UFC Picks: UFC 226

UFC Picks: UFC 226

This article is part of our UFC Picks series.

The term "superfight" gets tossed around in MMA quite a bit, but rarely does one of this magnitude come to fruition. Saturday's matchup between heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic and light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier is truly as "super" of a fight that can be made in MMA in 2018. Talks of TJ/DJ, Cyborg/Nunes and even Bellator's MacDonald/Mousasi can't quite stack up to what the UFC is doing with their International Fight Week grand finale. These aren't just two individuals that stumbled upon a belt, but are consummate professionals that each have a chance to go down as the GOAT in their respective weight classes. After Saturday night, the question of "Who is the baddest man on the planet?" will have an answer more real than ever before.

As a reminder, these are purely picks. If you're looking for a fantasy-specific breakdown of these fights on DraftKings, click here for Jon Litterine's UFC 226 preview.

MATCHUP WEIGHT CLASS JON EVAN JAKE
Daniel Cormier (+210) vs.
Stipe Miocic (-230)
Heavyweight
Championship
MiocicCormierMiocic
Derrick Lewis (+315) vs.
Francis Ngannou (-380)
HeavyweightNgannouLewisNgannou
Anthony Pettis (+145) vs.
Michael Chiesa (-165)
LightweightChiesaChiesaChiesa
Gokhan Saki (-135) vs.
Khalil Rountree (+120)
Light HeavyweightRountreeSakiRountree
Brad Tavares (+115) vs.
Israel Adesanya (-135)
MiddleweightAdesanyaAdesanyaAdesanya
RECORD 2-3 3-2 2-3
OVERALL (since UFC 200) 79-49 72-56 77-51
PERCENTAGE .617 .563 .602
 
MATCHUP WEIGHT CLASS RICHARD CHRIS
Daniel Cormier (+210) vs.
Stipe Miocic (-230)
Heavyweight
Championship
CormierMiocic
Derrick Lewis (+315) vs.
Francis Ngannou (-380)
HeavyweightLewisNgannou
Anthony Pettis (+145) vs.
Michael Chiesa (-165)
LightweightChiesaPettis
Gokhan Saki (-135) vs.
Khalil Rountree (+120)
Light HeavyweightSakiRountree
Brad Tavares (+115) vs.
Israel Adesanya (-135)
MiddleweightAdesanyaTavares
RECORD 3-2 2-3
OVERALL (since UFC 200) 58-41 35-33
PERCENTAGE .586 .515
 
MATCHUP WEIGHT CLASS Joe "SunTszu" DFSSniper
Daniel Cormier (+210) vs.
Stipe Miocic (-230)
Heavyweight
Championship
MiocicCormier
Derrick Lewis (+315) vs.
Francis Ngannou (-380)
HeavyweightNgannouNgannou
Anthony Pettis (+145) vs.
Michael Chiesa (-165)
LightweightChiesaChiesa
Gokhan Saki (-135) vs.
Khalil Rountree (+120)
Light HeavyweightSakiRountree
Brad Tavares (+115) vs.
Israel Adesanya (-135)
MiddleweightTavaresTavares
RECORD 0-5 2-3
OVERALL (since UFC 200) 9-8 9-8
PERCENTAGE .529 .529

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 and WatchStadium contributor. Host of the RotoWire MMA Podcast and guest on the RotoWire Fantasy Football Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @JakeSki52.
Richard Mann: Richard is a stats-based analyst that has appeared on ESPN MMA via Fightmetric. He is the primary Bellator recap writer and handles event recaps in our Fight Stat Wrap column. Follow him on Twitter at @RichardAMann.
Chris Olson: Contributor at RotoWire to "Fight IQ, presented by RotoWire," as well as DFS Baseball, and MMA fight recaps. Follow him on Twitter at @RealChrisOlson.
Joe "SunTszu": Known more commonly by his Twitter handle @SunTszu, Joe is a Hedge Fund Executive by day and high-volume DFS player by night. He is a 2x "Bracket Challenge" & "Gotham qualifier, who is currently ranked 13th in DFS MMA. You can also find him as one of the original contributors of "Fight IQ, presented by RotoWire," a DFS-centric video breakdown. He is also a co-creator of the "Creating Alpha in DFS" podcast.
@theDFSniper: @theDFSniper is the host and lead instigator of "Fight IQ, presented by RotoWire," a DFS-centric video breakdown. He also appears on the LoudMouth MMA podcast and contributes soccer content to DFS Army.

Disagree with these picks? Let your opinion be heard in the comments!

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