Light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz will make his second title defense on Saturday against top-ranked contender Glover Teixeira in the main event of UFC 267. The title fight tops the main UFC 267 fight card (2 p.m. ET start) from Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. Blachowicz has won five straight fights to complete his transformation from journeyman to champion and will be making his first defense against an opponent in his natural weight class. Teixeira has seen his own late-career rally result in a five-fight win streak and his first title shot in more than seven years. He lost to former champion Jon Jones in a 2014 championship bid.
Blachowicz is a -280 favorite (risk $280 win $100), while Teixeira is priced at +240 in the latest UFC 267 odds from Caesars Sportsbook. In the co-main event, the interim bantamweight title is up for grabs as top-ranked contender Petr Yan (-240) faces No. 3-rated challenger Cory Sandhagen (+200). Before locking in any UFC 267 picks of your own, make sure you check out the MMA betting advice and UFC predictions from SportsLine analyst Andrew Gombas.
Gombas is a former NCAA wrestler who taps into his experience on the mat to dissect the X’s and O’s of MMA matchups in a manner that sets him apart from other MMA analysts. He started the MMA handicapping service MMA Knockout Bets in 2018 and has shown a profit every year since.
With more than 1,200 selections tracked by the third-party monitoring service Bet MMA, he has shown a 10 percent return on investment for his followers. In 2020, $100 bettors who tailed his picks were up $9,200. Just last week at UFC Fight Night, Gombas told SportsLine members to back Marvin Vettori (-180) against Paulo Costa (+160) in the light heavyweight main event. Anyone who has followed Gombas is already way up.
Now, with UFC 267 in sight, Gombas has studied the card from top to bottom and released his top selections. A successful parlay of those picks would pay better than 9-1. You can head to SportsLine now to see all of Gombas’ expert MMA picks and analysis.
UFC 267: Blachowicz vs. Teixeira preview
The main event features two fighters who were widely considered past their primes and nowhere near title contention just a few years ago. Blachowicz (28-8) was memorably in jeopardy of losing his UFC roster spot following defeats in four of his first six fights with the promotion before a win over Devin Clark ignited a four-fight win streak.
Even so, the Polish power puncher was generally viewed as a competent journeyman who couldn’t hang with world-class opponents, and his loss to former title challenger Thiago Santos in February 2019 appeared to support this notion.
But the 38-year-old has since ripped off fight straight wins, including one over former champion Luke Rockhold and a dominant victory over Dominick Reyes in September of last year, awarding him the title left vacant by Jones.
Any remaining skeptics were silenced by his unanimous-decision victory in March over previously undefeated middleweight champion Israel Adesanya, who failed in his bid to become a two-division champion although he was heavily favored against Blachowicz.
Teixeira (32-7) is just three years removed from a 2-3 stretch that appeared to have him headed toward the role of gatekeeper. But the Brazilian grappling specialist submitted prospects Karl Roberson and Ion Cutebala in 2019 to move back into contention.
His resurgence was solidified with a third-round submission of Santos last November that moved him into the top contender spot and set up this showdown with Blachowicz. You can only see which fighter to back at SportsLine.
UFC 267 predictions
We’ll share one of Gombas’ UFC 267 predictions here: He is backing Magomed Ankalaev (-300) to get past Volkan Oezdemir (+250) in a matchup of light heavyweight contenders.
Ankalaev (15-1) is a heavy-handed brawler who has ripped off six consecutive wins since taking a last-second submission loss in his UFC debut. Four of those wins have come inside the distance, though his last performance resulted in a unanimous decision over fellow prospect Nikita Krylov in February.
Oezdemir (17-6) is a former title-challenger who came up short against former champion Daniel Cormier in January 2018. He has since split four fights and is looking to rebound from a stoppage loss to Jiri Prochazka in July of last year.
“I believe Ankalaev will eventually find a finish and will put himself in the conversation for a title shot,” Gombas told SportsLine.
How to make UFC 267 picks
Gombas also has strong picks for Blachowicz vs. Teixeira and other fights on the UFC 267 card. He’s also backing one fighter “whose boxing will be too much” and emerge with a dominant victory. Those UFC picks and MMA predictions are only available at SportsLine.
Who wins Blachowicz vs. Teixeira? And what other picks do you need to see for a parlay with a payout of better than 9/1? Visit SportsLine now to get detailed top picks on UFC 267, all from the insider who’s up nearly $9,200 on MMA picks in the past year, and find out.
UFC 267 odds, fight card
Jan Blachowicz (-280) vs. Glover Teixeira (+240)
Petr Yan (-240) vs. Cory Sandhagen (+200)
Islam Makhachev (-700) vs. Dan Hooker (+500)
Alexander Volkov (-300) vs. Marcin Tybura (+250)
Khamzat Chimaev (-500) vs. Li Jingliang (+400)
Magomed Ankalaev (-300) vs. Volkan Oezdemir (+250)
Amanda Ribas (-160) vs. Virna Jandiroba (+140)
Zubaira Tukhugov (-165) vs. Ricardo Ramos (+145)
Albert Duraev (-310) vs. Roman Kopylov (+255)
Elizeu Zaleski Dos Santos (-210) vs. Benoit Saint-Denis (+180)
Shamil Gamzatov (-150) vs. Michal Oleksiejczuk (+130)
Lerone Murphy (-310) vs. Makwan Amirkhani (+255)
Andre Petroksi (-220) vs. Yaozong Hu (+190)
Damir Ismagulov (-270) vs. Magomed Mustafaev (+230)
Tagir Ulanbekov (-350) vs. Allan Nascimento (+290)
