Tonight’s UFC card should be a fun one, but if you can pick the right six fighters out of the 30 competing, you’ll be the big winner in DraftKings MMA $500k Throwdown Special, with $100,000 is guaranteed for first place with just an $15 entry.
Each fighter has been given a salary, usually in balance with their opponent, and you can’t exceed the salary cap of $50,000. With bonus points for stopping opponents early, picking effective strikers and submission specialists that can end things in one round or less is crucial. So is being an active fighter that shoots for takedowns and lands significant blows.
Here’s how the scoring works, and notice how heavily it leans towards winning big and early:
Moves
Significant Strikes: +0.5 Pts
Advance: +3 Pts
Takedown: +5 Pts
Reversal/Sweep: +5 Pts
Knockdown: +10 Pts
Fight Conclusion Bonuses
1st Round Win: +90 Pts
2nd Round Win: +70 Pts
3rd Round Win: +45 Pts
4th Round Win: +40 Pts
5th Round Win: +40 Pts
Decision Win: +30 Pts
So here’s one man’s best bets for tonight’s UFC on ESPN card:
Jai Herbert ($7,700)
The hard part is finding the underdogs that can get the win, and in the case of Herbert his nine career stoppages in 10 wins and being the former Cage Warriors lightweight champion all add to his value. The former scaffolder has won six in a row, including his last four via stoppage. The 32-year-old from Wolverhampton also likes to use his fists with eight of the nine stoppages coming via KO or TKO, and that tends to score better than grappling.
Tanner Boser ($8,900)
Boser has the money coming in on him, and he picked up 111 points over Philipe Lins just 28 days ago in a first-round win. His other UFC win earned 77 DFS points in a three-round decision behind 93 strikes landed.
The Canadian looked outstanding just a month ago, and the recent success has allowed him to focus fully on being a fighter with appropriate coaching and time committed only recently. He should make plenty of DFS rosters this evening, and with good reason at a reasonable price considering his potential and odds.
Khamzat Chimaev ($9,800)
All the bargain-hunting you do tonight should lead you to the chance to take Chimaev, who was overwhelming just 10 days ago in this same octagon. He scored 107.5 DFS points in a second-round stoppage, but looked like the next great welterweight. He’s facing a replacement fighter in Rhys McKee tonight, who is the rare +700 underdog before he walks in the cage. This shouldn’t take long but if it does, his last fight saw a 124-2 significant strikes advantage while he controlled every aspect of the bout. Either he wins fast and gets bonus points, or takes his time and picks up fighting points as well.