UFC Vegas 103 picks and predictions

See who we think will win on this sorry excuse for a fight card.

Art by Chris Rini.

If you’ve been reading this newsletter for a while, you know I like to rag on the quality of these cards. I can’t help it. I remember when these fight nights were appointment viewing and I cared about every fight and fighter on the card. This is just sad now.

UFC Vegas 103 has an intriguing match-up of styles in the main event with Manel Kape vs. Asu Almabayev. But beyond that… it’s rough, folks. Esteban Ribovics vs. Nasrat Haqparast has the makings of a great fight and Ribovics could do something in his division. But our co-main event is Julian Marquez vs. Cody Brundage for Pete’s sake.

Despite the lack of quality, we’ve still broken down all the fights and done our best to predict who wins and how. You can scroll down to see those now.

If you’re using this information for betting purposes, please wager responsibly. Hope you win, though. That would at least make this six-plus hours of slop worth watching.

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Manel Kape (-220) vs. Asu Almabayev (+180)

Miguel Class: I think this is going to be a weird fight. Almabayev plays a really awkward range game on the feet but Kape struggles to put it together against opponents who aren’t massively outmatched athletically and/or refuse to engage in the particular striking battle he prefers. Given that we also saw the limits in Almabayev’s wrestling against Nicolau, I slightly prefer Kape here given that he has looked more aggressive as of late and should be equally equipped to shut down many of the single legs, especially as the fight goes late. This has the potential to be a real stinker though…