UFC on FX 8 Rockhold vs Belfort Predictions

UFC on FX 8 is this Saturday in Brazil. A lot of Brazilians are on the fight card and I expect a few great fights. The main card took a hit when Costa Philippou went down with an injury, but Camozzi has stepped up to fight in the co-main event against Souza.

The main event between Luke Rockhold and Vitor Belfort should be the FOTN on Saturday. The rest of the main card isn’t likely to present much excitement, but the prelims have some excellent bouts including Dias vs. Lentz and Prazeres vs. Thiago.

UFC on FX 8 Best Bets

• Bet on Vitor Belfort +113 (SportBet) vs. Luke Rockhold

Luke Rockhold (10-1) was undefeated in his eight Strikeforce fights and was the Strikeforce Middleweight Champion. Rockhold is looking to earn a UFC title shot and in his debut he has been matched up against UFC veteran Vitor Belfort (22-10).

Rockhold does a good job not eating many strikes in the cage, but he really only has his stand-up to rely on in fights. Belfort isn’t going to have to worry about being taken down and Belfort has much more power in his strikes than Rockhold.

Belfort has 15 TKO/KO wins including a TKO win over Bisping in his last fight. He can finish a fight quickly and I expect the hype to die down for Rockhold after he loses this fight. The winner will likely be in line for a title shot down the road.

• Bet on Ronaldo Souza by Submission -137 (Ladbrokes) vs. Chris Camozzi

Ronaldo Souza (17-3) is a big favourite now that he’s fighting Chris Camozzi (19-5) instead of Philippou. Souza is great at jiu-jitsu and he has 13 submission wins in his career. Souza submitted Herman in his last fight and will be making his UFC debut now.

Camozzi is 6-2 in the UFC and he’s just 26 years old compared to Souza who is 33 years old. Camozzi has been submitted 3X out of his 5 losses in his career. I think the experience and technical ability of Souza will allow him to submit Camozzi and win.

• Bet on Paulo Thiago -159 (SportBet) vs. Michel Prazeres

Michel Prazeres (16-0) has fought with many promotions before finally landing with the UFC. He gets Paulo Thiago (14-5) who is in absolutely terrible form after losing 4 of his L5 fights. Thiago has the talent to beat Prazeres, but does he have the will?

Thiago has two black belts in BJJ and judo, but he hasn’t been effective in the cage. His name kept him in the promotion up to this point, but he needs to beat Prazeres on the prelims in Brazil. I think Thiago gets out of his funk with a win this weekend.

• Bet on John Lineker -140 (Sports Interaction) vs. Azamat Gashimov

The last prelim fight that stands out to me as a nice bet is the Lineker vs. Gashimov fight. Lineker lost his UFC debut, but he won the FOTN bonus for that fight at UFC on Fox 3. Lineker has since bounced back with a decision win over Urushitani.

Gashimov fought his UFC debut against Menjivar and looked terrible in the fight. He was submitted in the opening round and he didn’t have an answer in that fight at bantamweight. He’ll try dropping down to flyweight, but I don’t think that’s going to help.

I haven’t finalized any of my parlay bets yet this week, but the favourites I’m looking to include on my parlays are Souza, Tibau, Dos Anjos, Trinaldo and Maldonado. I think these favourites will all win this weekend. I’d avoid Natal on the main card.