This article is part of our UFC Picks series.
UFC 222 was originally supposed to decide the men's 145-pound championship between Frankie Edgar and Max Holloway, but it fell through yet again, this time due to a Holloway injury. Rather than wait it out, Edgar decided to take a big risk and accept a tough matchup against top contender and submission artist Brian Ortega. On the women's side, Cris Cyborg will attempt to defend her title against Invicta FC bantamweight champion Yana Kunitskaya. As expected, the odds here are overwhelmingly in favor of Cyborg, similar to what you'd see from Demetrious Johnson or a prime Ronda Rousey.If you're looking for a fantasy-specific breakdown of these fights on DraftKings, click here for Jon Litterine's UFC 222 preview.
| MATCHUP | WEIGHT CLASS | JON | EVAN | JAKE |
| Cris Cyborg (-1700) vs. Yana Kunitskaya (+1000) | Women's Featherweight Championship | Cyborg | Cyborg | Cyborg |
| Brian Ortega (+150) vs. Frankie Edgar (-170) | Featherweight | |||
| Andre Soukhamthath (-150) vs. Sean O'Malley (+130) | Welterweight | O'Malley | ||
| Andrei Arlovski (+160) vs. Stefan Struve (-185) | Heavyweight | |||
| Cat Zingano (+130) vs. Ketlen Vieira (-160) | Women's Bantamweight | Vieira | ||
| RECORD | 2-3 | 1-4 | 2-3 | |
| OVERALL (since UFC 200) | 67-44 | 61-50 | 68-43 | |
| PERCENTAGE | .604 | .550 | .613 |
| MATCHUP | WEIGHT CLASS | RICHARD | CHRIS | Cris Cyborg (-1700) vs. Yana Kunitskaya (+1000) | Women's Featherweight Championship | Cyborg | Cyborg |
| Brian Ortega (+150) vs. Frankie Edgar (-170) | Featherweight | ||
| Andre Soukhamthath (-150) vs. Sean O'Malley (+130) | Welterweight | O'Malley | |
| Andrei Arlovski (+160) vs. Stefan Struve (-185) | Heavyweight | Arlovski | |
| Cat Zingano (+130) vs. Ketlen Vieira (-160) | Women's Bantamweight | ||
| RECORD | 1-4 | 3-2 | |
| OVERALL (since UFC 200) | 47-35 | 28-23 | |
| PERCENTAGE | .573 | .549 |
THE PLAYERS
Jon Litterine: RotoWire lead MMA beat writer and scribe for our weekly DrafKings preview. Lead analyst on the RotoWire MMA Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @JonLitterine.
Evan Dahl: Pens our bi-weekly MMA Barometer column. Follow him on Twitter at @RealEvanDahl.
Jake Letarski: MMA and NCAA Hoops Senior Editor. Sirius XM contributor. Host of the RotoWire MMA Podcast, RotoWire Fantasy Football Podcast and RotoWire DFS Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @JakeSki52.
Richard Mann: Richard is a stats-based analyst that has appeared on ESPN MMA via Fightmetric. He handles event recaps in our Fight Stat Wrap column, and maintains his own, data-driven MMA blog at StrikescoreMMA.com. Follow him on Twitter at @RichardAMann.
Chris Olson: Contributor at RotoWire for DFS Baseball, as well as MMA fight recaps. Follow him on Twitter at @RealChrisOlson.
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