UFC 252: Stipe Miocic vs. Daniel Cormier Betting Preview, Odds, Prediction

Stipe Miocic and Daniel Cormier are back for the third and the final showdown, which would close their trilogy and decide who is a better fighter. A lot is at stake here, not only the title belt, as many see it. The reputation, the legacy, the honor. The UFC 252 is arguably the biggest event of the entire year, and the eyes of the whole MMA Community will be pointed towards it. Knowing these two guys, the massive hype surrounding their contest will be justified, be sure about that.

Preview

Miocic (-105) is a champion, but not a favorite here. It seems that the bookies don’t believe in the 37-year old as before and that many of them secretly think that his previous win over DC was more luck than his tactics. 

We can’t agree on that.

Stipe is a very intelligent fighter who knows how to behave in crucial moments, and who measures and analysis his opponent during the fight. He didn’t have time to do that in the first battle with Cormier, but we saw that in the second clash when he slowly extracted DC’s weaknesses to the surface. 

He is the only guy in the UFC’s history of heavyweight division to defend the throne on three occasions. After winning it against Fabricio Werdum, he would beat Alistair Overeem, Junior dos Santos, and Francis Ngannou before losing the belt to Cormier. 

Cormier (-115) is retiring following this match, and he has an enormous motive to give all of his capabilities in this one. There is no tomorrow for DC, and he will act like that, no doubt. The 41-year old became the only fighter to hold both the light heavyweight and heavyweight UFC belts at the same time when he defeated Stipe at the UFC 226.

He would even have one title defense against Derrick Lewis before handing the title back to Miocic.

DC’s explosiveness, followed by superb KO power in his hands and excellent wrestling, is making him one of the best ever MMA fighters, and he has a chance to prove that in this fight. The only guy he couldn’t defeat was Jon Jones, against whom he has two losses, one overturned after Jones tested positive for steroids. 

Head to Head Matches

Cormier won the first fight via knockout in the first round. Back at the time, it was a massive surprise in the UFC. Miocic got even at the UFC 241. Cormier was ahead according to the scorecards, but Stipe wanted to extend the length of the match. He waited for that one moment when Cormier lost his breath, which eventually happened. After that, it was a piece of cake for the champ.

Prediction

As the previous two battles ended with a KO, or TKO, we believe this one will too. The odds on that are -190, which is a solid thing knowing these two guys. If you want to bet on the winner here, despite being a slight underdog per oddsmakers, we are giving an advantage to Miocic, as he now knows how to handle Cormier. The money line is at -105 on that.

 

Check out our preview for the match between Junior dos Santos and Jairzinho Rozenstruk.