I don’t know about you, but I NEEDED that week off. The entire summer was slam packed with UFC entertainment, and while I love watching UFC, I needed that break to take a breath and unwind a bit. Now it is time to come back, and I can honestly say that I am wildly excited to watch an event again.

This week we head back to the Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada for UFC Vegas 80. Our main event top ten lightweight action between rising contender Grant Dawson and veteran Bobby Green. The rest of the slate is mediocre at best on paper, but like always will prove to be highly entertaining in the cage. Per usual, this article will be breaking down the top end of the slate through a DraftKings lens.

For anyone that hasn’t read this article before, The Chalk Board is a DraftKings Daily Fantasy Sports article where I attempt to navigate the $9000+ salary range by offering you insight into who I will be using, considering, or fading from my personal lineups. In turn, this can help navigate the lower salary range as well by design. If you choose to alter your lineups based on my statements in this article, please understand that I am not a professional gambler or DFS player, so that decision is yours. Live with the results YOU get from the decisions YOU make.

$9500 – DREW DOBER (-425)

The Crimson Chin, Drew Dober, is back in action at UFC Vegas 80 and he will be matching up against Ricky Glenn. Glenn just recently made his return to UFC by being completely startched in his return fight against Christos Giagos. Dober is also coming off of a knockout loss to Matt Frevola, where his chin met its match in the first round loss.

Drew Dober is a fan favorite due to his near concrete chin and go to war style of fighting. Dober will come out and immediately engage in a fire fight, relying on his chin to keep him in it long enough to land something devastating. Usually this method works out well for him, his last fight notwithstanding. Dober doesn’t have great takedown defense, and that is a hole in his game, but not a hole that will be likely to be exploited here. The more concerning hole would be his striking defense, as the warrior approach does leave him quite hittable.

Dober will be fighting Ricky Glenn who just returned from a two year layoff, and did so to a knockout loss against Christos Giagos. Glenn is a striker himself, and while I would also classify him a warrior – he isn’t quite as reckless as Dober in the pocket exchanges. Glenn doesn’t generally look to wrestle at all, but it might be worth noting that I believe he has both the offense and defensive wrestling advantage in this fight.

It really is hard not to like Dober. His style almost forces you to want to believe in him. That being said, I believe that Ricky Glenn does have some life in this fight if he can manage to avoid the early barrage. Add in to that the fact that we may have just witnessed the breaking point for Dober’s chin the last time out. For those two reasons I will likely be avoiding Dober in cash completely, regardless of ownership, but I could see some merit for him in tournament entries. Ricky Glenn on the other hand is a worthwhile punt in nearly any contest type in my opinion. He just needs to survive the first round and he could put up a solid score at his price tag. 

$9400 – GRANT DAWSON (-425)

Grant Dawson is undefeated in the UFC through ten fights. There was a majority draw in there against Ricky Glenn, but that fight took place right around the time that the judges stopped prioritizing control in the scoring, so there were some question marks. His opponent is Bobby Green, who is a veteran that everyone loves to watch fight because of his hands low style and fluid movement that make for a pretty fight.

Grant Dawson is a grappler that also happens to have really impressive takedowns. He has won five of his ten UFC fights by submission and has a takedown in all ten of his fights while averaging nearly four takedowns per fifteen minutes. His striking game isn’t the best, but it isn’t terrible either. Dawson can hold his own in the striking department, and that might just allow him to use his wrestling and his grappling in a more effective way than most people have been able to against his opponent, Bobby Green. Bobby used to be very well-rounded himself with great takedowns to compliment his striking. These days he seems to be just a striker however, only getting involved in wrestling and grappling when it is forced upon him.

I really don’t see a single reason not to stack this fight for cash contests. Bobby is tough and while it isn’t his strength, he is a capable grappler with good takedown defense that I think will at least allow him to extend this fight into the later rounds. When it comes to tournaments I would prefer to play Dawson, but if I only had a small amount of salary left I wouldn’t avoid Green as he should have a fairly safe floor.

