Latest news with #JoshuaVan
Forbes
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
UFC 316 Fight Card: Prelims Odds, Picks And Predictions
The UFC 316 pay-per-view fight card takes place this weekend. The event, which features two title fights at the top of the marquee, takes place on Saturday, June 7, from Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. While most of the focus will be on the men's 135-pound title fight between Merab Dvalishvili vs. Sean O'Malley and the women's bantamweight championship bout between Jessica Pena vs. Kayla Harrison, we want to prepare fans for all of the fights on the UFC 316 fight card. Below, we look at the betting odds, line movement, predictions, and picks for theUFC 316 preliminary fight card. The main card of UFC 316 streams on ESPN+ PPV following prelims on ESPN and early prelims on ESPN+. Bruno Gustavo da Silva vs. Joshua Van - Flyweight Azamat Murzakanov vs. Brendson Ribeiro - Light Heavyweight Serghei Spivac vs. Waldo Cortes-Acosta - Heavyweight Khaos Williams vs. Andreas Gustafsson - Welterweight At the top of the UFC 316 prelims is a flyweight matchup between Bruno Silva (14-6-2-1) and Joshua Van (13-2). Silva is the No. 12 fighter in the official UFC flyweight rankings, while Van enters UFC 316 as the No. 14 ranked competitor. Silva joined the UFC in 2019. He opened his UFC career with two losses and one no contest. Silva righted the ship in 2021, scoring a 'Performance of the Night' bonus for his knockout win over JP Buys. He followed that with three more 'Performance of the Night' awards thanks to his stoppage victories over Victor Rodriguez, Tyson Nam, and Cody Durden. Silva's wins put him at No. 12 in the division, earning him a matchup opposite the No. 9 ranked Manel Kape. Kape won that fight via TKO. Van began his UFC run in 2023 after winning the Fury FC flyweight title. Van opened his UFC career with three wins. His winning streak of eight fights overall ended in July 2024 when Charles Johnson knocked him out. Van bounced back from that setback by winning three in a row. He is coming off a UFC 313 decision victory over Rei Tsuruya in a fight where Tsuruya replaced Silva, who was Van's initial opponent. When the odds opened for this bout, Silva was listed as the +250 betting underdog to the -300 Van. Today, Van is the -500 betting favorite over the +375 Silva. The 23-year-old Van has looked better in each of his outings, and although he has not had a lot of time since his most recent outing, he should prevail in this fight. Silva is tough and hits hard, so there's a chance the 35-year-old could pull a KO upset, but that's a longshot value bet. The betting pick is Van to win via decision. Azamat Murzakanov (14-0) looks to hold onto his perfect record when he faces Brendson Ribeiro (17-7) in a light heavyweight matchup on the UFC 316 prelims. The 36-year-old Murzakanov checks in for this week's fight card as the No. 12 fighter in the UFC's 205-pound weight class. He was initially signed to the UFC in 2017 but failed a drug test under USADA that netted him a two-year suspension. The UFC gave Murzakanov a second shot in 2021 via the Dana White's Contender Series. He earned a contract with a first-round knockout and then went 4-0 with three knockouts between March 2022 and August 2024. His most recent is an August 2024 'Performance of the Night' bonus-winning knockout over Alonzo Menifield. Murzakanov failed a second drug test and served a six-month suspension after testing positive for LGD-4033 in an out-of-competition test taken on Oct. 8. Ribeiro also picked up his contract via the DWCS, earning his deal in 2023. He went 0-2 in his first two UFC outings, but the 28-year-old has picked up back-to-back victories since then, most recently submitting Diyar Nurgozhay in March. Murzakanov opened as a -350 favorite, and he has climbed to -600. Meanwhile, Ribeiro was listed as the +285 betting underdog and is now +425. Look for Murzakanov to pick up a knockout win over Ribeiro in this matchup. Two ranked heavyweights, Serghei Spivac (17-5) and Waldo Cortes-Acosta (13-1), also compete on the UFC 316 prelims. Spivac comes into Saturday's card as the No. 7 UFC heavyweight. The 30-year-old has been with the UFC since 2019 and has had some ups and downs during his run with the promotion. Spivac put together a 6-1 record between July 2020 and February 2023, with his sole loss coming to Tom Aspinall in September 2021. However, he is 1-2 in his past three outings, falling to Ciryl Gane and Jailton Almeida by knockout while defeating Marcin Tybura via submission. Spivac's loss to Almeida is his most recent outing. That fight took place in January. Cortes-Acosta is ranked No. 11 at heavyweight heading into UFC 316. The 33-year-old has