We’re oh so close to UFC 274 on May 7 — featuring an absolutely stacked card with top fighters and two championship fights. The prop market will be huge for the fight card, but there are only a few UFC 274 betting props worth your time and money. Read this to find out which they are! Check out the complete UFC 274 betting guide right here.
Main Event Prop Pick
The UFC 274 headline bout is between lightweight champion Charles Olivier and Justin Gaethje. Our favorite main event prop picks centers on not only who wins the championship fight, but how. Here are the full betting options for both fighters:
| Outcome |  |  |
|---|---|---|
| Gaethje By KO | +210 | +210 |
| Gaethje By Points | +700 | +700 |
| J Gaethje By Submission | +3000 | +3000 |
| Oliveira By KO | +600 | +600 |
| Oliveira By Points | +400 | +400 |
| Oliveira By Submission | +140 | +140 |
| Draw | +6600 | +6600 |
As you can see above, the best online sportsbooks see this fight ending by stoppage. The question is, who gets the finish and how — by submission or knockout?
Oliviera’s path to victory is clear as day: take his opponents down and make them tap out. That’s exactly what he’s done throughout his turbulent UFC run, which started slow but is currently in peak shape. He’s pulled off 10 straight wins — all by stoppage, sans against Tony Ferguson (more on him later on). Oliviera’s 18 UFC wins by stoppage is an all-time record (15 of which came from submission). Simply put, Gaethje has zero chance on the ground with a jiu-jisu specialist like Oliviera.
But where Gathje does have a chance — and a very good one at that — is standing up. Gaethje has heavy hands, and sneaky leg kicks to setup those big punches too. In Oliviera’s past two title defenses (first to Michael Chandler and then Dustin Poirier), he was almost knocked out with punches in the first round both times. So it’s not like Oliviera won’t be vulnerable to a huge hit from Gaethje, but as he’s shown, the champion has a real warrior spirit and can rally back to victory despite that.
We’re not going to lie, this is a tough bet. Both Gaethje by KO or Oliviera by submission are worthy bets. But at this moment, we’re leaning with Gaethje just ever slightly. He has more punching power than Chandler and Poirier did, which is why he’ll do what those two couldn’t — put Oliviera down for good when he inevitably gets caught.
Semi-Main Event Prop Pick
The semi-main event pits Rose Namajunas vs. Carla Esparza for the former’s strawweight championship. Like our previous betting choice, we also like the prop pick on how this semi-main event fight ends. The best UFC betting sites have those odds as follows:
| Outcome | | |
|---|---|---|
| Esparza To Win By Stoppage | +650 | +650 |
| Esparza To Win By Decision | +250 | +250 |
| Namajunas To Win By Stoppage | +200 | +200 |
| Namajunas To Win By Decision | +160 | +160 |
| Draw | +6600 | +6600 |
This is actually a rematch eight years in the making. These two threw down in 2014 in the season finale of the Ultimate Fighter. Esparza pulled off the upset then, taking down Namajunas before securing a rear-naked choke tap-out in the third round. This time around though, Esparza is a sizable underdog. That’s largely because the 2014 win was her peak career moment, while Namajunas has morphed into one of the greatest female fighters in UFC history.
Still, Esparza presents a tough matchup for Namajunas. She is a takedown specialist in every sense of the word. Worse, the champion loves using her kicks and while she’s elite at doing so, she could be vulnerable to a takedown when throwing them. That’s why we believe Namajunas will lean more on her punching to secure the victory.
Esparza is, at best, subpar when striking. Not bad, but not good either. If Namajunas and Esparza trade barbs standing up, which seems inevitable, we think the title-holder will catch her with a KO bomb. That’s exactly how we predict Namajunas will retain her title so throw money on that stoppage prop.
Chandler vs. Ferguson Prop Pick
No titles are on the line in this one, but regardless, we’re getting a showdown between two fighters that don’t know how to have boring fights. In this Chandler vs. Ferguson bout at lightweight, we’re looking into the go-the-distance-or-not prop. Here’s how the odds currently stand:
Honestly, we’re a little surprised the betting line to go the distance is plus-money. While Chandler is a heavy moneyline favorite to win at -400, if he indeed wins, we’d be absolutely stunned if it’s by stoppage. We mean, this is El Cucuy we’re talking about.
Remember when we said Oliviera couldn’t stop Ferguson earlier? Well, he couldn’t and so hasn’t every other fighter that’s battled Ferguson minus two (one of which is actually Gaethje, though, that was a questionable TKO stoppage by the referee). Yes, Ferguson has lost a step or two in the octagon, but he remains an absolute warrior that doesn’t stay down. He’ll survive the three rounds, which means you should bet that this goes the distance.
How To Bet UFC 274?
Want more UFC 274 bets besides the three we covered above? If you’ve read this far, then you surely do cause you’re invested in this huge pay-per-view! Alright then, look no further because we’ve listed the very best betting sites for UFC in the underneath table. Any one of these sites will carry all types of bets for the night — whether that’s moneyline, over/unders on fight length, or more props. Click around the table below to see all the great UFC 274 wagers available right now.
