UFC 310 Main Event Opening Odds: Rakhmonov Favored Over Muhammad

UFC 310 has a main event. The final pay-per-view on the UFC schedule for 2024, UFC 310 takes place at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on December 7. The recently announced main event sees UFC welterweight champion Belal Muhammad against the undefeated Shavkat Rakhmonov. Muhammad (24-3-0-1) is unbeaten in his past 11 outings. His most recent setback came in January 2019 when he dropped a unanimous decision to Geoff Neal on a UFC Fight Night card in Brooklyn, New York. After that loss, Muhammad settled in and slowly climbed the 170-pound rankings. By the time he faced then-UFC champion Leon Edwards in the main event of UFC 304, Muhammad was the No. 2 fighter in the official UFC rankings. Edwards entered that fight as the -265 betting favorite over Muhammad, who was a +215 betting underdog. Edwards won the fight via decision. At the time, I wrote of Muhammad’s performance, “Belal Muhammad had the perfect game plan for Leon Edwards at UFC 304. Not only did he and his team have that strategy mapped out, but Muhammad seamlessly executed that plan of attack. “Muhammad used pressure and high-output striking to remove time and space from Edwards. That approach forced Edwards to retreat, and once Muhammad had his opponent’s back to the fence, he added his wrestling and ground control to the mix. “Edwards landed a decent percentage of his strikes at 66 percent, but the pressure from Muhammad limited his attempts to just 71 significant strikes. Edwards threw over 100 strikes in his two most recent bouts. Muhammad was especially effective in his wrestling, racking up nine takedowns on 13 attempts and picking up 12:02 of control time.” Rakhmonov (18-0) made his UFC debut in October 2020. Since then he has gone 6-0 with the promotion, earning five submissions and one knockout. Rakhmonov has never gone the distance in his career. His longest fight came in March 2023 when he submitted Geoff Neal at 4:17 of the third round. Rakhmonov’s most recent fight was a December submission win over former two-time UFC welterweight title challenger Stephen Thompson at UFC 296. Rakhmonov said he deserved the next shot at UFC welterweight gold in August. “UFC thinks I’m the No. 1 contender and that I should be next because there’s no clear contender anyway,” Rakhmonov recently told Submission Radio through an interpreter. “I have 100 percent finishes in the UFC, so I actually should be next. Everyone else is also very close, but I think they need one or a couple of wins to get this title shot, so I should be next.” The opening betting odds for the main event of UFC 310, according to BetOnline see Rakhmonov as the -265 betting favorite over Muhammad, who opens as the +225 betting underdog.