UFC 277: Pena vs. Nunes 2 Betting Preview & Best Bets
We head to Dallas, Texas for a fairly stacked UFC 277 fight card that features a title rematch in the women's Bantamweight division, and before that, a new interim Flyweight champion will be crowned. It's fair to feel sort of cheated with the unfortunate endings to the last two main events that saw contenders Brian Ortega and Tom Aspinall lose due to a dislocated shoulder and no-contact knee injury. There should be no lack of excitement for the main and co-main events this week, and that's exactly where I want to focus.
UFC 277: Nunes vs. Pena 2 Best Bets
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Amanda Nunes/Brandon Moreno Moneyline Parlay (+102, Caesars)
Brandon Moreno vs. Kai Kara-France Breakdown
I want to spend time on the main event so let's jump into the co-main first. Kai Kara-France comes in with a 24-9 record and trains at City Kickboxing, which typically lets you know how well of a striker someone may be. With Champions Israel Adesanya and Alexander Volkanovski out of the same camp, it's no wonder his striking has elevated since these two first fought. Well-balanced on the feet, Kara-France put together three straight solid wins and is looking to finally capture gold if he can get through the man that gave him his first UFC loss.
Brandon Moreno is also much improved since he defeated Kara-France in 2019. Moreno went on to win two more big fights before challenging Deiveson Figueiredo for the Flyweight Championship. That fight would end in a draw and birth an action-packed trilogy that saw Moreno win the title in the second fight and lose it right back in the rubber match. Those two were just a matchmaking dream and it's got to be awkward fighting someone else after Moreno has had the same matchup three fights in a row. This could be a tight fight if it stays on the feet but it's the grappling that Moreno has where Kara-France can't dance with him. If you're a fan of the fight game you know there's truth to Mexican pride and insane durability that carries a fighter like Moreno. Kara-France has never gone five rounds whereas Moreno went the distance in two of the three wars against Figueiredo. The paths are clear and they aren't in favor of Kara-France. Interim Championship on the line. And new...
Amanda Nunes vs. Julianna Pena Breakdown
What does it take to be the GOAT? Just take a look at Amanda Nunes. "Lioness" is coming off one of the more dominant runs in UFC history. She won 12 straight over five years in which she captured and defended two championships and dominated the absolute best of the best in women's MMA. Sporting a 21-5 record with 13 knockouts, Nunes has very real power and a good ground game that she rarely needs to use because of how overwhelming she is on the feet. Before her last fight, Nunes had gone five rounds in four of her last seven with a first-round finish in the other three. Her conditioning was never an issue, so what happened?
Julianna Pena shocked the world is what happened. As a near +700 underdog, Pena dethroned Nunes via rear naked choke. In a division starving for talent since the Miesha Tate, Ronda Rousey, and Holly Holm era, Pena had been calling for a title shot versus Nunes for quite some time. Although she had only won two fights since 2017, Pena got the shot, which speaks to the competition in the division. 11-4 in her career, Pena has very sharp grappling but it was her major improvement in striking that turned heads, and the level of preparation showed out. With that said, and without discrediting what Pena did, Nunes was very off that night. Nunes was at the top of the mountain for so long and it's possible she took the fight lightly with her training. She didn't look properly hydrated and was completely gassed out as the fight neared its end. Zero fight was put up by Nunes as she fell to her hands and knees, and Pena just casually locked up her neck without even hooks in.
In preparation for this rematch, Nunes left the gym that helped mold her into the women's GOAT and formed her own team within her personal gym. It seems she wanted to dial in on this camp and rediscovered that hunger. It doesn't take Nunes at her best to win this fight and Pena knows she got a much lesser version of Nunes. Bad camp, knee injuries, and lingering COVID-19 effects could be excuses but also true factors as to what happened to Nunes in that fight. I believe she will be ready to go this time, press the action, display her power and go back to her bullying ways. What does it take to be the GOAT? Find out on Saturday. And new...
Risk: 2 units on Caesars to win 2.04 units.
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