*UPDATED* Out of all(248) UFC events, only 2 events where all the favorites won.

[UAK]

UPDATE AGAIN:

UFC 72 and UFC Fight 18 are the only 2 events (?) where all the favorites won.

 

[EndlessCritic]

Umm...

UFC 72, the TUF 5 Finale, and UFC 73 each had zero upsets.

To make this more amazing, these three events were consecutive.

Although I suppose 72 is the only other one where "all favorites won", because 73 had the evans/ortiz draw (although that fight was even odds), and TUF 5 finale had the Maynard NC.

 

[TFanatic]

I alwayswwondered what made Rockhold the initial favorite in that fight, didn't they see the sweet mohawk Vitor was sporting?

 

[UAK]

Umm...

UFC 72, the TUF 5 Finale, and UFC 73 each had zero upsets.

To make this more amazing, these three events were consecutive.

Although I suppose 72 is the only other one where "all favorites won", because 73 had the evans/ortiz draw (although that fight was even odds), and TUF 5 finale had the Maynard NC.

How big were the mismatches? If I remember correctly beflort vs rockhold wasn't filled with mismatches it was mostly -200, -150 favorites but could be wrong.

So in all the years UFC have existed it's only happened twice... that's sounds wrong though. I mean in 12-13 fights it feels like all the favorites should pull through a few times per year.

The expression "Anything can happen in MMA" couldn't be more right then

 

[Abrogation]

John Lineker won and he was the slight underdog.

 

[UAK]

John Lineker won and he was the slight underdog.

he opened at -190 when the fight started he was actually a slight underdog. So, we're down to one UFC event where no upsets happened...

200+ UFC cards and only 1 card where all the favorites won. I'm suspecting this is a statistical anomaly.

UFC 72 should be in the title instead.

 

[Quadrivium]

I alwayswwondered what made Rockhold the initial favorite in that fight, didn't they see the sweet mohawk Vitor was sporting?

I won easy money on that fight. Strikeforce Rockhold had nothing for TRT Vitor on home turf.

 

[FarCry]

Nice find, that's pretty interesting. I bet that won't happen again for a long time.

 

[arrelione]

I've wondered about this myself, good find.

 

[Abrogation]

UFC Fight Night 18: Condit vs. Kampmann also had all the favorites on the card win:

• Martin Kampmann [-127] def. Carlos Condit [-100]
• Ryan Bader [-446] def. Carmelo Marrero [+317]
• Tyson Griffin [-483] def. Rafael dos Anjos [+346]
• Cole Miller [-160] def. Junie Browning [+131]
• Gleison Tibau [-173] def. Jeremy Stephens [+143]
• Ricardo Almeida [-301] def. Matt Horwich [+238]
• Brock Larson [-548] def. Jesse Sanders [+384]
• Tim Credeur [-114] def. Nick Catone [-113]
• Jorge Rivera [-158] def. Nissen Osterneck [+130]
• Rob Kimmons [-260] def. Joe Vedepo [+205]
• Aaron Simpson [-192] def. Tim McKenzie [+159]

All these odds are taken from Best Fight Odds' mean odds at the time of the fight, which can be found here.

 

[Te Huna Matata]

I knew about UFC 72. I even mentioned this on SBR when the topic was brought up way back when (it stuck out in my mind because that was right when I started betting on MMA). I did not know about any others though.

 

[Roger FedorAIR]

Not a UFC card, but STRIKEFORCE: ROCKHOLD VS. KENNEDY was another one where every favorite won (Marquardt initially opened as the favorite).

Anyways, don't think I lost a single bet that night....

 

[UAK]

Not a UFC card, but STRIKEFORCE: ROCKHOLD VS. KENNEDY was another one where every favorite won (Marquardt initially opened as the favorite).

Anyways, don't think I lost a single bet that night....

I suspect it's alot more common for strikeforce though just because mismatches is their motto. People can shit on UFC all they want but when it comes to matchmaking they usually do a good job. It's not all thanks to the UFC though, at the top it's supposed to be competitive. It was common to see SF main cards where all the favs where -500 and don't let me get started on Belllator!

 

[MCS]

There was a recent one where all favorites won. Won some Vcash with it, so it's not too long ago (a year max).

edit: main card betting favorites

 

[UAK]

There was a recent one where all favorites won. Won some Vcash with it, so it's not too long ago (a year max).

Was it the Belfort-rockhold card? I thought so as well but apparently there was one tiny underdog (Lineker).

 

[BobsyaUncle]

UFC on FUEL 4 is very close. All favourites won apart from Alex Caceres who opened a dog against Damacio Page but finished virtually even (mean line was -113/-110 in Page's favour).

 

[cooks1]

UPDATE AGAIN:

UFC 72 and UFC Fight 18 are the only 2 events (?) where all the favorites won.

Why would you be at all surprised by this? Statistically, this is almost exactly what it should be.

Perhaps you should go back to HS and learn some math.

Even if on every fight on every card, one fighter had a 70% chance of winning and their opponent 30% (most fights have odds closer than that), on a 11 fight card, you would expect all the favorites to win less than 2% of the time.

 

[Kaploop]

My favorite betting strategy is to bet on the four biggest underdogs for each event. Works pretty well

 

[Oblivian]

Why would you be at all surprised by this? Statistically, this is almost exactly what it should be.

Perhaps you should go back to HS and learn some math.

Even if on every fight on every card, one fighter had a 70% chance of winning and their opponent 30% (most fights have odds closer than that), on a 11 fight card, you would expect all the favorites to win less than 2% of the time.

I just pulled up a couple random ones out of the blue. I'm doing implied probabilities of parlaying all of the favs.

UFC 160: 1.46%
UFC 125: .689% (lots of close odds)
UFC 150: 2.46%
UFC 115: .629% (lots of close odds)
UFC 100: 2.46%

At 2/248, that's sitting at .806%. I'm thinking if we ran the probabilities for all of the favs for most of those events and took the median and/or average, it would be higher than .806%. Now what to do with that information? I don't know.