Anderson Silva vs Patrick Cote Betting Odds

UFC 90: Silva vs Cote is just around the corner - the event will take place this Saturday at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois. The event will be headlined by the heavily favored Anderson "The Spider" Silva taking on Patrick "The Predator" Cote. There have been a number of changes to this card - Diego Sanchez has been replaced by Josh Koscheck in the scheduled Sanchez / Thiago Alves match, while Drew McFedries has taken Goran Reljic's place in the originally scheduled Reljic/Thales Leites battle.

Because of all of these changes, the major online sportsbooks have only one fight available for betting (as of right now) for UFC 90, and that is the main event. I checked three major sportsbooks (Bodog, Beted and Bookmaker.com), and all three only have the Cote/Silva fight available for betting.

Anderson "The Spider" Silva (-650) vs Patrick Cote (+450) -

When the betting for this fight first opened, Anderson Silva was as much as a -1100 favorite. The line has dropped since then, but some books still have Silva at -800.

Anderson Silva is considered by most to be the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, so it's certainly not a surprise that he is so heavily favored to win.

However, you need to be very careful in betting the favorites in these lopsided MMA match-ups. As we've seen before (anyone remember Serra vs St. Pierre I?), a heavy favorite is only one lucky punch away from hitting the mat and losing. I'm not saying that I think Patrick Cote is going to win (because I don't think that he will win), but he certainly possesses the kind of striking power that could knock Silva out. Betting heavily on a -650 line is a sure way to go broke over the long-run - these books know what they are doing, and they are not in the business of losing money. Silva is very likely going to win, but you are not getting the proper value at -650 (in my opinion) to make this a smart bet. In these cases, where one fighter is so heavily favored, I just avoid betting altogether and simply enjoy the fight on TV.

Silva is coming off of a first-round demolition of James Irvin in July. Silva has run through all of his competition since coming to the UFC, having amassed a record of 7-0 during his time with the promotion. Silva currently has a professional record of 22-4, and will very likely be 23-4 after his fight on Saturday against Cote.

Cote has a career professional MMA record of 14-4-0 and is currently on a five fight winning streak. He earned his shot at Anderson Silva by defeating Ricardo Almeida at UFC 86 via split decision. His previous three fights were all first-round knockout victories - one against Andrew McFedries at UFC Fight Night 12, one against Kendall Grove at UFC 74 and one against Jason Day at TKO 29 - Repercussion. Cote certainly possesses knockout power and has already stated that he plans to stand and strike with Silva.

Again - I'm not saying that I think that Cote wins this fight, but betting on Silva at -650 isn't a very smart bet (in my opinion). I'd rather just pass on this fight.

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