Las Vegas is the place to be if you’re down to take in UFC this weekend, as the UFC Apex facility will host UFC on ESPN 61 on Saturday night. The headliner is the rematch between heavyweights Tybura vs Spivac 2.
Tybura won the first tilt in February 2020 unanimously on the cards. The co-main event is a featherweight fight between Damon Jackson and Chepe Mariscal.
The whole night’s action will air on ESPN and stream on ESPN+. Check out the full fight card and our sports betting predictions for the top two fights.
UFC Fight Night Betting Tybura vs Spivac 2 Odds & Preview | MMA Odds
Marcin Tybura +135 vs Serghei Spivac -166
Tybura (25-8, 12-7) vs Spivac (16-4, 7-4) comes four years after their first bout.
Tybura has become a heavyweight gatekeeper – but that’s as high as he’s likely to go, because he doesn’t really have the durability or the knockout power to take down the elite fighters in the division.
He can outlast lesser opponents and get the fight to the ground, but his decision loss to Alexander Volkov in 2021 and his knockout loss to Tom Aspinall last year showed us his ceiling.
He did get a nice win in March against Tai Tuivasa, and now he gets to reprise the Spivac fight.
When these two met the first time, Spivac had been in UFC less than a year. His debut was quick and brutal as Walt Harris knocked him out, but he bounced back to submit Tuivasa.
After his loss to Tybura, he won six out of seven fights, with his only loss coming to Aspinall.
He has a one-dimensional strategy, but the fact that there aren’t many great wrestlers in the UFC heavyweight division has helped him, especially after he built his finishing skills on the ground.
His last fight came 11 months ago against Ciryl Gane, who kept things upright and knocked Spivac out in the second round. Can Tybura finish Spivac in five rounds or fewer? We think he can.
Fight Night Pick: Tybura wins via submission
Jose Mariscal -228 vs Damon Jackson +181
Mariscal (16-6, 3-0) vs Jackson (23-6-1, 6-4-1) latest chapter in two storied UFC careers. Mariscal came in looking like a fun fighter on undercards, but he’s made his way for almost a decade.
Things have improved him for him recently as he has three wins in a row and is starting to knock off prospects. He handled Trevor Peek’s striking game and gave him the L in his debut.
He used a takedown reversal to finish Jack Jenkins. His last win came on the cards against Morgan Charriere.
UFC has responded by giving him Jackson, one of the featherweights in UFC who uses durability and aggression to get things done.
Jackson is on his second run through the UFC; his first swim ended in a quick washout, but when he returned in 2020, he had more experience and upset Mirsad Bektic to get his first victory.
Since then, he’s created space for himself on the edge of the top of the division. He starts his fights fast and makes his opponents match his pace.
This doesn’t work against such big bombers as Dan Ige and Ilia Topuria, but of the featherweights with less striking power, only Billy Quarantillo has kept the pace for all three rounds.
He got a nice win on the cards over Alexander Hernandez, another cardio-reliant fighter, in April.
The fact that Jackson gets going from the very beginning gives him an edge – Mariscal just won’t be able to find a gap in the fight to change the momentum.
Fight Night Pick: Jackson wins via decision
Main Card at ESPN/ESPN+
- Marcin Tybura vs Serghei Spivac (Heavyweight)
- Damon Jackson vs Chepe Mariscal (Featherweight)
- Danny Barlow vs Nikolay Veretennikov (Welterweight)
- Chris Gutierrez vs Quang Le (Bantamweight)
- Yana Santos vs Chelsea Chandler (Women’s Bantamweight)
- Toshiomi Kazama vs Charalampos Grigoriou (Bantamweight)
Preliminary Card at ESPN/ESPN+
- Karol Rosa vs Pannie Kianzad (Women’s Bantamweight)
- Jhonata Diniz vs Karl Williams (Heavyweight)
- Youssef Zalal vs Jarno Errens (Featherweight)
- Stephanie Luciano vs Talita Alencar (Women’s Strawweight)
He's headlining #UFCVegas95 this Saturday!
— UFC (@ufc) August 9, 2024
Watch some of @MarcinTybura's best finishes before he gets back in the Octagon this weekend! 💥 pic.twitter.com/MLuLew9qMP
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UFC Fight Night Betting Tybura vs Spivac 2
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