- Tai Tuivasa has opened as the -200 betting favorite against Augusto Sakai.
- Tuivasa and Sakai will face each other at UFC Fight Night 198 on November 20th.
- At +170, Sakai will be the betting underdog in his third consecutive fight.
Tai Tuivasa will have the backing of the best UFC sportsbooks when he attempts to win a fourth straight bout against Augusto Sakai:
UFC Fight Night: Vieira vs. Tate:
Augusto Sakai (+170)
Tai Tuivasa (-200)https://t.co/SRceWNa7LY @AugustoSakai @bambamtuivasa— BestFightOdds (@BestFightOdds) October 28, 2021
Tuivasa and Sakai are scheduled to throw down in a three-round heavyweight feature at UFC Fight Night 198. Tuivasa was supposed to fight Walt Harris at UFC 267 last weekend in Abu Dhabi but that bout was moved to the November 20 event. Harris however was forced out of the bout for undisclosed reasons and Sakai stepped in.
Tuivasa Knocks Out Hardy
Tai Tuivasa walked out to Spice Girls, knocked out Greg Hardy and drank beer out of a shoe. Certified legend pic.twitter.com/De9Hs1x2lL
— BroBible (@BroBible) July 11, 2021
Tuivasa is coming off a first-round knockout win over Greg Hardy at UFC 264 last July 10th. The victory was the third straight for the 28-year old from Sydney, Australia after his UFC career was on the ropes with consecutive defeats against Junior Dos Santos, Blagoy Ivanov, and Sergey Spivak.
Tuivasa opened his MMA career with 10 straight victories and won the AFC heavyweight title, making one successful title defense. He joined the UFC in 2016 and won his first three Octagon assignments before hitting a brick wall. But he’s bounced back nicely and is now aiming to enter the rankings with a fourth straight win.
Bambam is currently unranked in the UFC heavyweight division but a victory over a Top 10 ranked Sakai should put his name in the rankings. Two of his three defeats have come as the betting favorite. Tuivasa was a -170 favorite when he lost on points to Ivanov and was the -300 chalk when he was submitted by Spivak.
Rozenstruik Stops Sakai
Jairzinho Rozenstruik stops Augusto Sakai in first round of UFC bout https://t.co/wTCeDhf50q pic.twitter.com/zQu9ZJyBd1
— New York Post (@nypost) June 6, 2021
Meanwhile, Sakai is in the same boat that Tuivasa was in before his current winning run. The 30-year old Brazilian heads to UFC Fight Night 198 with back-to-back losses in his resume. He was knocked out by Alistair Overeem at UFC Fight Night 176 on September 5, 2020, in his first-ever headliner. Then in his most recent bout, Sakai was stopped by Jairzinho Rozenstruik at UFC Fight Night 189 for his second straight loss.
Sakai entered the UFC with just one loss in 12 MMA bouts. He earned his UFC contract by knocking out Marcos Conrado during the first-ever Contender Series Brazil show and went on to win his first four UFC bouts before suffering back-to-back losses for the first time in his career.
The 10th ranked heavyweight in the UFC will be seeing the plus money sign next to his name for the third straight bout. Sakai was a +140 betting underdog against Overeem and a +125 bottom dog against Rozenstruik. But while this will be the longest odds he’s seen in the UFC, it’s not his longest ever as Sakai was a +250 underdog when he lost to Cheick Kongo at Bellator 179.
