Opinion Octagon's UFC Championship Futures Prediction!

To quote Bruce Buffer "IT'S TIME!" for our Championship Futures prediction. That's right, we have a new year and we're going to have a bunch of new champions. If you like to bet on the UFC this is going to be the article for you. We are going to give you the Draftkings odds for the Championship Futures, in other words, to be Champion on December 31st, 2023. We're going to go over all of our choices for every weight class.

Let's start with the Heavyweights. There is one obvious choice in Jon "Bones" Jones. Bones's Heavyweight debut has been anticipated for years now. As the greatest fighter of all time, he will get the title shot in said debut. Bones's odds are +275. Outside of Jon, there are a couple of exciting choices, but our choice is Sergei Pavlovich at +650. Pavlovich is an absolute monster. He fights very similarly to the current champ, Francis Ngannou. The reason we didn't choose the Predator to be champ by the end of the year is because his future with the company seems very unclear. However, his odds are +110.

The Light Heavyweight Division is such a toss-up at the moment as we still do not have a champion. Yet, we have two clear choices at Opinion Octagon. Magomed Ankalaev at +150 or Jamahal Hill at +300. Ankalaev recently just got robbed of winning the vacated title in a split-draw-decision. Most would agree he is next in line for the title. Jamahal Hill is scheduled to fight Glover Teixeira at UFC 283 in Brazil. Jamahal is currently favored against Glover. We like Jamahal because he has the age advantage and he is a KO machine. We love Glover and do not want to see him get hurt, but Jamahal "Sweet Dreams" Hill is a tall task on a three-fight win streak standing with an eleven-and-one record. You can't go wrong with either Magomed or Jamahal as one of them will be the champ on December 31st.

As we move down to the Middleweight Division there are two obvious choices according to Opinion Octagon. Alex "Poatan" Pereira, the current champion is only getting better as he just earned his brown belt in jiu-jitsu under Glover Teixeira. Alex just defeated Israel Adesanya in his third UFC fight to become champion. Odds are he will defeat him again in a rematch. Poatan's odds to remain champ are +215. The dark horse in the Middleweight race is Khamzat Chimaev currently sitting at +250 to become the champ before year's end. Chimaev is a dark horse because he has been working up the rankings in the welterweight division, that said he struggles to make 170 pounds. Chimaev and Pereira have already had some beef on social media calling each other out. Khamzat's grappling ability has also been seen to be unmatched so far which is where Alex does struggle. Both these choices are almost locks.

As for the Welterweight Division, we have only one choice. Belal "Remember the Name" "Bully B" Muhammed. Belal is more deserving of a title shot in the Welterweight Division than anyone outside of the name Kamaru Usman. Yet, Usman's status is unclear if he will be ready to fight by UFC 286 in London. This is where Belal is going to get fast-tracked to the title and his long reign as champion will begin! Bully B's odds are +900, but this is where you can make a lot of money because Belal is the fourth-ranked Welterweight and will be the guy chosen to replace Usman.

In the Lightweight Division, we like two fighters. Islam Makhachev, the current champion, and Beneil Dariush, the only hope of defeating Makhachev. Makhachev is -200 and Dariush is +750. These two were scheduled to fight just a year ago, but it was canceled due to Beneil getting injured. Beneil is the fourth-ranked Lightweight and appears to have a massive size advantage inside the octagon. His jiu-jitsu is top-notch as he is a black belt, and has won a lot of his fights through his jiu-jitsu skills while he also holds crazy knock-out power. As for Islam, he is probably going to defeat Volk at UFC 284 and fight once more before the year ends, Dariush deserves that opportunity.

The Featherweight division is quite an interesting division being that the champ, Alexander Volkanovski is fighting for the Lightweight Championship next month. However, since he is probably going to lose he'll most likely end up right back in the Featherweight division where he is king. His odds to remain champ are -165. Yet, if anyone is going to upset Volk, it's Arnold Allen (+800) or Ilia Topuria (+1400). Yes, both these men are heavy dogs and yes, we are looking past Yair Rodriguez (+450) and Josh Emmett (+400) who are fighting for the Interim title at UFC 284. Odds are Volk beats both those men, but the way Topuria fights reminds me of the way Khabib and Islam fight. You know how I think Volk fairs against Islam. As for Arnold Allen, you just can't count out his striking ability. He is unbelievable. One of these three men Volk, Allen, or Topuria will be champion by the end of the year.

The Men's Bantamweight division has been super exciting. It has been one of, if not the most exciting divisions in the past couple of years. Our choices here, yet again are heavy dogs, but the way the division is trending points toward these fighters fighting for the title by year's end. Marlon "Chito" Vera (+900) and Merab Dvalishvili (+1800). Chito will fight anyone, anytime, anywhere. He has a lot of crazy knockouts on his resume and he has Cory Sandhagen coming up next month. A win over Sandhagen will propel anyone to the title and with Chito's already existing resume I don't see Chito losing to anyone besides Merab. If Aljamain Sterling was not the champion, it is very possible Merab would be. Merab won't fight Aljo out of friendship. However, Aljo has teased moving up to 145. If that happens, Merab will be back into fighting for the belt.

The Women's Bantamweight division has been pretty locked up by Amanda Nunes (-250) but how much longer is she going to remain active? She has nothing left to prove, she is the GOAT. So the Opinion Octagon choices are either Valentina Schevchanko (+700) or Juliana Pena (+750). Are these bold picks if Amanda retires? No, but take them now because if she does those odds won't look like that at all.

The Men's Flyweight division is definitely a wild one to predict because it has just been two guys for the last couple of years in a hot potato and they're fighting again in two weeks. They are Brandon Moreno (+165) and Deiveson Figueiredo (+150). Personally, I believe Moreno will win this final fight making him one of the two choices for Flyweight. The other is Muhammed Mokaev (+3500). The thing with Mokaev is he has to win one or two more fights to get to the belt, but the good thing about that is he takes no damage and he dominates. He may be able to get to the belt quickly. Moreno and Mokaev are the picks.

The Women's Flyweight division has been almost as locked up as the Women's Bantamweight. Shevchenko is -190 to remain champion throughout the year. However, if there's gonna be an upset Talia Santos (+600) put on a fantastic performance against Valentina in their last fight. I thought she was going to win for most of the fight. There's also Erin Blanchfield (+900) who might be able to put on some fireworks against Schevchenko as she just ragdolled "Meatball" Molly McCann.

The Women's Strawweight is about to be locked up by the current champion. No one is beating Zhang Weili (-165). Sorry! Zhang's improvement has been immense. If "Thug" Rose (+225) gets an opportunity to fight for the title again, Zhang will hand her a dish of sweet revenge!

So there you have it. The Opinion Octagon Championship Futures!