Tony Ferguson is a slightly betting favorite over Charles Oliveira despite the opening odds being much closer.
Ferguson returns to action in the UFC 256 co-main event on Saturday night when he meets the surging Oliveira in their highly-anticipated lightweight encounter.
When the fight was first announced, Ferguson was only a -130 favorite while Oliveira was a slight +110 underdog. However, “El Cucuy” is now closing in the range of -162 to -195 while Oliveira is ranges from a +135 to +150 underdog.
That means you would have to bet $162 to win $100 on Ferguson while a $100 stake on “Do Bronx” would earn you a profit of as much as $150.
Despite Ferguson coming off a brutal fifth-round TKO defeat to Justin Gaethje at UFC 249 back in May, it appears more money is coming in for him and that’s not a surprise whatsoever compared to his initial odds.
While Oliveira is on a seven-fight winning streak, he hasn’t faced close to the same level of competition as Ferguson while the latter is undoubtedly the biggest and toughest opponent he has faced yet.
Here are the opening odds for the pair’s last five fights:
Tony Ferguson last five fights
- vs. Justin Gaethje (L): -207
- vs. Donald Cerrone (W): -245
- vs. Anthony Pettis (W): -265
- vs. Kevin Lee (W): -185
- vs. Rafael dos Anjos (W): -120
Charles Oliveira last five fights
- vs. Kevin Lee (W): -140
- vs. Jared Gordon (W): -335
- vs. Nik Lentz (W): -305
- vs. David Teymur (W): -145
- vs. Jim Miller (W): -245
