Omar Morales defeats Gabriel Benitez by unanimous decision

Update: Omar Morales defeats Gabriel Benitez by unanimous decision. Morales was a -177 favorite on the money line.

Two lightweights are set to do battle as part of the preliminary card at UFC Jacksonville tonight with veteran Gabriel Benitez taking on Omar Morales, who will be only his second UFC match. The fight is part of the preliminary card, which gets started at 6 p.m. ET on ESPN+.

Benitez won Ultimate Fighter: Latin America, and moved up to lightweight from featherweight to take this fight at the last minute. He’s 5-3 in the UFC overall, and was knocked out in the first round in his last fight.

Morales looks to make it 10-0 in his MMA career with a win, but hasn’t faced any fighters of note. He was originally scheduled to take on Alexander Hernandez, but now he’s facing a fill in fighter.

Despite the lack of depth of resume Morales undefeated record and potential have impressed bettors, especially the sharper ones: He’s up to 60% of the tickets, and 82% of the handle on this fight. Morales was a decision winner in his last outing, and if you think he needs all 15 minutes to turn aside the more experienced Benitez tonight, you can have the unblemished fighter at +195 to win via the scorecards.

Here are the betting splits at DraftKings Sportsbook for Gabriel Benitez vs. Omar Morales at UFC Jacksonville on May 13th:

Money line movement, betting handle

Gabriel Benitez: +125 to +140 (20% handle, 30% bets)
Omar Morales: -162 to -177 (80% handle, 70% bets)

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