By: Harry Gagnon
Harry’s UFC Best Bets and UFC Las Vegas 5 Best Bets
What: UFC Las Vegas 5
Where: Las Vegas, Nevada
When: August 1, 2020
The UFC makes its return to Las Vegas, Nevada after they put forth four solid cards in a two-week period in Abu Dhabi. With sports coming back let us not forget what Dana White and the UFC did during this very tough time period.
The UFC put together a card almost every week and during that time they went to three different continents plus two different time zones when in the United States, so I just want to say thank you UFC. As I mentioned, the UFC is back in “Sin City” and below are my plays for the festivities on Saturday night.
UFC Las Vegas 5 Fight Picks
Main Event
-350 Edmen Shahbazyan 11-0
+285 Derek Brunson 20-7
Brunson is a bruiser but he is 36 years of age while Shahbazyan, who is just 22, might be too much for the veteran. Brunson is just 4-4 in his last eight fights, plus Shahbazyan is still undefeated with nine of his wins coming by TKO.
Also, Brunson has lost to Israel Adesanya, Jacare Souza, and Robert Whittaker by TKO in the first round in his last three losses.
Harry’s UFC Las Vegas 5 Betting Pick: -350 Shahbazyan
-180 Vicente Luque 18-7-1
+160 Randy Brown 12-3
Normally I’d be all over Brown in this spot since he has seven total inches on Luque in combined reach and height, but after what I witnessed in Luque’s last fight versus Niko Price, I swore I’d never go against Luque. Luque beat Price so bad (face was literally destroyed) and fought such a determined fight, I’ll gladly lay the -180 here.
Harry’s UFC Las Vegas 5 Best Bet: –180 Luque
-150 Lando Vannata 11-4-2
+130 Bobby Green 25-10-1
-300 Over 2.5 Rounds
+235 Under 2.5 Rounds
This is going to be a chance to hit on a two-part parlay with the side and the total. Green is only 2-5-1 in his last eight fights and Vannata beat Yancy Medeiros in February of this year by a unanimous decision.
In terms of the total the over seems like a lock in this situation. If you combine these two fighters last 17 fights, fifteen of them have gone the distance.
Harry’s UFC Las Vegas 5 Parlay: -150 Vannata and -300 Over 2.5 Rounds
-220 Markus Perez 12-3
+185 Eric Spicely 12-6
The Brazilian is the way to go in this one, considering Spicely is just 4-6 in his last ten fights.
-220 Perez
-210 Kevin Holland 17-5
+180 Trevin Giles 12-2
I love this kid Holland and he has inches on Giles. Holland has three inches of height and a whopping seven inches in reach advantage on Giles. Holland won in his last match in May in just 39 seconds over Anthony Hernandez while Giles has also lost two of his last three fights.
Harry’s UFC Las Vegas 5 Pick: -210 Holland
Harry’s UFC Las Vegas 5 Upset of the Night
Upset of the Night
Over the last two weeks my Upset of the Night play has come in with flying colors whether those colors were to be violet, burnt orange, sky blue, whatever, the +240 and +280 have hit and that’s the bottom line.
-250 Ray Borg 13-5
+200 Joseph Maness 11-1
Maness won his last match at the end of January in 1:39 of the first round. More than half of Maness’s wins have come by either TKO or submission. I’ll take the guy here who has just one loss against Borg who has five and is way too big of a favorite at -250.
Harry’s UFC Las Vegas 5 Upset of the Night: +200 Maness
I hope everyone can cash some of my picks as basketball and hockey comeback this weekend. Enjoy the UFC from Las Vegas on Saturday evening. Happy betting!!!
