(Editor’s note: The main card fight between Ottman Azaitar and Matt Frevola was canceled on Friday during weigh-in. The new main card fight between Makhmud Muradov and Andrew Sanchez was added too late for the term of our choices.)
The UFC ends its season of three events over eight days at “Ilha da Luta” with its biggest draw.
UFC 257 takes place Saturday at the Etihad Stadium in Abu Dhabi. The main card will air on pay-per-view after the preliminaries on ESPN and the first preliminaries on ESPN +.
(Click here to open a PDF of the team’s choice grid in a separate window.)
In the main event, former interim lightweight champion Dustin Poirier (26-6 MMA, 18-5 UFC) meets former lightweight and featherweight champion Conor McGregor (22-4 MMA, 10-2 UFC) in a fight rematch won in 2014 by McGregor. McGregor is a 3-1 favorite at BetMGM, and he has a considerable 10-4 lead from our 14 editors, writers, videographers and radio presenters.
In the co-feature, ex-Bellator lightweight champion Michael Chandler (21-5 MMA, 0-0 UFC) makes his promotional debut against Dan Hooker (20-9 MMA, 10-5 UFC). Hooker is only a slight favorite at -130, but he is Chandler with a big advantage of 10-4 choices.
Joanne Calderwood (14-5 MMA, 6-5 UFC) may have the least chance of betting on her main card at -120 for her female flyweight fight against former title challenger Jessica Eye (15-8 MMA, 5-7 UFC), but the choices are a 13-1 explosion for Calderwood.
And Amanda Ribas (10-1 MMA, 4-0 UFC) is a favorite of -350 in the female strawweight against Marina Rodriguez (12-1-2 MMA, 2-1-2 UFC). Ribas is our only unanimous choice, and she is also our readers’ biggest favorite with an impressive 94 percent.
In the consensus choices of MMA reader Junkie, McGregor (62 percent), Hooker (57 percent), Calderwood (58 percent) and Ribas (94 percent) are the choices.
Check out all the choices above.