When UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic and former champion Junior dos Santos fought at UFC on Fox 13 in Dec. 2014, there was an argument made that Miocic won the fight even though “Cigano” won that December evening by unanimous decision. Oddsmakers must feel the same way as the Ohio native is the favorite heading into their rematch at UFC 211.
Linesmaker Joey Oddessa has the champion at -205, while the challenger is at +167 in anticipation of the heavyweight tilt.
“Junior Dos Santos barely squeaked out a five-round decision then,” Oddessa told MMA Junkie.
“That win was more than two years ago, but only two bouts ago for Dos Santos. Coming off his win against Miocic, Dos Santos suffered a loss against Alistair Overeem where ‘JDS’ closed as a 3-1 favorite, and then bounced back with a win against Ben Rothwell as about a pick’em. During the same time period, Stipe Miocic has rattled off four consecutive wins where he was favored in all but the third, an upset win against Fabricio Werdum.”
Miocic and dos Santos fought in Dec. 2014 at UFC on Fox 13 with the Brazilian winning a narrow unanimous decision in what was “The Fight of the Night”. It was the last loss for the reigning champion whose notched four consecutive knockout wins over Mark Hunt at UFC Fight Night 65, Andrei Arlovski at UFC 195, Fabricio Werdum at UFC 198 to win the title and Alistair Overeem at UFC 203 in his hometown of Cleveland.
After beating Miocic, dos Santos got knocked out by Overeem at UFC on Fox 18 and in his most recent affair, defeated Ben Rothwell by unanimous decision at UFC Fight Night 86. He was supposed to fight Stefan Struve at UFC Fight Night 105 on Feb. 19 but Struve had to bow out of the fight due to injury.
UFC 211 will take place on May 13 from the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. You can watch the preliminary fights on UFC Fight Pass and Fox Sports followed by the main card on pay-per-view.
