The Ulimate UFC Betting Guide in Canada!
The Ultimate Fighting Championship, better known as the UFC, is the cream of the crop when it comes to mixed martial arts promotions. It has a very long history of mixed martial arts fighting, but really came into the mainstream about 15 years ago.
Today, the UFC is synonymous with regulated fighting, and it's even surpassed boxing in popularity, and by quite a lot. There are many options to bet on the UFC, too, and with so many exciting matches happening all throughout the year, there are plenty of opportunities to do so.
If you're new to the UFC betting take a look at our UFC betting guide below. This will help you be better informed about how to bet on the UFC so that you can give yourself a better chance of winning.
Structure of UFC Fights
The UFC holds events all throughout the year. Some of them are big-name Pay-Per View fights, and some are not as prestigious but still feature some outstanding fighters.
Just like boxing, the UFC is broken down into weight classes. Fighters will fight in their weight class and only against other fighters who are in the same weight class as them, so as to make the fights as fair as possible.
Each UFC fight is structured the same way, with one minor difference. All fights have a referee inside the ring (also known as the Octagon in UFC) to make sure the fighters uphold all the rules and regulations -- and to stop fights if someone submits or if someone is knocked out or in too vulnerable a position.
There are three judges for each fight, and their job is to score each round based on how many punches are thrown/landed, the number of takedowns or knockdowns, and other things that happen.
All UFC fights are three rounds long, with each round lasting five minutes. The only exception is championship fights, which last five rounds of five minutes each.
A fight can end in three ways -- either a fighter submits, a fighter knocks out the other fighter or the fight lasts all the rounds. If the fight goes all rounds, the judges will determine the winner based on their scorecards.
Studying the Matchup
Whenever you are betting on a UFC fight, it's always a good idea to study the fighters and the matchup before deciding where you want to place your bet.
Of course, you can start by looking at the overall records of the two fighters. What you should be looking for, though, isn't just how many wins versus losses they have, but rather how they have been performing lately.
The UFC is a lot about momentum, and how fighters perform in recent fights often carries over to their next few fights.
Next, look at the specific matchup. Take a look at the strengths of weaknesses of each fighter and how they match up with the strengths and weaknesses of their opponent. You may be able to identify something advantageous to wager on based on this information.
For example, if one fighter is really good at submissions and his opponent isn't very good at defending against them, that could be an opportunity to place a nice wager.
Finally, take a look at the history of the two fighters against each other. This includes both their in-ring and out-of-ring history. Have the fighters faced each other before?
If so, what happened in that fight? Is there any bad blood between the fighters that goes outside the ring as well?
These are all important factors you should weigh as you decide how to bet.
Choose Your Wager
There are a number of different ways that you can bet on the UFC. The most common -- and the easiest to understand -- is the fight winner. This acts just like a moneyline wager does in other sports. You will simply be picking the winner of the fight, and betting against odds that the sportsbook sets based on who they have designated the favorite and the underdog.
You won't have to worry about whether the fight ends in a knockout, submission or judge's decision. You won't need to worry about how many rounds the fight lasted or anything else. All you'll be predicting is which fighter you think will win.
An example of the odds for fight winner bets include:
- Darian Weeks +280
- Ian Garry -365
In this example, Garry is the big favorite. As such, if you want to win $100 betting on him, you'd need to wager $365. Weeks is the big underdog in this fight. If you wager $100 on him and he wins, you'd net $280.
There are also a lot of popular prop bets that you can wager on in the UFC. One of the most common is the over/under on the total number of rounds a fight will last. For this wager, the sportsbook will display odds for every round combination possible.
In the Weeks vs. Gary fight, for example, odds could be:
- Over 1.5 rounds -195
- Under 1.5 rounds +155
- Over 2.5 rounds +104
- Under 2.5 rounds -134
For these wagers, you'll simply be selecting how long you think the fight will last. There are similar prop wagers on the length of the fight that ask whether the fight will start Round 2 or start Round 3, for instance.
A final set of props will include which fighter wins the fight and also how he wins the fight. This could include:
- Weeks wins by TKO/KO +550
- Garry wins by TKO/KO +110
- Weeks wins by submission +1800
- Garry wins by submission +800
- Weeks wins by decision +800
- Garry wins by decision +200
As you can see, the sportsbook posts separate odds for each potential outcome that the fight can have. They pay higher odds for each of these, since you'll need to not only pick the correct winner of the fight, but also exactly how he wins the fight. This adds a level of skill and some luck to the bet.
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