One of the statements that I made in last week’s UFC Vegas 84 article was, “Nolan will be a building block for my tournament lineup, but I may exclude him from cash in favor of more safety since Motta has significant power if he can find Nolan’s chin first.” Obviously that happened, and with it my tournament lineups died. I did manage to hold just above the cash line in cash despite having Johnny Walker and Ricky Simon in the lineup, but it was by a thread and I imagine that my 477.67 score wouldn’t have gotten me over the cash line in a fair amount of cash contests.

This week we are going to dominate UFC 297 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Canada. The prelims start at 6:30pm est and are your typical international fight card with tons of hometown Canadian fighters on the slate. The main card is set to begin at 10pm est and features a middleweight championship bout between Sean Strickland and everyone’s favorite African Dricus Du Plessis.

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.

The article is written for cash games and single entry tournaments, however you may see a large field or MME reference from time to time. It is split into three very distinctive sections. The first is the “Lock Them In” section which features the fighters in the salary range that I think will make a perfect addition to cash and small-field single entry lineups. The second section of the article is “Roll The Dice” which provides information on fighters that could be great for your lineup but come with added risk that make them more comfortable for GPP lineups than cash lineups. The third and final section of the article is “Stay Away” and that is exactly what it sounds like, these fighters should be avoided at all cost for single entry tournaments and cash games. You may still want to use them for larger tournaments however, and potentially for mass multiple entry contests as well where complete fades are less frequent.

LOCK THEM IN

MIKE MALOTT – $9300 (-400)

Mike Malott represents the future hopes and dreams for Canadian fighters. Malott is a well-rounded prospect that does everything pretty well. You will see him stand and strike very effectively, and then be pleasantly surprised when he finds his way to the ground as well. In this fight he is matching up with veteran Neil Magny. Personally, I love Neil Magny, I believe he is one of those really well rounded fighters that never quite got the credit he deserved. That being said, Neil Magny is going to be out classed here I suspect.

I think that Mike Malott has the advantage pretty much everywhere in this fight, except maybe in the clinch against the fence. I also think that Magny is nearing the end of his run in the UFC, he has been around for a long time, and time will catch up to everyone sooner or later. Magny is tough though, which is why Malott is only a lock for my cash lineups. I will still have plenty of him in my tournament lineups as well, but it is doubtful that I expose myself much over wherever the field ends up on Malott.

ROLL THE DICE

GILLIAN ROBERTSON – $9100 (-255)

When it comes to tournament pivots, I believe that the best pivot in the 9k range is Gillian Robertson. Robertson is a grappling nightmare for most of her opponents, and while her opponent here, Polyana Viana, does have skills in grappling – they are not the same level as Gillian Robertson in my opinion. The only concern that I have here is how effective Gillian will be getting to Viana’s back, which is the place I think she needs to be to find the finish here. Gillian will be a fighter that I go pretty heavy on when it comes to tournaments, but I wouldn’t really consider her for cash games with Malott sitting right above her.

CHARLES JOURDAIN – $9000 (-181)

To be perfectly clear, I believe that Charles Jourdain loses this fight. I was actually flabbergasted to learn that his opponent, Sean Woodson, was a +148 underdog the first time I looked at the odds. I am open to the idea that I may just be wildly overvaluing Woodson, so I have included Jourdain in the “roll the dice” section. If Jourdain wins this fight, I believe it will be by knockout and score quite well. Personally, I will be playing pretty heavy on the underdog side with Sean Woodson, but to each their own.

STAY AWAY

JASMINE JASUDAVICIUS – $9500 (-350)

Let me start this one by saying that I am a HUGE Jasmine Jasudavicius fan. I love the grit she fights with, and I tend to appreciate wrestlers more than I should (guessing this is because I only play DK and don’t bet). I don’t love her at $9500 though. That price tag is far too high for a woman that has only eclipsed 100 points on one occasion. That one occasion included eleven minutes of control time. The story her scoring tells is that Jasmine just isn’t an active enough grappler to drop $9500 performances.

I do believe that Jasmine wins this fight, and wouldn’t be surprised to see her score right around 100 points, but that isn’t enough for her salary, especially not for tournaments. I have two main concerns around her score. The first is that I don’t know if I can trust her to wrestle. Aside from that fight against Fernandes where she went over 100 points, she really has seemed pretty complacent standing and striking with her opponents. The second concern that I have is that even if she does wrestle, does she stay active on top? Her other performances have shown me a woman that prefers to prioritize control, and that doesn’t rise to this salary level, even if she were to get to the ground as she pleased.

Then I also have two secondary concerns as well. The first of those is that I believe once this fight finds the ground it will basically be over without much opportunity for Jasmine to score a ton. The second is that her opponent, Priscila Cachoeira, is a very powerful striker and Jasmine gets hit pretty frequently. Especially when she marches forward throwing straights with her chin cemented to the center line – see Maverick fight. 

All things considered, I am choosing to stay away from Jasmine and will just watch as a fan. If she manages to put up 120-130 points in takedowns and control, then I guess I will just be the idiot of the week. 

FINAL THOUGHT

After this event we have another short break, which is kind of shitty. When we come back though we have several weeks of fights in a row without a break and I cannot wait for that! For this week I will do everything I can to enjoy the event and hope that I can head into the break with another cash contest win at minimum.

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. Thanks for reading, see you guys next week.