UFC 167 Picks, Pettis out 6 months & Miesha Tate

Published on Thursday, 11/14/13, at 12:16 p.m. Eastern.
Update on Saturday, 11/16/13, at 2:03 p.m. Eastern.

By Brian Edwards

–Anthony Pettis is out for the next six months with a PCL tear in his left leg. He had to pull out of his first title defense vs. Josh Thomson at UFC on Fox 9. Pettis captured the lightweight strap with a first-round submission win over Benson Henderson. No word yet on whether Thomson will wait it out or get back in the Octagon while Pettis recovers.

–I have 3 plays for Saturday’s UFC 167 card. I like Robbie Lawler as a +275 underdog vs. Rory MacDonald. Lawler has entirely too much power in his hands and with his headkicks to not take a shot with him at such a generous underdog price. Lawler has KO’d Josh Koscheck and Bobby Voelker in his first two fight since returning to the UFC.

–I also like Koscheck in a pick ’em fight vs. Tyron Woodley. Koscheck is fighting for his job and I expect him to bounce back nicely after losses to Lawler and Johny Hendricks.

–My third play is my strongest and it’s on Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone in another pick ’em fight (-115 or -120) against Evan Dunham. I think Cerrone owns a huge advantage with his stand-up skills and he can wrestle as well as Dunham. All over Cowboy in the final preliminary bout that can be seen for free on Fox Sports 1.

–On Friday’s Bellator card, Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson will return to the cage to face another former UFC veteran in Joey Beltran. Rampage is a -300 favorite with Beltran available at +240 on the comeback (risk $100 to win $240). UPDATE: Rampage scored a first-round KO with one second remaining in the first round. 

–The odds for the rematch between Anderson Silva and Chris Weidman have been bouncing around for months. Bovada currently has Silva as the -140 favorite while the champ has +110 odds.

–My three main plays for UFC 167 are listed above, but (for much less amount-wise) I’ll also pick Chael Sonnen as a +150 ‘dog vs. Rashad Evans in the co-main event. And I like Hendricks’ chances a bunch to take GSP’s strap as a +230ish ‘dog in the main event.

Jon ‘Bones’ Jones will make his next light-heavyweight title defense against Glover Teixeira at UFC 170 on Feb. 22. UPDATE: Dana White told the assembled media Friday that Jones has pulled out of the fight and didn’t give a reason other than to say “he’s not injured.” This fight is still going to happen but apparently Jones wants to put it off after taking the worse beating, albeit in a decision victory, of his career against Alexander Gustafsson.

–Miesha Tate is HOT a +650 underdog for her UFC 168 fight against women’s champ Ronda Rousey.

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