This article is part of our RotoWire Staff Picks series.
We're back at Fight Island for a pair of title fights at UFC 253. In the co-main event, Dominick Reyes is coming off an impressive showing against the arguable GOAT Jon Jones, and he'll now take on Jan Blachowicz for Jones' vacated belt. Finishing off the evening will be a pair of pure strikers, as the power of Paulo Costa will be pinned against the finesse of champion Israel Adesanya.
As a reminder, the following selections are purely picks. If you're looking for a fantasy-specific breakdown of these fights on DraftKings, click here for Jon Litterine's 253 Preview or tune into Fight IQ live Friday at 8:00 p.m. EST on the RotoWire Youtube Channel. With FanDuel launching a MMA game as well, we also have added a new DFS Preview courtesy of Chris Olson.
| MATCHUP | WEIGHT CLASS | JON | JAKE | CHRIS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Israel Adesanya (-170) vs. Paulo Costa (+150) | Middleweight | | Adesanya | |
| Dominick Reyes (-275) vs. Jan Blachowicz (+235) | Light Heavyweight Championship | Reyes | ||
| Kai Kara-France (-235) vs. Brandon Royval (+195) | Flyweight | |||
| Ketlen Vieira (-170) vs. Sijara Eubanks (+150) | Women's Bantamweight | Vieira | ||
| Hakeem Dawodu (-105) vs. Zubaira Tukhugov (-115) | Featherweight | Dawodu | ||
| ||||
| UFC 253 RECORD | 1-4 | 1-4 | 2-3 | |
| 2020 RECORD | 25-13 | 21-17 | 19-19 | |
| 2020 PERCENTAGE | .658 | .553 | .500 | |
| 2019 RECORD | 39-19 | 35-23 | 32-26 | |
| 2019 PERCENTAGE | .672 | .603 | .552 | |
| ALL-TIME | 159-94 | 154-99 | 127-96 | |
| ALL-TIME PERCENTAGE | .628 | .609 | .570 |
MATCHUP | WEIGHT | JOE "SUNTZU" | SHAUN |
|---|---|---|---|
| Israel Adesanya (-170) vs. Paulo Costa (+150) | Middleweight | Adesanya | Adesanya |
| Dominick Reyes (-275) vs. Jan Blachowicz (+235) | Light | ||
| Kai Kara-France (-235) vs. Brandon Royval (+195) | Flyweight | Royval | |
| Ketlen Vieira (-170) vs. Sijara Eubanks (+150) | Women's | Vieira | |
| Hakeem Dawodu (-105) vs. Zubaira Tukhugov (-115) | Featherweight | ||
| |||
| UFC 253 RECORD | 2-3 | 2-3 | |
| 2020 RECORD | 24-14 | 25-13 | |
| 2020 PERCENTAGE | .632 | .658 | |
| 2019 RECORD | 34-24 | 34-24 | |
| 2019 PERCENTAGE | .586 | .586 | |
| ALL-TIME | 85-57 | 89-53 | |
| ALL-TIME PERCENTAGE | .599 | .626 |
THE PICKERS
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.
Jake Letarski: RotoWire.com Operations Manager, plus MMA and NCAA Hoops Senior Editor. Host of the RotoWire MMA Podcast and guest on the RotoWire Fantasy Football Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @RotoJake.
Chris Olson: Contributor at RotoWire to "Fight IQ, presented by RotoWire," as well as DFS Baseball, our FanDuel MMA column, a MMA gambling columnist and fight recaps. Follow him on Twitter at @RealChrisOlson.
Joe "SunTszu": Known more commonly by his Twitter handle @SunTszu, Joe is a Hedge Fund Executive by day and high-volume DFS player by night. He is a 2x "Bracket Challenge" & "Gotham qualifier, who is currently ranked 9th in DFS MMA. You can also find him as one of the original contributors of "Fight IQ, presented by RotoWire," a DFS-centric video breakdown. He is also a co-creator of the "Creating Alpha in DFS" podcast.
@theDFSniper: @theDFSniper is the host and lead instigator of "Fight IQ, presented by RotoWire," a DFS-centric video breakdown. He also appears on the LoudMouth MMA podcast and contributes soccer content to DFS Army.
