UFC 159: Roy Nelson emerges as opening betting favorite vs. Cheick Kongo

USA TODAY Sports

Opening betting lines are in for the sole heavyweight fight at UFC 159 in New Jersey. TUF 10 winner Roy Nelson is the early favorite against the veteran French striker Cheick Kongo. You can see the numbers in the box below courtesy of Best Fight Odds:

Those lines will change over the next few weeks, and the BestFightOdds widget will display different numbers than the one you'll see from the original publish.

It's no surprise that Nelson is the favorite and he'll probably stay that way. The only place Kongo is noticeably better than Roy is in physique. Otherwise, Nelson has a powerful right hand, an incredible chin, and vastly superior grappling. Kongo has historically failed to defeat top 10 caliber HWs in the past, and unless he makes this an "ugly" fight, he's probably not going to break that trend.

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