UFC 274 will be held on Saturday, May 7th. The Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona will play host to the PPV. The main event of the evening will feature Charles Oliveira facing Justin Gaethje in a sorta lightweight title bout. The prelims will be on ESPN and ESPN+ at 8:00 p.m. ET. The second fight on the preliminary card will be a heavyweight match between #15 Blagoy Ivanov and Marcos Rogerio de Lima.
Ivanov will be fighting in his first match since May 2020. Hopefully, the time off allowed him to recharge to get off a two-fight losing streak. Most recently, Ivanov lost by split decision to Augusto Sakai. Lima has won two bouts in a row. He secured the first-round knockout against Ben Rothwell in November of 2021. This will be the first time these two veteran fighters have matched up.
How to watch Blagoy Ivanov vs. Marcos Rogerio de Lima
Date: Saturday, May 7th
Fight time: Preliminary card starts at 8:00 p.m. ET
Live stream: ESPN and ESPN+ via WatchESPN or the ESPN app
DraftKings Sportsbook Odds/Predictions
Ivanov: -150
de Lima: +130
Splits: 74% of handle, 71% of bets on Ivanov
The time away from the octagon for Ivanov isn’t throwing off bettors. Lima is coming off a first-round knockout in November of 2021. He is the underdog in this bout, but bettors are assuming that Ivanov won’t have any rust to shake off. Lima has the momentum and is fresher than Ivanov, so I’d go with him in this one.
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