For a breakdown on betting lines and future UFC title bouts, Sherdog.com consulted Joey Oddessa, one of the game’s preeminent oddsmakers and wagering experts:
Lightweights
Diego Sanchez is next in line for a shot at the title and hopefully presents a better challenge than the near 3-to-1 odds indicate. Gray Maynard has improved with every appearance, but champion B.J. Penn has shown himself to be head and shoulders above the lightweights. Maynard would scale in around the same odds as Sanchez against Penn. Shinya Aoki might be the most appealing matchup for Penn outside the current UFC roster. Other non-UFC roster fighters Tatsuya Kawajiri and Eddie Alvarez are also compelling matchups for Penn, but the Hawaiian would be somewhere around a 2-to-1 favorite against any of them.
Wednesday, November 25 5:07 am PT: There’s shame in labeling a Thanksgiving-themed blog posting with any variation of biggest turkeys, roasted birds, stuffed this-or-that, etc. It’s obvious and lazy and possibly an insult to you, the reader, who expects better.
But if it weren’t for meeting low expectations, I wouldn’t be meeting any at all. And so I give you the bird. Forgive me. In honor of the holiday meat of choice, the 10 biggest blunders, disasters, and face-plants in the sport for 2009. And if you think this is bad, remember that we have another five weeks to go.
10. Chuck Liddell: Ballroom Dancer
Unless it’s based around paternity results, a primetime network slot on a reality show is good for fighters and good for the sport. But that counter is out the window when you consider “Dancing with the Stars” participant Chuck Liddell is semi-retired, has the charisma of Styrofoam, and all the grace of someone who has been punched in the head for 20 years straight. And this doesn’t even consider the bowler, the feather-boas, and the dance routines that looked like he had stuck his finger in a light socket before taking the stage. Forget his repeated concussions: This is the kind of hurt that stays with you.
