While this may be getting out to you a bit late, there is still plenty of time for you to get to the window and make some money on this fine Saturday evening.
Despite many (including myself) labeling this UFC Vegas 40 card at the APEX in Las Vegas the weakest card in UFC history, that doesn’t make women’s UFC top-10 pound-for-pound fighter Aspen Ladd (9-1, 4-1 UFC) any less worthy of earning your respect when it comes to wagering your hard-earned money on her tonight.
The 26-year-old (former?) phenom has made plenty of waves recently for all the wrong reasons, as the (definitely former) UFC bantamweight missed weight yet again ahead of a canceled bout with Macy Chiasson just a couple of weeks ago. Yet tonight, she has a real chance to make up for all of that and put some much-needed sizzle into the women’s featherweight division.
Interestingly enough, Ladd’s opponent has had her fair share of struggles while attempting to make the 135-pound limit at bantamweight. Norma Dumont (6-1, 2-1 UFC) is likely not psyched to be fighting the super-dangerous Ladd on short notice after former champion Holly Holm had to back out of this fight last minute.
According to Fanduel Sportsbook, Ladd heads into this matchup as just a -135 favorite as of fight night, which likely has much to do with her struggles on the scale. To be fair, she also is coming off an almost two-year layoff after a torn ACL threw an unwanted wrench into her young career.
That is a lot to overcome, but I firmly believe we’re getting terrific value on Aspen Ladd here do to a lukewarm (to be nice) public narrative on her at the moment. If you know me, you know I love to take advantage of a narrative affecting a line any time I can.
We’ll sprinkle in Ladd by KO/TKO at +270, as well, as the California native has finished a dynamite 77% of her career fights professionally and 75% of her amateur bouts (which gives us a solid sample size).
With Nate ‘The Train’ Landwehr already cashing for us tonight as a bonus play, tonight could be our first step back toward respectability on this site on what is shaping up to be an electric end of the year schedule in the UFC world.
Official plays:
Aspen Ladd -135 for 3.5U
Aspen Ladd by KO/TKO +270 for 1U
ADDING: Brent Primus +106 for 2.8U
YTD: 1-3, -5.9U (if you remember my debut giving out picks on this site, which I hope you don’t)
Let’s get it people.