UFC heads to the Carolinas this weekend, as UFC Fight Night 166 is set for Saturday at PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina. The main event is a heavyweight bout between Junior dos Santos, a former UFC Heavyweight Champion, and Curtis Blaydes. The co-headliner is a welterweight tilt featuring Rafael dos Anjos and Michael Chiesa. You can catch both the preliminary bouts and the main card on ESPN+. We have the full card as well as sports betting insights on some of the key matchups.
UFC Fight Night 166 Odds, Event Info & Picks
- When: Saturday, 8 PM ET
- Where: PNC Arena, Raleigh, NC
- Live Stream: ESPN+
Main Card (ESPN+)
- Curtis Blaydes vs Junior dos Santos (Heavyweight)
- Rafael dos Anjos vs Michael Chiesa (Welterweight)
- Jordan Espinosa vs Alex Perez (Flyweight)
- Hannah Cifers vs Angela Hill (Women’s Strawweight)
- Jamahal Hill vs Darko Stosic (Light Heavyweight)
Preliminary Card (ESPN+)
- Bevon Lewis vs Dequan Townsend (Middleweight)
- Arnold Allen vs Nik Lentz (Featherweight)
- Justine Kish vs Lucie Pudilova (Women’s Flyweight)
- Montel Jackson vs Felipe Colares (Bantamweight)
- Sara McMann vs Lina Laensberg (Women’s Bantamweight)
- Brett Johns vs Tony Gravely (Bantamweight)
- Herbert Burns vs Nate Landwehr (Featherweight)
Curtis Blaydes (12-2) vs Junior dos Santos (21-6)
- UFC Fight Night 166 Odds: Blaydes -245 / Dos Santos +205
It seems like a passing of the torch, as the former champion squares off against the up-and-coming contender. Francis Ngannou is the only fighter who has stopped Blaydes, and he has done it twice. With a pair of TKOs, Ngannou has kept Blaydes away from the belt, but no one else has been able to stop him. He has developed his game to include ground-and-pound expertise, as we saw in his demolition of Alistair Overeem in 2018. There are some holes in his striking defense, so he has to eat a lot of bombs in order to win.
Dos Santos lost to Stipe Miocic, the current heavyweight champ, back in 2017, and that may have kept him from contending again. However, he is a gatekeeper in the division; he has boxing skill, which means he has been able to dispatch opponents with more athleticism but with less technique. He has some problems of his own, of course; he does not have an easy time adapting when an opponent gives him stylistic fits, but he has not often had to pay the price. Overall, this looks like a fight that Blaydes can win if he wears down dos Santos’ defense and delivers a bomb.
Final Prediction: Blaydes wins via KO/TKO
Rafael dos Anjos (30-12) vs Michael Chiesa (16-5)
- UFC Fight Night 166 Odds: Dos Anjos -270 / Chiesa +230
This one shows a fighter that has improved after coming up a weight class in Chiesa. He had some initial success as a lightweight, submitting the likes of Beneil Dariush and Jim Miller, but Anthony Pettis exposed his poor striking defense, and Kevin Lee was too good a grappler. Since he moved up, he has done well, beating Carlos Condit and Diego Sanchez in impressive fashion. This fight with dos Anjos is a challenge for Chiesa, as he is the first opponent in the upper tier of the UFC welterweight division.
Dos Anjos likes to bring pressure from the beginning of the fight, hoping to wear down his opponent long before the fight can go to the cards. The problem that he runs into comes when his opponent also wants to bring pressure from the beginning, as we saw in his losses to Khabib Nurmagomedov, Colby Covington and Kamaru Usman. He was able to use Kevin Lee’s pressure against him, waiting for him to make mistakes, but then he got overwhelmed by Leon Edwards. So while dos Anjos is still a gatekeeper, he is another loss away from slipping down into the middle of the division. Given how well Chiesa has fought to this point, the value on his moneyline makes him a smart pick.
Final Prediction: Chiesa wins via decision
