It’s a last-second, literally, welterweight battle of two fighters that had their opponents drop out at the weigh-in on Friday who will now face each other on Saturday night. Daniel Rodriguez takes on Dwight Grant live from the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on the main card.
Rodriguez was originally scheduled to fight Takashi Sato, but Sato was pulled from the fight by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Grant was booked for Calen Born, who never even got on the scale at the weigh-in and was scratched.
Rodriguez is 12-1 as an MMA fighter, 2-0 in the UFC. He also has a win in Dana White’s Contender Series, and in 23:37 minutes of fight time in the promotion, he’s averaged a whopping 8.60 significant strikes per minute, and 1.94 takedowns per 15 minutes with 83% accuracy. At 33 years of age, he’s won eight fights in a row, six of them via stoppage. His last outing was a decision win on May 30th over Gabriel Green, also in the UFC Apex arena.
Grant enters with a 10-2 mark, and a 2-1 record in the UFC. “The Body Snatcher” has seven career knockouts, but lands only 2.87 significant strikes per minute in the octagon. He earned a Performance of The Night bonus for his first round knockout of Carlo Pedersoli Jr. in February of 2019, but the 35-year-old hasn’t fought since his split decision win in April of 2019 over Alan Jouban.
Here are the betting odds at DraftKings Sportsbook for Daniel Rodriguez vs. Dwight Grant at UFC Fight Night from Las Vegas on August 22nd.
Betting splits
Daniel Rodriguez: -230 (no splits available)
Dwight Grant: +180 (no splits available)
Here are the DraftKings DFS salaries for Daniel Rodriguez vs. Dwight Grant tonight:
DraftKings DFS Salaries
Daniel Rodriguez: $8,700
Dwight Grant: $8,800
(SIREN) TAKE DANIEL RODRIGUEZ (SIREN): The combination of the fighters now competing against another opponent means Rodriguez went from a much tougher opponent in Takashi Sato to Dwight Grant, but his DFS price didn’t change with the merging of the bouts. And the activity rate of Rodriguez and his now-big favorite status is too much to leave behind.
Grant certainly is a quality fighter, and this bout deserves to be higher up the card, but the drop in class with the price being laid is just too much to not have on your roster here. Rodriguez averages 115 DFS points per win, and is -230 here. Ownership be damned, just do it.
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