Aside from another UFC fighter making life easy for MacDonald by demonstrating how to beat the very dangerous Brazilian, MacDonald also has several other advantages which should make this an easy fight for him.
The first advantage is his world class Ju Jitsu skills. Maia’s main weapon in the cage is his ability to submit people, but MacDonald’s wrestling is good enough to prevent Maia from taking this fight to the ground. Even if this fight did go to the ground, I doubt Maia would be able to keep it there long enough to submit MacDonald, who also has excellent submission defence.
The second advantage is linked to the last point we made about takedown defence. One of MacDonald’s biggest strengths is the way he uses his striking to maintain distance and make it difficult for his opponents to get close enough to take him down. Even if Maia was able to get hold of MacDonald, MacDonald possesses some of the best takedown defence in the UFC’s Welterweight division, having defended 86% of all takedown attempts thrown at him.
The third advantage that MacDonald has in this fight, is his superior striking. MacDonald has a 4.5 inch reach advantage over Maia and he also lands more than double the amount of punches per minute. MacDonald also absorbs a lot less damage per minute, as his elusive style of fighting makes him very hard to hit.
The final advantage that MacDonald has over Maia is huge and an advantage that is often overlooked in MMA. The harsh reality of professional sports is that age matters and performance levels start to rapidly decline once a fighter hits the age of 30. Rory MacDonald is 12 years younger than the 36 year old Brazilian and this will play a massive part in this fight. In situations where there is a 10 year age gap or more, the younger fighter will win on average 81% of the time.
Demian Maia has shown improved striking in his recent fights, but he will struggle to compete in the stand up exchanges with MacDonald and this will be the deciding factor in this fight. Rory MacDonald will use his takedown defence and reach advantage to keep Maia at a safe distance and win this fight comfortably.
The odds on Rory MacDonald to win are very decent for a fighter with this much of an advantage over his opponent. You can currently find odds of around 1.47 | -214 | 7/15 on [adrotate group=”19″], who currently have the best odds for this fight. Be sure to place your bets soon, as the betting lines opened last week at 1.67 | -149 | 67/100 on MacDonald to win and they’ve been rapidly dropping ever since. Most Sportsbooks are now offering odds as low as 1.30 | -333 | 3/10 on MacDonald to win, so you really need to place your bets over at [adrotate group=”19″] before they get any lower.
OUR FIRST BET: 10.00 UNITS ON RORY MACDONALD TO WIN AT 1.47 | -214 | 7/15 OUR SECOND BET: 3.00 UNITS ON RORY MACDONALD TO WIN BY DECISION AT 3.50 | +250 | 5/2
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BEST ODDS AVAILABLE FOR THIS UFC FIGHT…
The best odds for this fight can be found at [adrotate group=”19″].
