Sports

UFC 299 Betting Preview: O’Malley Looks For Revenge Against Vera

by
Samantha Gordon
March 4, 2024

UFC 299 Early Prelims Begin March 9th At 6 PM On UFC Fight Pass ($9.99 Per Month)
The UFC 299 Prelims Begin At 8 PM On ESPN
The Main Card Of UFC 299 Begins At 10 PM On ESPN+ ($10.99 Per Month, $69.99 For The Pay-Per-View)

This Saturday, as the sun sets on the South Beach strip, the Octagon will warm up the South Florida atmosphere as UFC 299 is set to ignite a capacity crowd at Miami’s Kaseya Center, home of the NBA’s Heat.

The main event will feature a rematch of Sean O’Malley and Marlon Vera with the Ultimate Fighting Championship Bantamweight Title on the line. O’Malley’s only career loss came via TKO from Vera during UFC 252.

Vera is 23-8-1 during his time in the UFC, and his win over O’Malley is what makes mixed-martial-arts so intriguing from a viewing and betting perspective. All combatants involved are highly-trained experts, and at times, the size and discipline of certain fighters give even the most elite martial artists a hard time.

That’s what’s happening here in the case of Vera vs. O’Malley 2, but the top UFC betting sites believe that the champion will get his revenge this weekend.

Sean O’Malley vs. Marlon Vera Betting Line

Sean O’Malley -300
Marlon Vera +225
Over 4.5 Rounds -160
Under 4.5 Rounds +130
@BetUS

Both BetUS and BetOnline feature O’Malley as a 3-to-1 favorite over Vera. The challenger’s odds differ at each book, with BetOnline offering a moneyline that is 25 points higher than BetUS.

Marlon Vera vs. Sean O’Malley Betting Line

Marlon Vera +250
Sean O’Malley -300
Over 4.5 Rounds -160
Under 4.5 Rounds 4.5 +130
@BetOnline

Using this example, gamblers can see that there are advantages to shopping the odds for higher payouts. A bet on Vera to win will earn $0.25 more per dollar risked at BetOnline than at BetUS.

UFC 299 prop bets are also included in these lines for round betting. The over/under is set at 4.5 rounds, with the odds suggesting that the over will hit. This implies two potential outcomes – either a fight stoppage via knockout, TKO, submission, or disqualification during the final half of the fifth round or that the fight will go the distance with the winner being decided by the judge’s scorecard.

Another fight of interest this Saturday is Dustin Poirier vs. Benoit Saint-Denis. It wasn’t too long ago that Poirier was making waves for his back-to-back wins over Conor MacGregor, but now he has lost two of his last three UFC fights.

Granted, those losses were to top-ranked MMA’ers, but now Poirier is facing an up-and-comer in Saint-Denis who is 13-1 and looking for a title shot. Benoit is favored to beat Poirier, and the over/under suggests it’ll be over in the first few rounds.