MMA betting

MMA betting is one of the most subjective things we can put on hands on betting wise. Learning MMA betting is in other words not that easy. Due to the small sample of fights to judge fighters ability books often open with some huge misprices that the sharp bettor can take advantage of. In order to find mistakes in the prices we must gather some important information ourselves before betting, some of which I’ll detail here.

Fighter Matchup

This is one of the most important aspects when judging how a fight will go, so if you want your MMA betting to yield results; read on. You must look at each fighter’s style and how well they perform against the opponent’s style.  For example we often see strikers come in with some impressive KO victories over other strikers but when they face an accomplished wrestler they often do not have the skills to avoid being taken down and controlled by the superior grappler.

That said; the superior grappler always has an edge. He or she can pretty much decide how the match is to be fought. If the wrestler/grappler wants to get to the ground, that is surely happening. He or she can take control of the bout with this knowledge and pretty much decide the style of fight.

Watching fighters previous bouts against a similar type of opponent came give an advantage in evaluating how their upcoming fight will go. It is important to establish a path to victory for a fighter before you place a bet on him.

For fighters without a large previous record we have to look into their background pre-mma, if a fighter was a college wrestler at ncaa division 1 level then we can be confident this will translate into quality takedowns and control.  If the fighter was a professional level kick-boxer then it is safe to assume they will be predominately a striker initially.

Training Camp

An often overlooked part of a MMA fighter’s progression is his training camp.  We often see fighters move to a new camp to work on weaknesses in their game and fight planning.  If a fighter shows raw quality but lost a fight due to indiscipline then a move to a super organised gym like Jackson MMA will lead to an improvement in fight planning in the future and could make him undervalued by books.

Ignore Record

This might sound like some stupid advice but a fighter’s record in MMA isn’t all that important!  Unlike boxing, most young MMA fighters aren’t protected by fighting scrubs till they build up a record.  If you look at a top 10 pound for pound fighter like Carlos Condit, he had already amassed 4 losses before he joined the UFC, and now he’d be favourite against any welterweight bar GSP. Even the best fighter in the world Anderson Silva has lost 4 fights.

There are many other factors we must take into account when betting on MMA but there is no substitute for watching fights and learning how fighter styles match up against each other. The market for MMA fights is still new enough that mistakes are often made by books and with a bit of research and application even a casual bettor can find they have an edge. As always finding the best available odds for our selection is just as important as making the selection itself, so compare the price at all available books before placing the bet.