In a 3-round featherweight bout on the main card, Dan Ige and Melquizael Costa meet Saturday at UFC Fight Night 267 — also known as UFC Houston — at Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. The prelims begin at 5 p.m. ET, and the main card starts at 8 p.m. ET, all on Paramount+. Let’s analyze BetMGM Sportsbook’s UFC odds around the UFC Fight Night 267: Ige vs. Costa odds, and make our expert UFC picks and predictions.
Records: Ige (19-10-0) | Costa (25-7-0)
The veteran Ige suffered a unanimous-decision loss to Patricio Pitbull last time out at UFC 318 last July. He has lost 3 of his past 4 bouts, with each loss coming via unanimous decision. His lone win during the span was a Round 3 KO/TKO victory at UFC 314 against Sean Woodson last April. In fact, Ige is 4-4 in his past 8 fights, with 3 of the victories coming by way of knockout.
Costa picked up a Round 1 KO/TKO victory over Morgan Charriere last time out in a fight night in mid-December. He has rattled off 5 straight wins, with 2 going the distance, and also has 2 submission wins over veteran Andre Fili and Shayilan Nuerdanbieke in that span.
The reach is dead-even at 71 inches for both fighters while the southpaw Costa holds a 4.42-to-3.62 advantage in significant strikes landed per minute. He is also much more accurate on those strikes, landing 59.66%, while Ige has managed a 49.56% mark on those strikes. Costa also leads with a 1.93-to-0.89 takedown average, while he has a 38.46% accuracy mark on takedowns, to just 25.81% for Ige. And, Costa also has a 1.16-to-0.22 submission average advantage, too.
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UFC Fight Night 267: Ige vs. Costa odds
Provided by BetMGM Sportsbook; access USA TODAY Sports Scores and Sports Betting Odds hub for a full list. Lines last updated Saturday at 12:45 p.m. ET.
- Fight result (2-way line): Ige +185 (bet $100 to win $185) | Costa -225 (bet $225 to win $100)
- Will the fight go the distance? (Yes -250 | No +175)
UFC Fight Night 267: Ige vs. Costa picks and predictions
Costa (-220) will cost you more than 2 times your potential return, and that’s way too much risk for a straight up bet. However, if you were to fold the Brazilian fighter into a multi-leg parlay, that would be perfectly fine.
While Ige is a veteran who has vast experience, Costa leads in almost every metric. Costa has shown he can win in a number of ways, as well, either wowing the judges on points, winning via KO/TKO or getting it down in the wrestling game.
Let’s look for COSTA BY KO/TKO, DQ OR SUBMISSION (+600) for the chance to multiply up by 6 times. That’s too good of a value to pass on.
NO (+175): FIGHT TO GO THE DISTANCE is also a very nice play at plus money, unless you strongly feel this is going to go the full 3 rounds. I like Costa to get the finish, either in Round 2 or Round 3. As such, COSTA IN ROUND 1 (+1200) or COSTA IN ROUND 2 (+1600) is worth a roll of the dice. You could even take a chance on Costa in Round 3 (+2200), but I am avoiding that part. Sure, even if he gets the finish, you’ll lose the other ends, but you’d still be well ahead, too.
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