Derek Brunson will be looking to strengthen his case for a shot at the middleweight title with a fifth straight win when he takes on Darren Till on Saturday in the main event at UFC Fight Night as a +145 underdog on the UFC odds at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.
Brunson returns to action on the heels of a five-round unanimous decision win over Kevin Holland at UFC Vegas 22, which vaulted him to No. 5 on the UFC middleweight rankings going into Saturday night’s bout at UFC Apex.
The 37-year-old American has regularly gone the distance during his longest win streak in five years, with three of his four recent victories coming by decision. That marks a dramatic change for Brunson after seeing nine of his previous 10 fights end inside three rounds, with the North Carolina native tallying first-round TKO finishes on six occasions during that stretch.
Overall, Brunson has seen 18 of his 29 career fights end inside five minutes, coming out on the losing end on five occasions. That run includes defeats at the hands of such top-flight opponents as reigning UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya, former champion Robert Whitaker, and a pair of losses to former Strikeforce middleweight champion Ronaldo Souza.
Till looks to overcome his recent stretch of hard luck while pegged as a strong -175 favourite at online betting sites for Saturday. Till has been idle since dropping a five-round unanimous decision to Whitaker last summer at UFC Fight Island 3, and has now fallen to defeat in three of his past four contests.
The colourful Englishman’s current shaky run began with a second-round submission loss to Tyron Woodley in a bid for the UFC welterweight championship three years ago at UFC 228, which was followed by a second-round KO loss to Jorge Masvidal at UFC Fight Night 147 that earned him a Fight of the Night bonus. Till tallied a split-decision win over Kelvin Gastelum in his return to the middleweight division at UFC 244, and sports a 10-1 career record fighting as a middleweight including four finishes inside five minutes.
Elsewhere on the UFC Fight Night odds for this weekend, Tom Aspinall is set as -240 chalk in his battle with fellow heavyweight Serghei Spivac. As well, welterweights clash as Alex Morono takes on David Zawada as a slim -125 favourite, and Modestas Bukauskas faces off against fellow light heavyweight Khalil Rountree as -155 chalk, while lightweight Paddy Pimblett takes on Luigi Vendarmini as a -155 wager.
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