UFC San Antonio Odds, Dos Anjos vs Edwards Preview & Predictions

UFC San Antonio Odds, Dos Anjos vs Edwards Preview & Predictions

UFC on ESPN 4 is set for Saturday night at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas for UFC San Antonio and the first in more than five years. The main event is a welterweight tilt between Rafael dos Anjos, a former UFC Lightweight Champion, and Leon Edwards. The co-main event will be a heavyweight fight between Aleksei Oleinik and Walt Harris, with former NFL star Greg Hardy also taking part on the card, fighting Juan Adams in a heavyweight bout. We have the full fight card as well as sports betting thoughts about several of the matchups for you to consider.

UFC San Antonio Odds, Dos Anjos vs Edwards Preview & Predictions

  • When: Saturday, June 20
  • Where: AT&T Center, San Antonio, TX at 6:00pm PDT
  • TV: ESPN
  • Live Stream: UFC Fight Pass

Main Card (ESPN)

  • Rafael dos Anjos vs Leon Edwards (Welterweight)
  • Aleksei Oleinik vs Walt Harris (Heavyweight)
  • Greg Hardy vs Juan Adams (Heavyweight)
  • James Vick vs Dan Hooker (Lightweight)
  • Alexander Hernandez vs Francisco Trinaldo (Lightweight)
  • Andrei Arlovski vs Ben Rothwell (Heavyweight)

Preliminary Card (ESPN)

  • Alex Caceres vs Steven Peterson (Featherweight)
  • Raquel Pennington vs Irene Aldana (Women’s Bantamweight)
  • Sam Alvey vs Klidson Abreu (Light Heavyweight)
  • Roxanne Modafferi vs Jennifer Maia (Women’s Flyweight)
  • Ray Borg vs Gabriel Silva (Bantamweight)
  • Mario Bautista vs Jin Soo Son (Bantamweight)
  • Domingo Pilarte vs Felipe Colares (Bantamweight)

Rafael Dos Anjos (29-11) vs Leon Edwards (17-3)

The fight gives us an evenly matched bout between an up-and-coming Edwards and dos Anjos, who seems to be the gatekeeper for contenders. Dos Anjos came into UFC as a lightweight and dominated early before losing his title to Eddie Alvarez and then deciding to move up a class. Dos Anjos struggles against strong, aggressive wrestlers, as we saw in his losses to such fighters as Khabib Nurmagomedov, Colby Covington and Kamaru Usman. However, he was able to turn things around against Kevin Lee by amping up the pace of the fight, and Lee just could not keep up, winning on the cards. Edwards came into UFC with a reputation as a big bomber, but he lost on the mat to Claudio Henrique da Silva. He turned into more of a grinder, and now he has a seven-fight winning streak with victories over such names as Vicente Luque and Gunnar Nelson. If Edwards can get by dos Anjos, he would have a shot at the belt. With that said, the style matchup here favors dos Anjos, but just slightly. Edwards no longer brings the sort of pressure that worries dos Anjos, and that means dos Anjos will likely dictate the pace. Can Edwards get things going his way on the ground? He can last the full 25 minutes, so a cardio fight will not drain his tanks. However, with dos Anjos driving the pace, it’s more likely that he will win on the cards. Final Prediction: Dos Anjos wins via decision

Alexei Oleinik (57-12-1) vs Walt Harris (12-7)

This one features one of the more bizarre fighters in all of MMA in Oleinik, who uses an odd combination of out-of-control hooks and unusual submissions — and keeps winning, with 57 career victories. He did miss all of 2015 after knee surgery, but then he won four out of six bouts. If he can come out with some of his patented moves against Harris, it could be a quick fight. Harris started out 0-3 in UFC and looked headed for the scrap heap, but he took a year off and then beat Cody East in a heavyweight tilt, and since then he put together a nice streak against the bottom tier of the UFC heavyweight division, although he lost to Fabricio Werdum, Shamil Abdurakhimov and Andrei Arlovski. He’s already 36 despite just 19 career fights, and his takedown defense is not particularly strong. Harris is the favorite here, perhaps because of Oleinik’s inconsistency lately, but I see Oleinik taking down Harris and finishing things before the judges get a chance to weigh in. Final Prediction: Oleinik wins via submission