Silva a Huge Underdog on UFC 234 Odds
Robert Whittaker will be looking to pick up his 10th consecutive UFC victory this weekend when he matches up against Kelvin Gastelum as the betting favorite on the UFC odds for the main event of UFC 234 at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne.
Whittaker, looking to defend his middleweight title, is the -240 MMA betting favorite for the bout on the UFC 234 odds, with Gastelum set as the +190 underdog on those UFC lines.
Whittaker began his current run of nine straight victories back in June 2014 with a unanimous-decision UFC Fight Night welterweight win as a -245 betting favorite against Mike Rhodes in Auckland. The Reaper then shifted to the middleweight division for his next bout, a TKO win over Clint Hester at a UFC Fight Night event in November 2014 as a +160 underdog.
Whittaker then rolled through five more wins in a row over Brad Tavares, Uriah Hall, Rafael Natal, Derek Brunson, and Ronaldo Souza, earning Performance of the Night honors in his victories against Tavares, Brunson, and Souza. His biggest payout came against Souza, when he was set as a +250 underdog but won by TKO in the second round on UFC on Fox.
After that Whittaker faced Yoel Romero for the interim UFC middleweight championship at UFC 213 in Las Vegas in July 2017, winning by unanimous decision as a small -125 betting favorite on the UFC betting lines. A rematch at UFC 225 in June 2018 in Chicago produced a split decision win for Whittaker, that time as a larger -260 betting favorite on the UFC lines.
Gastelum, meanwhile, is riding a more modest two-fight winning streak, beating Michael Bisping by knockout at a UFC Fight Night event in Shanghai in November 2017 as a -270 betting favorite and then topping Souza in a split-decision victory at UFC 224 in May 2018 in Rio de Janeiro as a slight +100 underdog. That was a Fight of the Night win for Gastelum.
Prior to beating Bisping, though, Gastelum was defeated by Chris Weidman via submission at a UFC on Fox event in July 2017 in Uniondale, New York as a -157 betting favorite, and he had a win against Vitor Belfort at a UFC Fight Night event in Brazil in March 2017 overturned due to a positive marijuana drug test. Gastelum had been a heavy -390 favorite.
Adesanya, De La Rosa Set as Betting Favorites
The other four fights that are featured on the main card on the UFC 234 betting slate in Melbourne this weekend are Israel Adesanya vs. Anderson Silva in a middleweight bout, Rani Yahya vs. Ricky Simon in a bantamweight bout, Montana De La Rosa vs. Nadia Kassem in a women’s flyweight bout, and Jim Crute vs. Sam Alvey in a light heavyweight bout.
Adesanya is a heavy favorite against Silva, sitting with odds of -650 compared to the underdog’s line of +425. Adesanya is a perfect 4-0 in his UFC career with three Performance of the Night awards including in his victory over Derek Brunson at UFC 230 back in November as a -333 favorite. Silva also beat Brunson last time out, back at UFC 208 in February 2017.
Simon is a -125 betting favorite against Yahya (-105), with De La Rosa -260 chalk against Kassem (+200). Crute is pegged as the -140 favorite on the UFC odds against Alvey (+110).
* Bovada Odds as of February 6th, 2019
