Thank you, Bellator for giving me, an oddsmaker, my MMA fix for the weekend, Friday night June 14, Bellator 222 heads to Madison Square Garden in New York City and talk about a stacked fight card.
The main event of the night at The Garden is a Welterweight Grand Prix Semifinal brawl between Rory MacDonald and Neiman Gracie. An entertaining bout to say the least. The co-main event of Bellator 222 is an MMA big-name matchup between two octagon/ring MMA veterans. It’s the light-heavyweight bout between Lyoto Machida and Chael Sonnen and I wish the loser of this fight has to hang up the gloves.
From an oddsmaker point of view, Friday night should be exciting for this Bellator event because the NBA Finals are now over and the Stanley Cup is partying in St. Louis. The betting public will want MMA action Friday night because usually Saturday is when the fight action is on the betting boards.
The six-fight main card on DAZN will be bet heavily and I can see one or two upsets in the making. Some well-known MMA fighters are on the card. Be sure to keep an eye out for Juan Archuleta because this fighter is 21-1 and his stock is rising the MMA fight world.
We have two Bellator 222 fight previews that we are throwing out and don’t forget under the fight previews we have the rest of the Bellator 222 Main Card fight odds from MyBookie.ag.
Bellator 222 Main Event
Welterweight World Grand Prix Semi-Finals
Neiman Gracie +145
Rory MacDonald -170
Since we opened this fight the money continues to pile in on Rory MacDonald and I understand why. It is because he is an outstanding, well-rounded fighter in the ring. MacDonald, as of Thursday afternoon, is -170 favorite (risk $170 to cash $100) while the underdog Neiman is +145 (risk $100 to cash $145). These numbers are likely to move the for next 24 hours. We all know about the jiu-jitsu skill Neiman Gracie possesses. I’m shocked that the bettors haven’t jumped on him and that outstanding betting price. For the MMA bettor that I am, I’m waiting to see how high the Gracie price gets and for a professional oddsmaker I will cheering for Gracie because again the money right now is on MacDonald.
Prediction: Neiman Gracie
Light Heavyweight Feature Fight
Chael Sonnen +265
Lyoto Machida -330
Again, please tell me that the loser in this fight has to hang up the gloves because lets face it, father time will also be in the ring. This should be a good fight from the start but I see Chael Sonnen taking down Lyoto Machida a lot. Sonnen wrestling skills will be too much for Machida. I am completely shocked that Lyoto Machida is such a -330 big favorite Friday night (risk $330 to cash $100) and I believe you are getting great value +265 on Sonnen (risk $100 to cash $265). I’m just hoping for an entertaining fight overall because when two veteran fighters square off it could go badly quickly and become boring quickly.
Prediction: ‘The American Gangster’ Chael Sonnen
The rest of Bellator 222 Odds
Provided MyBookie.ag
Bantamweight 5 Rounds
Kyoji Horiguchi +150
Darrion Caldwell -180
Featherweight 3 Rounds
Juan Archuleta -195
Eduardo Dantas +165
Bantamweight 3 Rounds
Patrick Mix +115
Ricky Bandejas -135
Catchweight 3 Rounds
Max Humphrey +870
Dillion Danis -1440
– Raphael Esparza is a writer/handicapper for Doc’s Sports Service and his is an Oddsmaker Consultant for MyBookie.ag. Like and follow him @VSIDocsports and his MMA odds @MyBookieMMA
