In a light heavyweight bout on the main card, Magomed Ankalaev and Anthony Smith meet Saturday at UFC 277 at American Airlines Arena in Dallas. Below, we analyze the UFC 277 Ankalaev vs. Smith odds and lines, with picks and predictions.
The card can be viewed on ESPN+ with the early prelims starting at 6 p.m. ET on ESPN+, the prelims starting at 8 p.m. ET on ABC/ESPN/ESPN+, followed by the main card at 10 p.m. ET on Pay-Per-View.
Ankalaev lost his UFC debut against Paul Craig in a 3rd-round submission back in March 2018. He has won 8 straight fights since, including 4 KO/TKO wins and 4 unanimous-decision victories.
The 30-year-old Ankalaev has recorded 3 straight UD wins, including a victory over Thiago Santos in mid-March. He stands an inch shorter than his counterpart while he has a 1-inch reach disadvantage, too. However, he holds a 3.49-to-3.03 significant strikes landed per minute advantage and is much more accurate with those strikes than Smith at 63.52% to just 50.93%.
The Russian fighter has also wowed the judges with his takedown ability, going for a 1.01 takedown average to just 0.46 for Smith. However, the latter has a 0.77 submission average, while Ankalaev has never won via that method.
Smith has recorded 3 consecutive finishes, including a submission last time out over Ryan Spann in September. He’s had 3 consecutive Round 1 victories, 2 via submission and 1 via TKO.
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