Woodley v Maia - UFC 214 betting

Published on July 16th, 2017 4:52 pm EST
Written By: Cian Murray
The card for UFC is absolutely stacked and we can't wait! Of course everybody is talking about Jon 'Bones' Jones versus his nemesis Daniel Cormier, but before that there is another intriguing title fight.

Tyron Woodley faces off against Demian Maia in an epic welterweight bout. Never before have two fighters had such clear, differentiating styles. Primarily, Woodley is a striker. Of course, his ground game is far ahead of the novices, but it's not where his strengths lie.

Meanwhile, Maia has arguably the greatest ground game in all of the UFC. He made Gunnar Nelson look like an amateur and 'Gunni' is supreme.

So in the end, it comes down to this; are you going to back striking or grappling? Woodley is 4/7, so if you fancy the striker you aren't going to get great odds.

Maia is 6/4 and if you've ever seen this guys BJJ, you'll know that he has this fight if he can get a takedown. That's easier said than done though, particularly against a fighter as good as Woodley.

If you saw Woodley's pair of fights against 'Wonderboy' then you'll know that the champ isn't just a great striker, but a master tactician too. He will know that he stands a much better chance if he can keep this fight on its feet.

Those fights both went to decision, but Woodley is a man who is more than capable of ending fights early. It is 5/6 for this fight to finish before the third round and if the champion can get on the inside of Maia, it might just be a quick night.

However, the Brazilian will try to grind Woodley on the floor, so backing this to go by the third round at a price of 5/6 could be a great bet for some. Maia is no slouch when it comes to tactics either - he has six losses in his 31 fight career, but all but one of those came from a decision.

The fact that Maia has only been knocked out once is turning us against betting on an early finish. The 39-year-old has defeated many big hitters before and we actually fancy an upset here. He had to wait a long time for this title shot and now that it has finally come, we don't see him leaving it behind him.

What makes this fight even more interesting is that the winner could potentially face GSP on his return. That would be a massive fight for either of these two warriors. We fancy Maia to do it.

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