The odds don’t look very competitive headed into the dueling title fights atop Saturday’s UFC 316. Merab Dvalishvili and Kayla Harrison are both pretty big favorites over their opponents (champion Sean O’Malley and challenger Julianna Peña, respectively). The line on Harrison, in fact, is outlandish — though that fight is admittedly most interesting because of what a Kayla Harrison title reign might look like at women’s bantamweight, not necessarily because we expect it to be close.
As for O’Malley, is there anything he can do differently against Merab this time around? Aside from not J’ing the peen?
Also, Maycee Barber couldn’t make the walk last weekend. In and of itself, that doesn’t seem like a HUGE deal. Buuuuut … is it indicative of larger, more dire issues with the UFC right now?