Betting on MMA: A Brief Introduction

Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fights are excellent betting choices for bettors who are looking for tightly contested bouts with huge potential payouts. In the MMA, top fighters usually win and provide high yielding wins for high rollers, while underdogs oftentimes punch well above their weight and award risk takers with unexpected long shot wins.

Where to Bet?

Betting on MMA and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fights is getting more and more popular and these days virtually all sports betting operators have MMA betting propositions in their offers.

However, this doesn’t mean that all Kenyan bookmakers come out with MMA betting offers of equivalent quality. Some betting providers decide to couple their MMA events with particular bookmaker bonuses or include a variety of MMA or UFC betting specials for the most popular fights and they are clearly superior choices.

As a rule of thumb, a reliable Kenyan MMA bookmaker will have a couple of things going for it. First and foremost, it will be a betting establishment licensed and regulated by the Betting Control and Licensing Board of Kenya (BCLB). In addition to this, the ideal Kenyan MMA bookmaker will also boast an extensive MMA betting offer which will be accompanied by lucrative bonuses, tons of markets, and fight specials.

The Kenyan bookmakers which fit into this category are hard to miss as they already dominate the industry. These include betting operators such as:

• Betika,
• Betway,
• Betlion,
• Odibets,
• Bet254,
• 22Bet,
• Mozzartbet.

Things to Look Out For

There are several things which an experienced punter will look out for before lodging his MMA bet. These include fighters’ form, previous bouts between the fighters and things such as injuries, suspensions, and failed drug tests in the past. All of these factors, when coupled with the right betting strategy, can have a significant effect on the successful outcome of a wager.

• Form

Joanna Jedrzejczyk is one of the best strawweight and flyweight UFC fighters out there. She is one of the rare fighters in the history of the sport who defended her title for 5 consecutive times against some of the best fighters in her weight division.

When she defeated Jessica Andrade for her fifth title defence she:

• was on a 14-0 winning run,
• led the UFC for landed significant strikes in one fight,
• possessed the highest strike differential of 142,
• had amassed 75 leg kicks in the bout.

However, all of that changed in her sixth title defence fight in which she faced the huge underdog Rose Namajunas. The plucky American defeated the Polish behemoth and caused one of the greatest surprises in the history of MMA.

In doing this Namajunas threw Jedrzejczyk off balance and the previously undefeated champion could not get a win to save her life. She lost 3 of her next 5 fights and looked a shadow of her former self thus highlighting the importance of staying in top form even for the best in the business.  

• Head-to-Head

Analyzing fighters’ previous bouts between each other is another crucial factor in MMA betting. Any defeat leaves a mental scar in the mind of the defeated fighter and punters can make full use of this fact and back the fighter who won the previous bout.

It’s not a coincidence that immediately after Rose Namajunas defeated Joanna Jedrzejczyk, she repeated the feat in their next fight and once again humiliated the Polish MMA legend.

• Injuries and Suspensions

Past injuries and previous suspensions can linger on for quite some time after they are supposedly resolved. Bettors should always check twice whether they are betting on the fighter they once knew or on someone mentally weaker and physically less capable. 

Advantages

• MMA News and Previews are Everywhere

 Even for an MMA novice betting on the sport can be quite easy to get into. The MMA scene is continuously expanding with new MMA specialized sites and it is very easy for punters to get reliable pre-fight information.

• Easy to Follow

One of the best aspects of the MMA is that is very easy to keep abreast of all the fights and events. Unlike betting on other sports, such as football or rugby, wagering on the MMA doesn’t require a bettor to go through hundreds of matches to find what he needs.

MMA fighters fight once every several months and this means that a betting enthusiast can see previous fight outcomes and head-to-head records without getting lost in tons of matches, cups, competitions and friendlies.

Disadvantages

• Lack of Market Variety

MMA fights can be included in different types of bets and are great when it comes to live betting. However, they don’t come with the market variety of football for example, in which punters can bet not just on the winner and on goals, but also on peripheral bets such as cards. In MMA betting, bettors can only choose from the bout winner, round totals, and method of finish markets.

• Short Fights

MMA fights are infamously short and can even get shorter if there is a knock out before the five 5-minute rounds are completed. Lots of punters don’t see this as good value for money.

Biggest MMA Organizations

• UFC
• PrideFC
• World Extreme Cagefighting
• Strikeforce
• Bellator
• Pancrase
• Dream
• King of the Cage