UFC Fight Night: Brad Tavares vs Jun-Yong Park Odds, Picks, & Predictions

The Brad Tavares vs. Jun-yong Park middleweight clash serves as the co-main event of this weekend’s UFC Fight Night card and one of our featured events for UFC betting. 

Journeyman Tavares has seen better days. So much so that it is unlikely the veteran can turn away the challenge of the talented, but flawed Park.

UFC odds have Park a -170 favorite and Tavares a +135 underdog. Here are my best free UFC Fight Night: Tavares vs. Park predictions from the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada

Tavares vs Park prediction and pick

• My fight prediction
  Park ML (-170 at BET99)
  
  
• My best bet
   Fight will go the distance (-210 at BET99)

Fight analysis

Father Time is calling for Brad Tavares. While he's been the consummate professional and has fought everyone making noise at middleweight, Tavares is declining rapidly, having lost three of his last five fights and looking less than serviceable in those defeats. Though Tavares has the technique and the experience, he's never been a fighter who has relied on a particular talent — such as striking power or lockdown wrestling — that could bail him out of a bad spot when things start going south. He is coming off a third-round stoppage loss to Gregory Rodrigues last February and doesn't look like he has much left to offer.

Jun-yong Park does a little bit of everything. He's a decent striker who mixes in takedowns, has solid submissions, and can set an aggressive pace and stick with it for the full distance. He is coming off a split-decision loss to Andre Muniz, where he won the striking battle but got taken down 11 times. That ended a four-fight winning streak where he won three consecutive bouts by submission.

The one thing that Tavares still does well is that he is great at stuffing takedowns. Park definitely won't if Dricus Du Plessis couldn't take him down. However, I expect Park to save his energy and keep this a striking match. Tavares is the better technician, but with his lack of striking power combined with his declining physical skills, he has to hope Park makes the tactical error of trying to wrestle with him and wastes his energy that way. If Park begins to outwork him, Tavares won't be able to catch up.

There used to be a time when Tavares would have won fights like these, but we’re getting further from those days with each passing performance. I’m going with Park to come out with a win and add to Tavares’ decline.

Best best analysis

Park and Tavares’s average fight times exceed 10 minutes, and neither of them has shown the kind of striking power that could seriously trouble the other. Park’s recent submission wins have come because he’s always charging forward and causing chaos, but Tavares’ excellent takedown defense should keep him off the mat and he has never lost a fight via submission.

In all honesty, Park is only slightly better than Tavares in most categories despite the veteran’s decline. This fight will come down to either Park outworking him or Tavares stumping him and slowing his activity down. I don’t see Park running away with this fight, so my best bet is that the fight goes the distance.

Brad Tavares vs Jun-Yong Park odds

Method of Victory	Tavares	Park
To win outright	+130	-169
To win by KO/TKO	+550	+405
To win by decision	+245	+145
To win by submission	+2,400	+875
Draw	+2,500	+2,500

Odds as of 7-18.

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Brad Tavares vs Jun Yong Park tale of the tape

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