UFC Fight Night Riyadh predictions: Full fight card odds, picks

Saturday’s UFC Fight Night is more like a “fight morning” as we head to Saudi Arabia for a slate of fights.Israel Adesanya fights on a non-pay-per-view card for the first time since 2018, as he’s headlined major cards for most of his career.He’s fallen on some hard times, though, losing three of his last four fights, including an embarrassing decision loss to Sean Strickland and by submission to Dricus du Plessis.The main question we’ll be asking as we head into the main event this weekend is if Adesanya’s best days are behind him.It’s an extremely early start time Saturday, with fights beginning at 9 a.m.ET, and the main card will go off at 12 p.m.

ET.Is Adesanya done so soon?The “Last Style Bender” has an easy hall-of-fame career, and his knockouts of Alex Pereira and Robert Whittaker are legendary.But he’s lost two straight fights to fighters that he would have mashed earlier in his career.It’s a big spot for Adesanya to get his career back in order and, frankly, it seems that his issues have been more mental than physical.There’s no denying, though, that his takedown defense has let him down over and over again of late.

Imavov doesn’t grapple much, but he can take down strong strikers.Look to his fight against Chris Curtis as an example for why he can win this fight on the mat.Imavov also does not have a submission win in his UFC career.

However, he has attempted 10 in his UFC career and we just watched Adesanya seemingly quit against Du Plessis and submit to a neck crank.Imavov isn’t a world beater, but the value side is certainly on Imavov’s grappler more than Adesanya, who appears to be on a downward trajectory.

PICK: Imavov by submission in Rounds 3, 4, or 5 (+2200, FanDuel)Two elite strikers face off as Shara “Bullet” Magomedov matches up against Michael “Venom” Page.Notably, Page is jumping up to 185 lbs.

to take this fight despite being a normal welterweight fighter at 170 lbs.Neither of these fighters is looki...