(After he was so excited about finally meeting Kevin Federline, Chuck was extremely disappointed to find out that K-Fed had a better picture pose than he did.)
The Gambling Addiction Enabler had a somewhat rough go at Strikeforce thanks to Frank Shamrock deciding to go ahead and get old out of nowhere (okay fine, in retrospect, probably should have seen that one coming), but he managed to cut his losses by picking Scott Smith to pull off the minor upset against Benji Radach. With underdogs proving profitable, maybe your favorite compulsive gambler will have to take a long look at some of the major ones on the UFC 97 lineup. Maybe put down a big bet on a certain middleweight challenger who nobody thinks has a chance in hell…
Odds today come from BestFightOdds.com:
Anderson Silva (-500) vs. Thales Leites (+456)
"Shogun" Rua (+170) vs. Chuck Liddell (-172)
Brian Stann (+151) vs. Krzysztof Soszynski (-150)
Nate Quarry (+110) vs. Jason MacDonald (-110)
David Loiseau (-112) vs. Ed Herman (+110)
David Bielkheden (+240) vs. Mark Bocek (-255)
Antoni Hardonk (+275) vs. Cheick Kongo (-261)
Steve Cantwell (+265) vs. Luis Cane (-275)
Eliot Marshall (+120) vs. Vinny Magalhaes (-150)
Xavier Fouka-Pokam (+300) vs. Denis Kang (-300)
T.J. Grant (+177) vs. Ryo Chonan (-187)
Sam Stout (-125) vs. Matt Wiman (+120)
Best bets…
- Thales Leites at +456, eh? Sorry, still not a good bet. There’s simply no good reason to believe he’ll win this. The fact that Silva messed around with Cote and caught a bunch of heat for it only hurts Leites’ chances of making it out of the first round. He’s going to catch a beatdown and the oddsmakers know it. I’m not touching this one.
- Liddell deserves to be the favorite over Rua for the simple reason that a little old and a little slow still beats gassed and sloppy. Rua looked awful against an awful-looking Mark Coleman, and that was just three months ago. Liddell did get KO’d, but at least it came against Rashad Evans and he looked good up until his head got knocked off. I’ll take Liddell, but with these odds it’s better saved for the parlay.
- There aren’t many really attractive underdog picks on this card, so it’s best to look at the slight underdogs and slight favorites. Ed Herman and Matt Wiman seem like the best options in the former class. Trouble is, Herman’s got a much tougher opponent. Loiseau can give lots of people problems, whereas Sam Stout has looked very mediocre recently. He seems to have made it on here mostly for his Canadianness. My pick: $20 on Wiman.
- Of the slight favorites, Jason MacDonald looks like the best. He gave Demain Maia his toughest test in the UFC, and he should prove too much for Quarry, who’s got toughness on his side but not a whole lot else. My pick: $20 on MacDonald.
Absolutely Don’t Bet Against: Cheick Kongo. Hardonk has been on a little streak lately, but Kongo is trouble for anyone without a whole lot of power and an excellent ground game. If Hardonk makes it past the first I’ll be surprised.
Official Cage Potato Parlay: Silva + Liddell + Soszynski + Kongo + Magalhaes. The five-pronged attack, FTW. Money-makin, money, money-makin.
Loading ...
Kongo didn't finish Hardonk in the first round either...told ya. Ok, I said it was going to a boring decision and Kongo did finish him...but it was still boring.
But damn, I didn't see that Shogun KO coming. I thought Chuck was actually going to do that to Shogun in R1 or R2.