Sean O’Malley will have to overcome the odds to keep his bantamweight title.
UFC recently announced O’Malley will defend his bantamweight title against top contender Merab Dvalishvili at the upcoming UFC 306 event, which takes place on Sep. 14 at The Sphere in Las Vegas. And when he does so, O’Malley will be a betting underdog for the first time as champion.
According to DraftKings, O’Malley is a +130 underdog, with the comeback on Dvalishvili at -155. This implies as a 43.5 percent chance of victory for O’Malley and means a $100 bet on O’Malley would provide a return of $230 should “Suga” retain his belt.
O’Malley won the bantamweight title one year ago, stopping Aljamain Sterling in the second round at UFC 292. Earlier this year he made his first successful defense of the belt, winning a dominant unanimous decision over rival Marlon Vera at UFC 299.
Dvalishvili is currently on a 10-fight winning streak and very likely would’ve challenged for the title sooner had it not previously been held Sterling, who is his longtime friend and training partner. Most recently, Dvalishvili defeated former two-division champion Henry Cejudo at UFC 298.
Oddsmaker BetOnline.ag released odds for the rest of the UFC 306 fight card, including the women’s flyweight title trilogy bout between Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shevchenko. In their rematch at the original Noche UFC, the two women fought to a split draw, with Grasso retaining the title. As expected, the oddsmakers again have the fight as a razor thin contest, with Grasso a very slight favorite over Shevchenko at -115 to -105.
In the featured fight of the evening, former two-time featherweight title challenger Brian Ortega looks to finally settle his business with rising contender Diego Lopes, and oddsmakers currently have “T-City” as a slight underdog at +130 to the -150 on Lopes.
Check out the full list of odds for UFC 306 below.
Sean O’Malley +130
Merab Dvalishvili -155
Alexa Grasso -115
Valentina Shevchenko -105
Brian Ortega +130
Diego Lopes -150
Irene Aldana +100
Norma Dumont -120
Aoriqileng +350
Raul Rosas Jr -450
Esteban Ribovics +150
Daniel Zellhuber -175
Ignacio Bahamondes -170
Manuel Torres +145
Kevin Borjas +101
Edgar Chairez -121
Ketlen Souza +305
Yazmin Jauregui -370
Ode Osbourne +135
Ronaldo Rodriguez -155
