This article is part of our UFC Picks series.
Dominance will be on display Saturday night in Houston, as Jon Jones will be making his 11th title defense in the light heavyweight division. Valentina Shevchenko has looked unbeatable herself, and enters as the card's largest betting favorite. Mix in some heavyweight fireworks, and you have yourself a stellar pay-per-view.
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 247 Preview or tune into Fight IQ live Friday at 8:00 p.m. EST on the RotoWire Youtube Channel.
| MATCHUP | WEIGHT CLASS | JON | JAKE | RICHARD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Jon Jones (-450) vs. Dominick Reyes (+360) | Light | Jones | Jones | Jones |
Katlyn Chookagian (+700) vs. Valentina Shevchenko (-1100) | Women's Flyweight | Shevchenko | Shevchenko | Shevchenko |
Juan Adams (-240) vs. Justin Tafa (+200) | Heavyweight | |||
Dan Ige (+120) vs. Mirsad Bektic (-140) | Featherweight | Ige | ||
| Derrick Lewis (-250) vs. Ilir Latifi (+210) | Heavyweight | Lewis | Lewis | |
| UFC 247 RECORD | 3-2 | 4-1 | 2-3 | |
| 2020 RECORD | 7-2 | 6-3 | 4-5 | |
| 2020 PERCENTAGE | .778 | .667 | .444 | |
| 2019 RECORD | 39-19 | 35-23 | 32-26 | |
| 2019 PERCENTAGE | .672 | .603 | .552 | |
| ALL-TIME | 141-83 | 139-85 | 112-83 | |
| ALL-TIME PERCENTAGE | .629 | .621 | .574 |
| MATCHUP | WEIGHT CLASS | CHRIS OLSON | JOE SUNTZU | SHAUN "TheDFSniper" |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Jon Jones (-450) vs. Dominick Reyes (+360) | Light | Jones | Jones | Jones |
Katlyn Chookagian (+700) vs. Valentina Shevchenko (-1100) | Women's Flyweight | Shevchenko | Shevchenko | Shevchenko |
Juan Adams (-240) vs. Justin Tafa (+200) | Heavyweight | Tafa | ||
Dan Ige (+120) vs. Mirsad Bektic (-140) | Featherweight | Ige | ||
| Derrick Lewis (-250) vs. Ilir Latifi (+210) | Heavyweight | Lewis | Lewis | |
| UFC 248 RECORD | 3-2 | 4-1 | 3-2 | |
| 2020 RECORD | 7-2 | 8-1 | 7-2 | |
| 2020 PERCENTAGE | .778 | .889 | .778 | |
| 2019 RECORD | 33-25 | 34-24 | 34-24 | |
| 2019 PERCENTAGE | .569 | .586 | .586 | |
| ALL-TIME | 91-73 | 69-44 | 71-42 | |
| ALL-TIME PERCENTAGE | .555 | .611 | .628 |
THE TEAM
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.
Jake Letarski: RotoWire.com Operations Manager, plus MMA and NCAA Hoops Senior Editor. Host of the RotoWire MMA Podcast and guest on the RotoWire Fantasy Football Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @RotoJake.
Richard Mann: Richard is a stats-based analyst that has appeared on ESPN MMA via Fightmetric. For RotoWire, he contributes as a fight 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 4th 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.
