Du Plessis vs. Usman: UFC Fight Night Odds, Expert Picks
Get the Sports newsletter
Daily sports — scores, transfers, the storylines from the leagues you actually follow. Free.
- Dricus du Plessis (-205) faces Kamaru Usman (+170) in Saturday's UFC Fight Night main event at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, with the over/under set at 3.5 rounds (-215/+165) and the five-bout main card streaming on Paramount+ at 7 p.m. ET.
- Du Plessis (32, 23-3) is coming off a unanimous decision loss to Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 319, while Usman (39, 21-4) snapped a three-bout losing streak with a unanimous decision win over Joaquin Buckley on June 14, 2025.
- Usman brings a UFC-record 15-bout welterweight winning streak and a 97.3% takedown defense rate into the middleweight bout, while Du Plessis — the first South African UFC title holder — is tied with Rich Franklin for the fourth-most middleweight title wins with three.
- SportsLine expert Kyle Marley is backing Dione Barbosa (-675) to submit Anna Melisano (+490) on the prelim card, citing Barbosa's grappling edge over the debuting Melisano, and teases picks for the rest of the card available only on his paywalled site.
- The full main card also features Jared Cannonier (+280) vs. Christian LeRoy Duncan (-355), Chase Hooper (-360) vs. Mitch Ramirez (+285), Tabatha Ricci (+380) vs. Fatima Kline (-500), and Tommy McMillen (-218) vs. Alberto Montes (+180).
- Marley has returned over $21,000 on his UFC picks since May 2018 and is up nearly $10,000 in the past three-plus years, per SportsLine — the track-record stat the article leans on to drive sign-ups.
Why it matters: Two former champions meet Saturday with du Plessis a -205 favorite over Usman (+170), a lopsided line that reflects both du Plessis's recent title-fight pedigree and Usman's slide after three straight losses. The bout is a bounce-back test for du Plessis following his UFC 319 loss to Chimaev and a credibility check for Usman after his June 14, 2025 win over Buckley. The real commercial pitch is SportsLine expert Kyle Marley's $21,000+ track record, not a deep breakdown of either fighter.
