t make a mistake that gets them finished. Put money on the over in this one.
Sergei Pavlovich vs. Alexander Volkov Betting Pick
This is a main-event-level fight too at heavyweight with possible title implications. Here, we’ll be taking the Pavlovich-Volkov moneyline bet. As it stands, the best UFC betting sites have Pavlovich favored:
For the past half decade, Pavlovich was not near unbeatable, he was unbeatable. After losing his UFC debut in 2018, Pavlovich strung together six straight wins. More impressively, all six wins were via first-round knockout. Pavlovich swings and swings hard, evident by that run. However, he himself was finished in the first round last time out by Tom Aspinall for the interim heavyweight title.
You have to take that KO into account here. Will Pavlovich be more “gun shy” than usual? Or worse, has Pavlovich’s chin started to deteriorate? They are valid questions that’ll be put to the test by Volkov, who is a good striker himself. He’s a whopping 6-foot-8 that can also wrestle if need be.
Here’s how we see the fight: Volkov is the more well-rounded fighter, however, Pavlovich is far more deadly. So who wins this fight depends on how long it goes. The full three rounds? Then Volkov is winning. One round? Likely a Pavlovich KO. Personally, our money is on Pavlovich here — he ran into a buzzsaw against Aspinall, but he’ll get back on track in this matchup.
Johnny Walker vs. Volkan Oezdemir Betting Pick
You rarely get pick’em fights in UFC, but here we are in the featured fight of the night. Take a look at the current Walker-Oezdemir odds:
Both fighters are eerily similar. The similarities are their fight style and knack for losing. Each fighter isn’t afraid to strike and strike plenty. Lack of excitement isn’t how you’d describe either one. However, with that, comes mistakes. Walker’s career record is 21-8, while Oezdemir is 19-7. This is a big reason why both are stuck in the middle at light heavyweight with no real prospects at a title shot.
We fully expect one of these two to get chinned because it’s going to be all offense. If that ends up being the case, Walker has a slight advantage. That’s because his 6-foot-6 frame will make it hard for Oezdemir to land a devastating punch. Plus, Walker’s strikes are incredibly unpredictable, which gives him that one-punch-and-it’s-over possibility.
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