SquirrelPatrol's Takedowns: UFC 298 - Volkanovski vs. Topuria
John Breslin (aka squirrelpatrol) is one of the best tournament players in the entire DFS industry, having amassed 100+ Live Final seats and recently winning the NFL Milly Maker ($1,000,000 prize) during Week 2 of the 2023 season. Get a glimpse into his process by checking out some of his contrarian MMA DFS picks for the upcoming UFC event.
Welcome to the weekend and to SquirrelPatrol’s Takedowns for UFC 298 – Volkanovski vs. Topuria. This card is being held in Anaheim, and if you don’t look carefully, you might think we didn’t lose a fight during weigh-ins. However Justin Tafa did pull out of his fight with Marcos Rogerio de Lima due to illness, and he was replaced by his younger (and less UFC-experienced) brother Junior Tafa. Make sure you are clicking on the correct “J.Tafa” in your lineups. That leaves us with twelve fights, and more than any other UFC card I can remember, each of the fighters going on Saturday can put up a monster score if things go their way. Let’s dig into the slate and see if we can find some overlooked picks to help us take down a GPP this weekend.
MMA DFS Picks: SquirrelPatrol’s Takedowns for UFC 298 – Volkanovski vs. Topuria
Brendson Ribeiro
DraftKings: $7,800
FanDuel: $15
Out of the 24 fighters on this card, 5 are making their UFC debut, and 18 of the 19 remaining fighters have at least one 100+ DK point victory in their UFC careers (the only fighter who doesn’t is Val Woodburn, at 0-1 in the UFC so far). I’m hoping the lack of a game log will cause people to skip over the Zhang – Ribeiro fight where both fighters are making their debut. Zhang has won his last 9 pre-UFC fights in the first round, and Ribeiro has won his last 3 pre-UFC fights in the first round. I’ll look to get over the field on this fight, over the field on the underdog Ribeiro, and I’ll hope that these lesser-known fighters get overlooked in the middle range of pricing.