This article is part of our UFC Picks series.
Following another year out of competition, the king is back. The UFC always seemed like it wanted to save Conor McGregor for when fans could return to arenas, but you can only keep the most marketable fighter in the history of the sport -- who's in the prime of his athletic career -- on the sidelines for so long. It may not be a full arena, but some fans will be allowed to the complex on Fight Island, where the winner between McGregor and an always-game Dustin Poirier will hope to lure former champion Khabib Nurmagomedov out of retirement.
As a reminder, the following selections are purely picks. If you're looking for a fantasy-specific breakdown of these fights on DraftKings, click here for Jon Litterine's 257 Preview or tune into Fight IQ live Friday at 8:00 p.m. EST on the RotoWire Youtube Channel. With FanDuel launching a MMA game as well, we also have added a new DFS Preview courtesy of Chris Olson.
| MATCHUP | WEIGHT CLASS | JON | JAKE | CHRIS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conor McGregor (-300) vs. Dustin Poirier (+250) | Lightweight | | Poirier | |
| Dan Hooker (-120) vs. Michael Chandler (+100) | Lightweight | | ||
Jessica Eye (-105) vs. Joanne Calderwood (-115) | Women's Flyweight | Calderwood | Calderwood | |
| Amanda Ribas (-310) vs. Marina Rodriguez (+255) | Women's | |||
| UFC 257 RECORD | 1-3 | 2-2 | 0-4 | |
| 2021 RECORD | 1-3 | 2-2 | 0-4 | |
| 2021 PERCENTAGE | .250 | .500 | .000 | |
| 2020 RECORD | 36-18 | 34-20 | 28-26 | |
| 2020 PERCENTAGE | .667 | .630 | .519 | |
| 2019 RECORD | 39-19 | 35-23 | 32-26 | |
| 2019 PERCENTAGE | .672 | .603 | .552 | |
| ALL-TIME | 171-102 | 169-104 | 136-104 | |
| ALL-TIME PERCENTAGE | .626 | .619 | .564 |
MATCHUP | WEIGHT | JOE "SUNTZU" | SHAUN |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conor McGregor (-300) vs. Dustin Poirier (+250) | Lightweight | | |
| Dan Hooker (-120) vs. Michael Chandler (+100) | Lightweight | ||
Jessica Eye (-105) vs. Joanne Calderwood (-115) | Women's Flyweight | Calderwood | Calderwood |
| Amanda Ribas (-310) vs. Marina Rodriguez (+255) | Heavyweight | ||
| |||
| UFC 257 RECORD | 1-3 | 1-3 | |
| 2021 RECORD | 1-3 | 1-3 | |
| 2021 PERCENTAGE | .250 | .250 | |
| 2020 RECORD | 36-18 | 38-16 | |
| 2020 PERCENTAGE | .667 | .704 | |
| 2019 RECORD | 34-24 | 34-24 | |
| 2019 PERCENTAGE | .586 | .586 | |
| ALL-TIME | 98-64 | 103-59 | |
| ALL-TIME PERCENTAGE | .605 | .636 |
THE PICKERS
Jon Litterine: RotoWire lead MMA beat writer and scribe for our weekly DrafKings preview. Lead analyst on the RotoWire MMA Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @JonLitterine.
Jake Letarski: RotoWire.com Operations Manager, plus MMA and NCAA Hoops Senior Editor. Host of the RotoWire MMA Podcast and guest on the RotoWire Fantasy Football Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @RotoJake.
Chris Olson: Contributor at RotoWire to "Fight IQ, presented by RotoWire," as well as DFS Baseball, our FanDuel MMA column, a MMA gambling columnist and fight recaps. Follow him on Twitter at @RealChrisOlson.
Joe "SunTszu": Known more commonly by his Twitter handle @SunTszu, Joe is a Hedge Fund Executive by day and high-volume DFS player by night. He is a 2x "Bracket Challenge" & "Gotham qualifier. You can also find him as one of the original contributors of "Fight IQ, presented by RotoWire," a DFS-centric video breakdown. He is also a co-creator of the "Creating Alpha in DFS" podcast.
@theDFSniper: @theDFSniper is the host and lead instigator of "Fight IQ, presented by RotoWire," a DFS-centric video breakdown. He also appears on the LoudMouth MMA podcast and contributes soccer content to DFS Army.
