UFC 253: Dominick Reyes vs. Jan Blachowicz Betting Preview, Odds, Prediction

Dominick Reyes has another chance to win the title. This time, his rival will be Jan Blachowicz, in a match for the vacated UFC lightweight belt. After a controversial loss against Jon Jones, Reyes was given another chance, mostly because many felt that the result from the UFC 247 wasn’t fair. Meanwhile, Blachowicz earned his spot here with seven wins in the last eight events. He is on the rise, and nobody disputed his participation in this event.

Preview 

Reyes (-280) is a massive favorite, and how wouldn’t he be after handling Jon Jones as he did in their matchup. Reyes was robbed according to many, but we need to say that we didn’t saw Bones losing that one, and the fairest solution would be a draw. Still, Jones did turn up the tempo in the last two rounds. But what Reyes did, was spectacular. 

We can now debate whether Jones was in his best shape or not, but the fact is that the Devastator came very close to winning the lightweight title. He has 12 wins and that one loss, with six triumphs in the organization. The first one was against Joachim Christensen, after that against Jeremy Kimball, then Jared Cannonier, Ovince Saint Preux, Volkan Ozdemir, and Chris Weidman. Apart from the bout against Oezdemir, which he won via split decision, all others were ended convincingly in his favor. 

Long, athletic, and powerful as he is, Reyes has presented a problem for all of his rivals on multiple levels. His punches are strong, and he doesn’t need too much space to generate enormous power. On the other side, his leg kicks are superb, and he easily makes ferocious combinations that repel any surge the rivals have. 

Blachowicz (+220) is a strong, feisty guy whose stand up is the best aspect of the fight. Why is that? The Pole has that one-punch-KO power in his fists, and there aren’t many guys in the UFC who can brag with that. 

After being defeated four times in five matches early on in his UFC career, Blachowicz radically changed his habits and started working on his body. He would become much more mobile, faster, and his cardio is a totally different dimension than it used to be. 

That is why he had all those wins. Among them, he had two against opponents who would defeat him before – Jimi Manuwa and Corey Anderson. The last fight he had was against Anderson, whom he knocked out in the first round. Previously, Blachowicz beat Ronaldo Souza, Luke Rockhold, Jared Cannonier, Nikita Kyrilov. The only loss in the last three years came against Thiago Santos. This is his career highlight and the veteran will give everything to close it successfully. 

Prediction

Reyes is a more diverse and apparently more mobile guy. It seems that he is much more talented than the hard-working Pole. That is why we back his win here. After seeing how he performed against Jones, we simply have to. The odds are not as high as some might have wanted, but his win is pretty realistic.