UFC 92 Betting Preview Okami vs Lister

UFC fans have been wondering for months if anyone in the middleweight division is capable of beating Anderson Silva, and for the most part, no one has stepped up.

Patrick Cote put on a good showing in Chicago at UFC 90 but still didn’t really appear as if he wasn’t going to beat Silva before succumbing to a brutal injury.

Yushin Okami is one of the few fighters who can claim a win over Silva, but that’s only because of a disqualification via an illegal kick by Silva.

Okami has a tough task against veteran submission artist Dean Lister at UFC 92 in Las Vegas. For Okami, the key to a win will be to either keep the fight standing or to stay out of trouble on the ground. He’s been good at dictating the pace and style of the fight in most of his matches, especially using in his excellent takedown defense, and that will be very important against Lister.

Okami is a decent a jiu-jitsu fighter but he mostly prefers the ground-and-pound game, and he’s pretty good at it. At the same time, however, he’s not a guy who will overwhelm his opponent with power and strength. He’s mainly a technical striker and he’s definitely good enough to beat Lister on points at UFC 92.

While Okami is a better fighter all-around at this point, it doesn’t seem like a good idea to bet on him in this fight because Lister is more than capable of pulling off the upset. Okami has been solid but he hasn’t shown to be a dominant fighter at this point in his career and this fight looks like it will either be a close decision or perhaps even a Lister submission if Okami gets careless.

The odds for this fight have Okami as a solid favorite at -350 to +225, and it doesn’t seem worth it to lay some coin on a fighter facing who hasn’t looked dominant. Prior to his last fight, a win over the late Evan Tanner (who didn’t look too good in that fight), Okami’s last three fights went to decisions including a loss to Rich Franklin in which he wasn’t very aggressive at all and looked disinterested.

Lister on the other hand has nine wins by submission and is certainly capable of pulling this one off. If you do decide to bet on this one, the best decision might be to lay a little bit of cash at BetUS.com on Lister and hope he can pull the upset.