Jose Aldo vs Merab Dvalishvili -150
This should be a great fight in the bamtam weight division between a 35 year old Aldo who is a former champion and has fought the best of the best vs a very up and coming man from Georgia in Dvalishvili. Let’s look at Merab. He is 14-4 with solid wins vs Cody Staaman, Marlon Moraes, add Casey Kinney. None of the wins were that convincing but still solid. Merab has a powerful agressive style where his striking is solid but his wrestling exhausts his opponents at 7.3 take downs per 15 minutes. He has 7 wins since his two ugly losses back in 2017/2018. Jose Aldo on the other hand is only four years older than Merab with a much greater strength of schedule. Aldo’s only losses since 2005 were against the likes of Conner McGregor, Marlon Moraes, Petyr Yan, Max Holloway, and Alexander Volkanovski. I would say that these Ls were quite excusable. Aldo has since ripped three nice wins in a row vs Marlon Vera, Rob Font and Pedro Munhoz. The key to this handicap is that Aldo is very tough to take down. His grappling defense is an amazing 90% and should be able to counter what he can see coming. Merab has gotten himself in some trouble in his last few fights, and he is stepping up greatly in class here at UFC 278. This line should be a pickem at best. Take the dog.
Jose Aldo +135 – 1.5 stars
