UFC Fight Night 136 Lines & Picks

UFC Fight Night 136 Lines & Picks

Written by on September 11, 2018

On Saturday afternoon, UFC Fight Night 136 comes to us from Moscow’s Olympic Stadium, with all of the action available on UFC Fight Pass. The main event features a heavyweight bout between Mark Hunt and Aleksey Oliynyk, with the co-main event pitting Jan Blachowicz and Nikita Krylov in a light-heavyweight bout. The third bout on the main card features Andrei Arlovski and Shaml Abdurakhimov in another heavyweight bout. The main card is set for 2:00pm Eastern time, with the undercard set for 10:30am. Take a look at our MMA betting suggestions for the main and co-main events.

UFC Fight Night 136 Lines & Picks

Main Card (UFC Fight Pass)

  • Mark Hunt (13-12-1, 1 NC) vs Aleksei Oliynyk (56-11-1), heavyweight
  • Jan Blachowicz (22-7-0) vs Nikita Krylov (24-5-0), light heavyweight
  • Andrei Arlovski (27-16-0, 1 NC) vs Shamil Abdurakhimov (18-4-0), heavyweight
  • Alexey Kunchenko (18-0-0) vs Thiago Alves (22-12-0), welterweight

Preliminary Card (UFC Fight Pass)

  • Khalid Murtazaliev (13-2-0) vs C.B. Dollaway (17-8-0), middleweight
  • Petr Yan (9-1-0) vs Jin Soo Son (9-2-0), bantamweight
  • Rustam Khabilov (22-3-0) vs Kajan Johnson (23-12-1), lightweight
  • Mairbek Taisumov (26-5-0) vs Desmond Green (21-7-0), lightweight
  • Magomed Ankalaev (9-1-0) vs Marcin Prachnio (13-3-0), light heavyweight
  • Adam Yandiev (9-0-0) vs Jordan Johnson (9-0-0), middleweight
  • Ramazan Emeev (17-3-0) vs Stefan Sekulic (12-2-0), welterweight
  • Merab Dvalishvili (7-4-0) vs Terrion Ware (17-8-0), bantamweight
In the main event, Mark Hunt (-261) is a significant favorite over the veteran Aleksei Oliynyk (+219) despite the bout taking place on Oliynyk’s home soil. Oliynyk has won 44 of his 56 victories via submission and has won 10 of his last 12 bouts, including a victory over Junior Albini in May, in which he forced a first round submission after landing 10 strikes, bringing home Performance of the Night. Oliynyk averages 2.95 takedowns per match, with a 44.4% accuracy rating. He lands 3.31 significant strikes per minute, with a 52.7% accuracy rating. Oliynyk has moved more towards finishing opponents lately, as his last decision victory took place eight years ago, over Mike Hayes. He has an eight-inch advantage for reach, which should help him counter Hunt’s strikes, and if the fight gets down on the ground, Oliynyk could end it in a hurry. Hunt comes in having lost his last bout, falling to Curtis Blaydes back in February. He is more of a strike-first fighter, averaging just 0.54 takedowns per match. He lands 2.91 significant strikes per minute with an accuracy rating of 44.1%. He only landed 36 strikes against Blaydes while taking 126. He is 44 years old, which means that he is pushing the boundaries of how far he can go. He does have big strike power and can end a fight with one punch, once he figures out his opponent’s movements. Each of his last six wins has come via knockout — however, his cardio is on the wane, as he has lost five of his last six fights that have lasted longer than a single round. UFC Fight Night 136 Prediction: Oliynyk wins via submission Jan Blachowicz comes in having won three bouts in a row, most recently taking a decision victory over Jimi Manuwa. He hasn’t lost since a decision setback to Patrick Cummins early in 2017. Blachowicz has a three-inch height advantage but just a one-inch arm reach advantage, and if this fight goes to the ground, it should go his way. He averages 1.6 takedowns per match with 52.1% accuracy, and he defends takedowns 57.7.5 of the time. He also has an iron chin, making him able to absorb big bombs while moving in to take things to the mat. Nikita Krylov has two more wins in his career despite being seven years younger. Ten of his 24 wins have come via knockout, and the other 14 have come via submission, which means none of his wins have ever made it to the cards. He lands 6.5 significant strikes per minute with a terrific accuracy rating of 60.9%. So if things stay upright, Krylov has a chance of landing the right strike to bring things to an end. Even so, we like Blachowicz to get things down horizontally and win. UFC Fight Night 136 Prediction: Blachowicz wins via submission