On paper, Saturday's UFC 333 is one of the most competitive cards in years. From top to bottom, UFC 333 is loaded with tremendous fights between seemingly equally matched fighters. That competitiveness is on full display in the night's two championship fights, including bantamweight champion Petr Yan against former champion Merab Dvalishvili and featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski against undefeated Movsar Evloev.
In fact, there are only three betting favorites on Saturday's card who are at -250 or higher. With such an interesting card set for UFC 333, there will no doubt be plenty of interest in the event, including at sportsbooks. With that in mind, we've once again looked at all the event's main card fights to identify our best bets for each.
After a rough 1-4 result for our best bets for UFC 332, we are sitting at an unimpressive 23-28 for the year. Now we look ahead to this weekend with the goal of getting back in the black, with our only rule remaining that all bets must be at odds of -250 or better. Let's take a look at this week's picks with odds via DraftKings Sportsbook.
It feels a certainty that Pico ends his career as one of the biggest cases of an elite prospect failing to meet anything near his potential. Still, it's hard to overlook how good Pico is when his full game is clicking. Pico is a world-class wrestler in the most literal sense and his striking is sharp, with a particularly strong bodywork game.
Where Pico has come up short is on the defensive end of things, often leaving himself open to massive shots from his opponents, as happened when Lerone Murphy knocked him out with a spinning back elbow in Pico's UFC debut. Keita has the kind of striking that can punish Pico's defensive lapses, but I don't believe he can hang if Pico mixes in grappling with fair regularity. I make this pick with all the confidence one can have heading into a Pico fight, which is to say less than you'd like.
Dangerous everywhere 😎 Aaron Pico aims for his second UFC win when he kicks off the #UFC333 main card! [ LIVE OCT 24 at 2pmET on @ParamountPlus | @VisitAbuDhabi | @InAbuDhabi | #InAbuDhabi ] pic.twitter.com/3oPNxLitK6 Volkov should be sitting on a seven-fight winning streak, but he was robbed by the judges against Ciryl Gane in 2024. Had Volkov gotten the deserved win, he likely would have fought Tom Aspinall for the title. Instead, the judges kicked off a series of events that led to Gane holding the belt after Aspinall was forced to vacate.
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