Who’s picking Sean Strickland over Nassourdine Imavov on short notice?

	Imavov vs. Strickland	Ige vs. Jackson	Kopylov vs. Soriano	Pennington vs. Vieira	Barcelos vs. Nurmagomedov
MMA Junkie readers’ consensus picks 202-120 (2022)	Imavov (51%)	Ige (62%)	Soriano (68%)	Vieira (67%)	Nurmagomedov (88%)
Ken Hathaway @kenshathaway 215-112 (2022) 2018, 2022 Champion	Imavov	Jackson	Soriano	Vieira	Nurmagomedov
Matthew Wells @MrMWells 209-118 (2022)	Imavov	Jackson	Soriano	Pennington	Nurmagomedov
Abbey Subhan @kammakaze 204-123 (2022)	Imavov	Ige	Soriano	Pennington	Nurmagomedov
Farah Hannoun @Farah_Hannoun 203-124 (2022)	Imavov	Ige	Soriano	Vieira	Nurmagomedov
Matt Erickson @MMAjunkieMatt 201-126 (2022)	Imavov	Jackson	Soriano	Pennington	Nurmagomedov
Simon Samano @SJSamano 201-126 (2022)	Imavov	Ige	Soriano	Vieira	Nurmagomedov
Mike Bohn @MikeBohn 200-127 (2022) 2014 Champion	Imavov	Jackson	Soriano	Pennington	Nurmagomedov
Nolan King @mma_kings 192-135 (2022)	Imavov	Ige	Soriano	Vieira	Nurmagomedov
Brian Garcia @thegoze 190-137 (2022) 2017 Champion	Imavov	Ige	Soriano	Vieira	Nurmagomedov
George Garcia @MMAjunkieGeorge 181-146 (2022)	Strickland	Ige	Soriano	Pennington	Nurmagomedov
Danny Segura @dannyseguratv 161-166 (2022)	Imavov	Ige	Soriano	Vieira	Nurmagomedov

The UFC kicks off its 2023 with a home game, and a short-notice light heavyweight fight tops the lineup.

UFC Fight Night 217 takes place Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. The card streams on ESPN+.

(Click here to open a PDF of the staff picks grid in a separate window.)

In the main event, Nassourdine Imavov (12-3 MMA, 4-1 UFC) takes on Sean Strickland (25-5 MMA, 12-5 UFC). The fight is taking place at 205 pounds instead of middleweight after Strickland stepped in for Kelvin Gastelum on just five days’ notice. Strickland lost to Jared Cannonier in the UFC’s final event of 2022 a month ago.

Story continues

Imavov is just a slight favorite at -130 at Tipico Sportsbook; the comeback on Strickland is +110. But Our 11 editors, writers, radio hosts and videographers have Imavov with a near-unanimous picks lead at 10-1.

In the co-feature, Dan Ige (15-6 MMA, 7-5 UFC) meets Damon Jackson (22-4-1 MMA, 5-2-1 UFC) at featherweight. Ige is a slight -125 favorite at the betting window, and it’s close with our pickers, too. They’ve got Ige with the narrowest possible lead at 6-5.

Also on the main card, Punahele Soriano (9-2 MMA, 3-2 UFC) is just a -150 favorite at middleweight against Roman Kopylov (9-2 MMA, 1-2 UFC), but he’s one of our two unanimous picks at 11-0.

Raquel Pennington (14-9 MMA, 11-5 UFC) takes on Ketlen Vieira (13-2 MMA, 7-2 UFC) in a key women’s bantamweight bout. Vieira is a slight favorite at -125, but she’s got a decent 7-4 lead from our pickers.

And to open the main card, bantamweight Umar Nurmagomedov (15-0 MMA, 3-0 UFC) is the biggest favorite on the entire event at nearly 10-1 against Raoni Barcelos (17-3 MMA, 6-2 UFC). Not surprisingly, Nurmagomedov is our other unanimous pick at 11-0.

In the MMA Junkie reader consensus picks, Imavov (51 percent), Ige (62 percent), Soriano (68 percent), Vieira (67 percent) and Nurmagomedov (88 percent) are the choices.

Check out all the picks above.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 217.

List

UFC Fight Night 217 commentary team, broadcast plans set for first event of 2023

Story originally appeared on MMA Junkie