UFC Fight Night 155 Odds, Preview & Picks

UFC Fight Night 155 Odds, Preview & Picks

On Saturday night, Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California, will be the site of UFC Fight Night 155: de Randamie vs Ladd. The main event features a women’s bantamweight tilt between Germaine de Randamie, who won the first UFC Women’s Featherweight belt, and Aspen Ladd. The co-main event is a bantamweight fight between former WEC Featherweight Champion, former UFC Bantamweight challenger and 2017 UFC Hall of Fame inductee Urijah Faber and Ricky Simon. Faber is heading back into the cage after 2 ½ years of retirement. We have the full card for the evening as well as sports betting thoughts on several of the bouts.

UFC Fight Night 155 Odds, Preview & Picks

Main Card (ESPN+)

  • Germaine de Randamie vs Aspen Ladd (Women’s Bantamweight)
  • Urijah Faber vs Ricky Simon (Bantamweight)
  • Josh Emmett vs Mirsad Bektic (Featherweight)
  • Karl Roberson vs Wellington Turman (Middleweight)
  • Marvin Vettori vs Cezar Ferreira (Middleweight)

Preliminary Card (ESPN+)

  • Mike Rodriguez vs John Allan (Light Heavyweight)
  • Andre Fili vs Sheymon Moraes (Featherweight)
  • Julianna Pena vs Nicco Montano (Women’s Bantamweight)
  • Darren Elkins vs Ryan Hall (Featherweight)
  • Livia Renata Souza vs Brianna Van Buren (Women’s Strawweight)
  • Pingyuan Liu vs Jonathan Martinez (Bantamweight)
  • Benito Lopez vs Vince Morales (Bantamweight)

Germaine de Fandamie (8-3) vs Aspen Ladd (8-0)

This was an iffy proposition given the number of times Ladd has missed weight, but when she makes it inside, she is a force. She likes to bring the fight forward and then take over the fight by taking hold of her opponent, but there have been fights when it takes her a while to figure out how to do just that while she takes bombs in the meantime. But she can absorb punishment while moving forward into the clinch. She was too strong for Lina Lansberg, and Tonya Evinger had already moved past her prime when she met Ladd. Against Sijara Eubanks, Ladd showed that she can outwork an opponent who is equal to her in terms of strength. Ladd has earned a title contender shot, and this is what this bout will be. De Randamie was UFC’s bantamweight icon when the promotion decided to open the classification, and she started her run with a win over Holly Holm. Then, she had a chance to fight Cyborg, but she had a hand injury and could not. She has not fought a lot over the last six years, but she has not lost since 2013, when Amanda Nunes beat her — her last loss in just six fights over that time. In November, she beat Raquel Pennington, using her size and kicking to build up the points. This will be an interesting bout, but what is most likely is that de Randamie will land a bunch of strikes and kicks in the early going before Ladd finds her way in and finishes things off. Final Prediction: Ladd wins via stoppage

Urijah Faber (34-10) vs Ricky Simon (15-1)

The match features a return that many thought would happen, as Faber never pulled out of UFC’s drug test pool. Faber has made a career of stacking up wins in non-title fights — but then losing when he gets a chance for a belt. He had never lost a non-title fight until Frankie Edgar beat him in 2015. Faber takes on Simon, an intriguing prospect on the rise in UFC. Simon is all about bringing the offense, pushing forward to attack for the full 15 minutes. Simon did win his UFC debut, although in an unusual way, a Merab Dvalishvili outpointed him and looked to have made it through a guillotine choke, only to have the referee rule that he was unconscious when the bout ended. After that, Simon has been able to take down just about every opponent, and when he beat Rani Yahya in February, we saw that he could beat a solid grappler. We don’t know a lot about where Faber is physically. He has remained a part of the grappling circuit, and he could win if he has kept his 2016 form. Simon does not play a lot of defense, so he could end up in real trouble. Faber retired after beating Brad Pickett on the cards — and in his next-to-last fight, Jimmie Rivera turned the tables on him, and Faber went into a bit of a shell. It’s hard to see Faber winning this on points, but given the value, I’m going with him to finish Simon. Final Prediction: Faber wins via stoppage