This article is part of our UFC Picks series.
Some might say the UFC had a down year in 2017, but regardless of whether you buy into that logic or not, the promotion seems dead set on making up for it with a tremendous start. One of their most highly marketable (and overall terrifying) assets in Francis Ngannou will get the biggest fight of his career, as he'll be pinned against reigning champion Stipe Miocic in the main event of the evening, where the "Baddest Man on the Planet" will be crowned. And remember Daniel Cormier? Though he fell to Jon Jones his last time out, DC has since been reinstated as champion following a failed Jones drug test. Cormier will make his first title defense since those events, taking on the heavy-handed Volkan Oezdemir in the co-main event. See how the RotoWire MMA Staff sees the Pay-Per-View portion of Saturday's card playing out.If you're looking for a fantasy-specific breakdown of these fights on DraftKings, click here for Jon Litterine's UFC 220 preview.
| MATCHUP | WEIGHT CLASS | JON | EVAN | JAKE |
| Francis Ngannou (-170) vs. Stipe Miocic (+150) | Heavyweight Championship | Miocic | ||
| Daniel Cormier (-300) vs. Volkan Oezdemir (+270) | Light Heavyweight Championship | Cormier | Cormier | Cormier |
| Calvin Kattar (+150) vs. Shane Burgos (-170) | Featherweight | |||
| Gian Villante (-170) vs. Francimar Barroso (+150) | Light Heavyweight | Villante | Villante | |
| Rob Font (+100) vs. Thomas Almeida (-120) | Bantamweight | Font | RECORD | 2-3 | 3-2 | 2-3 |
| OVERALL (since UFC 200) | 60-41 | 56-45 | 63-38 | |
| PERCENTAGE | .594 | .554 | .624 |
| MATCHUP | WEIGHT CLASS | RICHARD | CHRIS |
| Francis Ngannou (-170) vs. Stipe Miocic (+150) | Heavyweight Championship | Miocic | Miocic |
| Daniel Cormier (-300) vs. Volkan Oezdemir (+270) | Light Heavyweight Championship | Cormier | Cormier |
| Calvin Kattar (+150) vs. Shane Burgos (-170) | Featherweight | Kattar | |
| Gian Villante (-170) vs. Francimar Barroso (+150) | Light Heavyweight | Villante | |
| Rob Font (+100) vs. Thomas Almeida (-120) | Bantamweight | ||
| RECORD | 2-3 | 4-1 | |
| OVERALL (since UFC 200) | 43-29 | 23-18 | |
| PERCENTAGE | .597 | .561 |
THE PLAYERS
Jon Litterine: RotoWire lead MMA beat writer and scribe for our weekly DrafKings preview. Lead analyst on the RotoWire MMA Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @JonLitterine.
Evan Dahl: Pens our bi-weekly MMA Barometer column. Follow him on Twitter at @RealEvanDahl.
Jake Letarski: MMA and NCAA Hoops Senior Editor. Sirius XM contributor. Host of the RotoWire MMA Podcast, RotoWire Fantasy Football Podcast and RotoWire DFS Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @JakeSki52.
Richard Mann: Richard is a stats-based analyst that has appeared on ESPN MMA via Fightmetric. He handles event recaps in our Fight Stat Wrap column, and maintains his own, data-driven MMA blog at StrikescoreMMA.com. Follow him on Twitter at @RichardAMann.
Chris Olson: Contributor at RotoWire for DFS Baseball, as well as MMA fight recaps. Follow him on Twitter at @RealChrisOlson.
Disagree with these picks? Let your opinion be heard in the comments!
