- What: UFC Edmonton Co-Main Event
- Who: Erin Blanchfield vs. Rose Namajunas
- Date: Saturday, November 2, 2024
- Location: Rogers Place, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
- Time: Prelims (5:00 p.m. ET), Main Card (8:00 p.m. ET)
- How to Watch: ESPN+
The next fight card on the UFC schedule is the UFC Edmonton event, which takes place on Saturday, November 2 from Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The main event on the ESPN+ streaming card is a flyweight matchup between former two-time flyweight champion Brandon Moreno and Amir Albazi. In the evening’s co-headliner, former UFC women’s strawweight champion Rose Namajunas faces highly-ranked Erin Blanchfield in a flyweight scrap. Here is some background on Blanchfield and Namajunas before we discuss the betting breakdown of the UFC Edmonton co-main event.
Erin Blanchfield (12-2) is the No. 3 fighter in the official UFC women’s flyweight rankings. She is coming off her first loss as a member of the UFC roster. Manon Fiorot defeated her via decision in March. Before that defeat, Blanchfield was 6-0 under the UFC banner.
Namajunas (13-6) is ranked at No. 5 woman at 125 pounds. The former 115-pound champion is on a two-fight winning streak at flyweight after dropping a decision to Fiorot in her 125-pound debut. Namajunas is coming off a unanimous decision win over Tracy Cortez in July.
Before we look at the best bets for Blanchfield vs. Namajunas on the UFC Edmonton card, check out the best UFC betting sites and where you can find our betting picks for the UFC 309 main event.
UFC Edmonton co-main event: Erin Blanchfield vs. Rose Namajunas betting picks
Fighters | ||||
Erin Blanchfield | -120 | -125 | -120 | -126 |
Rose Namajunas | +100 | +105 | -110 | -101 |
Erin Blanchfield betting breakdown
Erin Blanchfield’s most recent fight, a five-round loss to Fiorot, slowed the progress of the 25-year-old flyweight. Blanchfield had been able to dictate all aspects of her previous UFC outings. Fiorot put a stop to that, using her skills to put Blanchfield on her back foot for all five rounds of the contest, holding Blanchfield to a 33 percent significant striking rate and stopping each of her three takedown attempts. Namajunas has the type of veteran skills that could give Blanchfield fits if she did not learn some lessons from her loss to Fiorot.
Blanchfield is still learning on the job, especially when it comes to her striking and takedowns. The rising star has looked like a future champion, but one concern about Blanchfield is that her active schedule could be preventing her from developing her overall fighting skills. If she hopes to continue her upward trajectory, Blanchfield must come into UFC Edmonton prepared for a well-rounded opponent in Namajunas, who has no glaring weaknesses.
Blanchfield does her best work on the mat, but her takedown techniques could be stronger, that’s a concern in this fight because her striking is there to serve her ground game and not to do damage or get a knockout. This will be a telling contest for Blanchfield.
Blanchfield lands 5.47 significant strikes per minute, with a success rate of 45 percent. She gets hit, on average, 4.34 times per minute and has a striking defense of 58 percent. Blanchfield averages 2.05 takedowns per 15 minutes of UFC fight time. Her takedown accuracy is 33 percent, and her takedown defense is 81 percent.
Rose Namajunas betting breakdown
There were a lot of questions plaguing Rose Namajunas as she headed into her matchup with Amanda Ribas. Namajunas’ title-losing fight against Carla Esparza was a bad one. She only landed 37 significant strikes in the five-round battle and seemed reluctant to engage. Further, there were questions about why Namajunas would move to 125, as she has two wins over the current 115-pound champion. The biggest question Namajunas faced was if she had the confidence and drive to perform at a high level in a new weight class, as she did not fully answer those questions in her loss to Manon Fiorot.
Namajunas was less busy in the Ribas fight than she was against Fiorot, but she was more accurate, improving from a 40 percent landing rate to 49 percent. In the Cortez bout, Namajunas kept up the same striking output, but her accuracy increased to a solid 53 percent. Like the Ribas bout, Namajunas also did an excellent job of racking up control time with 6:36.
Namajunas averages 3.70 significant strikes landed per minute with an accuracy of 42 percent. She gets tagged 3.38 times per minute with a defensive rate of 64 percent. The ex-champion lands 1.55 takedowns per 15 minutes, with a success rate of 53 percent. Namajunas’ takedown defense is 59 percent.
Namajunas looks as if she could contend for the UFC flyweight title after a shaky start in the division. She must get by Blanchfield if Namajunas hopes to land that title shot.
Best Bets: UFC Edmonton co-main event: Erin Blanchfield vs. Rose Namajunas
This is a five-round matchup, which makes things difficult for Blanchfield, unless her takedowns and striking have improved a greatly since her last fight. I think she needs more time to work on those aspects of her game ahead of Saturday’s matchup.
The betting pick is for Rose Namajunas to use her veteran acumen to pick up a decision victory.
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