posted July 18, 2008 at 16:06 in UFC / MMA Betting Trends

It’s a huge weekend for sports betting here at BetUS Sportsbook, with two huge cards featuring lots of very lopsided lines. Look them over closely ... a few upsets could end up giving you a very large return. But before we get into the news about our combatants, let’s talk some general MMA wagering news.

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably heard that Quinton Jackson was arrested earlier this week after a hit and run escalated into a police chase escalated into Rampage lying face down on the pavement with a squad of gun toting police surrounding him. Not many details have come out regarding what set Quinton off, but right after getting bailed out of prison he got picked up by the cops again and brought to the hospital for a 72-hour vacation from the outside world. Next week I'm sure we'll have more info on what the hell went wrong there. Suffice to say though; I don't think Quinton is going to be getting an immediate rematch with Forrest Griffin any more.

Leading up to this weekend's fight against Anderson Silva (-500), James Irvin (+350) has spent a lot of time talking to the press (and hopefully preparing funeral arrangements, etc.). The funny thing about Irvin is that he realizes he's been given a snowball's chance in hell and he knows that individually his tools don't equal Silva's, but he still feels confident that he'll go in there and slug out a win SOMEHOW. Two comments that make me doubt him? His insistence that he'll be able to out muscle Silva in the clinch, and his declaration that he's ready to take 30 strikes to get 10 of his own in.

I don't have anything interesting to say about Brandon Vera's (-550) upcoming opponent Reese Andy (+400), and neither does Brandon. So instead he's talking trash about other fighters, claiming that Dan Henderson and Sokoudjou both refused a fight with him at this weekend's UFC Fight Night. Of course, it's worth noting that Brandon Vera himself turned down a proposed bout against Lyoto Machida. But I guess you're only a bitch to do that when you're not Brandon Vera.

Moving over to the other big event of the weekend, Affliction headliner Tim Sylvia (+300) seems like he's in the right head space to challenge Fedor Emelianenko (-400). You really do need to be a bit delusional in order to challenge someone who's widely regarded as the greatest fighter inthe history of the sport, and Tim's got that down to a science. Just a few days ago he went on record saying that if he went into boxing, he would clean out the heavyweight division. And while lots of Sylvia's bouts do have the stalling, jabbing, and grabbing of a terrible boxing match, I doubt he'd be able to round more than a few rounds against roughly half the boxers floating around contention.

Speaking of Tim Sylvia, Andrei Arlovski (-230), who is fighting on the same card against former IFL standout Ben Rothwell (+180), had this to say when asked what he thought of the rumors that Tim was involved with his ex-girlfriend: "You know what, I'm not interested and it's his business. If he did something with her I just want to ask him, hey Tim how taste my pee-pee-pee?" This fight just showed up on the sports book this week, so if you had already set your bets for the weekend, make sure you go back and play this line.

That's it for another Week in MMA. Join us next week and we sift through the rubble of the Affliction / UFC card and check out more happenings in the sport.

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Written exclusively for BetUS by Ryan Harkness of www.fightlinker.com