$9300 – JOE PYFER (-450)

Attention value hunters, you have arrived at the value play of the week. You are able to get Joe Pyfer, who is currently the most heavily favored fighter on the slate, at a $200 discount from Dober. Pyfer is fighting Abdul Razak Alhassan, who is well known as a powerful well-rounded fighter himself. Alhassan certainly doesn’t have the same level of hype or promise as Pyfer though, so I believe this line to be fair.

Joe Pyfer has solid takedowns, great grappling, and loads of power in his hands. I would say the technical aspect of his striking is the only area where he might be at a bit of a disadvantage in this one, but even then, it is not like Abdul Razak Alhassan is a technician himself. Both men rely heavily on power, and when it connects either man is capable of ending the person standing across from them. Where I believe the difference in this fight might be is in the takedowns of Pyfer as Alhassan has miserable takedown defense and once he gets put on his back he has little resistance to offer. Pyfer doesn’t have great takedown defense either, but Alhassan is less likely to shoot to begin with.

For me this is a Joe Pyfer play from start to finish. I will be including Pyfer in my cash and tournament entries because he can compete in the power department (might even have the advantage) while also having the takedown path to fall back on which makes his ceiling much higher in my opinion. I could see using Alhassan in the larger tournaments that I don’t personally play, but for cash and anything small-field single-entry, it is Pyfer or nothing in this one for me.

$9000 – MATEUS MENDONCA (-258)

Mateus Mendonca is back to show us all what he has after being completely dominated by Javid Basharat. The UFC community at large has a major hard on for Mendoca for whatever reason – as they tend to have for all Chute Boxe fighters – but I am very unclear what it is based on. Standing across from him is Nate Maness, who is also very lackluster coming off a two fight skid losing to Umar Nurmagomedov and Tagir Ulanbekov. 

Mendonca is your typical Chute Boxe fighter for the most part, a very aggressive striking game with solid grappling should the fight find its way to the ground. One area where Mendonca seems to be a bit ahead is that he has fairly decent takedowns himself, getting Javid Basharat to the ground twice – albeit on eleven tries – during the loss to him where he was outstruck three to one. Nate Maness is no stranger to being outstruck himself, having a monstrously negative striking differential despite being 3-2 in the UFC. This fight is a shit show in my opinion in either direction and I have firm plans to stay far away from it. Not only that, but the value isn’t there with Mendoca only a -258 favorite while everyone else in this range is -400 or better.

For the types of contests I play I won’t be using either of these fighters, but if I was to play one or the other, it would likely be a punt on Nate Maness. I would just hope that he can survive the early rush from Mendoca and win a greasy decision on the scorecards. I cannot fathom playing Mendonca in anything small-field at all. I do imagine that there might be a decent amount of leverage in playing him in the larger tournaments if he has a ceiling performance however.

FINAL THOUGHT

There could honestly be eleven terrible fights on this slate and I would be just as excited to see it. The week off was needed, but now I am ready to watch violence once again. If you are like me, and only play cash contests or small-field single-entry tournaments, then this slate should be pretty straight forward. If you play large tournaments though, my inclination is that a few wild outcomes could easily skew the slate. Be cautious and do your research.

Hopefully, this Chalk Board article has helped you at least reduce the number of options in the upper salary range, and in turn isolate a few dogs you feel good about. I would like to take this time to again remind you to make YOUR OWN decisions. Don’t buy into anything I say unless it makes sense to you as well.

Good luck this week! If you need any help with your DraftKings entries you can join the free Discord server which has loads of very capable DFS players and I am sure you will find an opinion that will give you the confirmation bias that most people seek. If you need additional help then reach out to @WeWantPicks on Twitter, or you can shoot me questions as well if you like @WebGuyWWP. Thanks for reading, see you guys next week.