been competing under the UFC banner since 2022. He joined the UFC after winning the LFA heavyweight crown and scoring a 2022 win on a DWCS card. Cortes-Acosta began his UFC run at 2-1, but he is 4-0 since he dropped a decision to Marcos Rogério de Lima in April 2023. Cortes-Acosta is coming off a March knockout win over Ryan Spann. The opening betting odds for this fight saw Spivac listed at -150, while Cortes-Acosta came in at +130. Today, Spivac is the -135 favorite over the +115 Cortes-Acosta. The pick is the underdog, Cortes-Acosta, to win via decision. A late addition to UFC 316 is the welterweight matchup between Khaos Williams (15-4) and Andreas Gustafsson (11-2). Williams joined the UFC in early 2020 with a 9-1 record. Today, he is 15-4, and coming off a submission loss to Gabriel Bonfim in February. Williams has never lost back-to-back fights, following his past two UFC defeats with decision wins. Gustafsson earned a UFC contract in 2024 with a DWCS win. The UFC has booked him three times since then, with each of those fights falling through. He was most recently scheduled to face Trevin Giles and then Jeremiah Wells at UFC Vegas 107, but those fights fell through. Gustafsson was moved to UFC 316 to face Williams after Williams' opponents, Uros Medic and then Albert Tadevosyan, could not compete. Williams is the -225 favorite over the +190 Gustafsson. The betting pick is for Williams to pick up a knockout win in Newark, but Gustafsson to win via knockout is also a pick that makes sense and presents some value. We will have more on UFC 316 as fight night approaches, including odds, picks and predictions for each of the main card fights. Also, look for UFC 316 results and reactions on fight night.
USA Today
01-03-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Joshua Van thrilled Burmese flag finally cleared for UFC 313 fight
When Joshua Van set out on a journey for MMA greatness, one of the most important things he wanted to achieve was to put Myanmar on the map. Now, in a sense, he's done just that. While he's long carried the Burmese flag in spirit, Van (12-2 MMA, 5-1 UFC) will make the walk with his native flag – a first in UFC history. The promotion recently notified the rising UFC flyweight contender of the decision to allow the flag after it was not allowed for his first six appearances. 'The emailed me yesterday and I was full of joy,' Van told MMA Junkie on Friday. 'I showed all my coaches and all my friends that I get to bring my flag. It was a very special day for me.' Persistence paid off. Van isn't totally sure why the flag was not allowed to begin with, but he'd steadily stayed on the organization, asking for permission – and at UFC 313 on March 8, the yellow, green, and red flag with a big white star in the middle will be draped over his shoulders at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. 'Ever since my first fight in the UFC, I bring my flag each fight week, asking them if I can bring it out and stuff like that,' Van said. 'I think my first fight nobody was allowed to bring their flags. So that was understandable. Then my second fight and my third fight, I kept asking them. I think it was the commission or something, they didn't know if Myanmar was a country or not. That's what they told me. I was pulling out Googles and sh*t to show them that Myanmar is a country. The UFC team worked on getting my flag, especially after my last fight, the win, where I wore the mouth guard. That played a big part.' Van, 23, moved from Myanmar to Texas when he was 12. His assimilation into American society wasn't easy, but fighting helped him. While he's all the way across the world from where he was born, Van has long been a proud representative of the small Southeast Asian country located by China, Laos, and Thailand. Since 2021, Myanmar has been in amidst a civil war after a military coup. The tumultuous political climate has lead to both admiration and disapproval in Van's social media DMs. 'A lot of people feel that flag don't represent us, but at the end of the day, we are our own country and that is our flag,' Van said. 'I'm just happy to represent our country. … Most people are happy for our country, but some people are going through it feel some type of way because of what we're going through. But at the end of the day, it's better people know about us.' While Van's day-to-day focus is preparing for upcoming foe Rei Tsuruya (10-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC), eventually returning to Myanmar for the first time since he left is the ultimate dream. 'That's the goal. That's the dream,' Van said. 'I want to go back and give back to my country.' For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie's event hub for UFC 313.
