UFC Fight Night: Smith vs. Teixeira Odds

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Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

The return of live professional sports in the USA and Canada went off largely without a hitch Saturday night at UFC 249 from VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida, and it’s full steam ahead for UFC president Dana White as the organization stages a Fight Night Card at the same location on Wednesday – again with no fans in attendance – and headlined by a non-title light heavyweight bout between Anthony Smith and Glover Teixeira.ufc-fight-night-smith-vs-teixeira-odds

This fight originally was to be a Fight Night event on April 25 from Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska but was postponed due to the coronavirus.

The 31-year-old Smith (33-14), who is from Nebraska, is a former middleweight champion in the Cage Fury Fighting Championships organization. “Lionheart” joined the UFC in February 2016 with a unanimous decision win over Leonardo Guimaraes. Smith is perhaps best known for fighting UFC pound-for-pound king and light heavyweight champion Jon Jones at UFC 235 in March 2019, and Smith surprised everyone by taking Jones the distance in a loss.

Smith bounced back from that with a fourth-round submission victory (rear-naked choke) over Alexander Gustafsson in June 2019. Smith, ranked third in the division, is a -175 favorite on Wednesday; by comparison, he was +450 against Jones. Smith wins 55 percent of his fights by KO/TKO and 36 by submission. Eight of his 14 losses are by KO/TKO. He hasn’t fought in a while because Smith suffered a broken left hand in the win over Gustafsson.

Teixeira (30-7) is from the MMA-mad country of Brazil and is nearing the end of a very good career at age 40. He is ranked No. 8 in the division. Teixeira has gotten one title shot in his career and it also came against Jones, with the Brazilian losing by unanimous decision at UFC 172. Teixeira, a rare fighter without a nickname, has won his past three – albeit against so-so competition. He was last in the Octagon in September 2019 and beat Nikita Krylov by split decision.

That was only the fifth decision win in Teixeira’s career. He wins 57 percent of the time by KO/TKO. He has been beaten that way three times and four by decision. Teixeira is a +145 underdog Wednesday. It’s his first time as a dog since being priced +125 in a December 2017 upset win over Misha Cirkunov.