McGregor is short favorite for rematch against Diaz

Nate Diaz is an even-money underdog for his second fight against Conor McGregor at UFC 200.

Nate Diaz is an even-money underdog for his second fight against Conor McGregor at UFC 200.

Published on Wednesday, 3/30/16, at 5:37 a.m. Eastern.

5Dimes opened Conor McGregor as a -170 favorite early Sunday afternoon for his rematch against Nate Diaz. McGregor-Diaz II is expected to be officially announced for the UFC 200 headliner later this week.

Less than two hours after sending out the opening odds, however, McGregor was down to a -140 favorite at 5Dimes. As of early this morning, the offshore betting shop had ‘The Notorious’ as the -130 ‘chalk,’ leaving Diaz at an even-money price.

When these two fighters scrapped at UFC 196, McGregor closed as a -500 favorite. Diaz cashed tickets in the +400 range (risk $100 to win $400) when he forced the Dublin, Ireland, native to tap with a rear-naked choke in the second round.

Diaz took the fight on just 10 days of notice after Rafael dos Anjos pulled out of his lightweight title defense against McGregor. This second fight at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas this summer is expected to be contested at welterweight again.

The total is 2.5 rounds (‘under’ -170, ‘over’ +130) for UFC 200. The tally was the same for UFC 196, but the odds for the ‘under’ were -200.

The prop bet for Diaz to win by submission paid a +700 return (risk $100 to win $700). For Diaz to win in Round 2, a prop at 5Dimes handed out huge 16/1 payments.

In other UFC betting news, Anderson ‘The Spider’ Silva has been installed as a -165 favorite vs. Uriah Hall (+135) for their UFC 198 showdown in Brazil. Silva recently made comments in an interview that he’d be interested in facing McGregor at a catchweight in the future. He also expressed interest in rematches with Nick Diaz and Michael Bisping, who recently beat Silva by unanimous decision at UFC London.

Also, Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson is a -120 favorite vs. Rory MacDonald in the UFC Ottawa main event on June 18. The total is 2.5 rounds (‘over’ -150, ‘under’ +130).

Here are a couple of upcoming UFC picks that I’m bullish on: Ben Rothwell (-115) over Junior dos Santos at UFC Fight Night 86 (April 10), Tony Ferguson (+160) over Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC on Fox 19 (April 16) and Matt Brown (+250) over Demian Maia at UFC 198).

Share this post: