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Welcome back to the UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada, for another night of fighting-fireworks! This might not be the ultimate MMA event, that's for sure, but keep calm as we're just a bunch of days away from a true banger of a day when UFC 255 arrives in just over a week. In the meantime, though, UFC Vegas 14 will provide some entertainment for us folks too antsy to wait seven more days.
This weekend, Las Vegas and the UFC will put together a (main) night of four fights (plus a catchweight one) which will be headlined by former champion Rafael Dos Anjos facing Paul Felder in the lightweight division ranks. On top (or rather bottom) of that, we'll be able to watch two absolute-destroyers in Razak Alhassan and Khaos Williams, which will most probably be part of a KO-ending going one way or another given their pasts. There will be more characters around, so let's go through it all!
In this article, I will be providing you with my daily fantasy MMA, UFC lineup picks for DraftKings for UFC Vegas 14: Felder vs. dos Anjos on 11/14/20. You can check out our FanDuel MMA DFS picks as well. These DFS lineup picks can vary from higher-priced players and elite options to lower-priced fighters and value picks on DraftKings. Give me a follow on Twitter @chapulana. Good luck!
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DraftKings MMA Lightweight - UFC DFS Lineup Picks
Rafael dos Anjos, $8800 - vs. Paul Felder
We should be watching Dos Anjos facing Islam Makhachev, but we also shouldn't be going through a pandemic. That is what derailed that fight, and what allowed Paul Felder to take on the chance on super-short notice getting confirmed as Rafael's foe just a few days ago.
These two are nothing new to MMA or the UFC fans for that matter. Dos Anjos fought for the belt more than five years ago now, and he won it in his first attempt successfully defending it once before losing it to Eddie Alvarez. He got another chance in 2018 but dropped it. Paul Felder, though, has never had the chance at snatching the gold.
Dos Anjos has been on a downward trend ever since that 2018 champ-fight, boasting a 1-3 record since then and having lost his last two. Felder is 2-2 in that span but also lost his last fight in February. These two are volume-strikers, but Dos Anjos brings the grappling game to the equation more often than not, which Felder doesn't do at all. Dos Anjos should bounce back on this one and get the W against a Paul Felder that just a week ago didn't have a clue he'd be part of the show come Saturday.
DraftKings MMA Welterweight - UFC DFS Lineup Picks
Abdul Razak Alhassan, $8900 - vs. Khaos Williams
Let's start with Williams here, as he only has one fight under the UFC banner to this date, that one coming last February against Alex Morono. All Williams did then and there was defeating Morono in all of 27 seconds via KO. All Williams needed to do so was to land 10 SS in under half a minute to get that first win of his UFC career while going home bagging 105 DKFP boosted by a super-early finish of his rival.
Abdul, on the other hand, has been around since late 2016 and is 2-1 in UFC fights since 2018 (included). We last saw him this past July, when he dropped his first bout in almost 22 months to Mounir Lazzez in a three-round, full-time decision. Prior to that, Abdul had won three fights in a row via KO inside the first round (all of them under 4:21 minutes).
While neither of these two will probably take the fight to the ground, at least Abdul has some takedowns in his UFC fight log. Not that Khaos has had a lot of time to get some himself. Anyways, this will end in a knockout, one side or the other. I'm banking on the experienced Alhassan bouncing back and getting his name back in the W column this weekend.
DraftKings MMA Middleweight - UFC DFS Lineup Picks
Julian Marquez, $9400 - vs. Saparbek Safarov
If you go looking for Marquez fight-history you might think the website you found it in is missing some data. You'd be wrong. Marquez has been out of any type of fighting structure since December 2017 when he fought Darren Stewart in UFC FN and won that bout. His extended period outside of any cage will be critical and something to put some heavy consideration into getting into this match.
Even with that, though, Marquez is the absolute favorite this weekend against a Safarov that has fought four times in the UFC and currently holds a paltry 1-3 record since his first one in 2016, and 1-2 since 2018. He lost his last fight this past March, getting submitted in under three minutes. Marquez's last victory? A second-round submission win.
Given that Safarov has lost his three fights early (two subs, one KO), and that Marquez has shown prowess to finish bouts with early stoppages in either of those two ways, odds are we see Safarov eating the dust on Saturday before we reach the 15-minute mark. Marquez's extended hiatus will hang some doubts above his head, but fear nothing. It's comeback time for Julian.
DraftKings MMA Middleweight - UFC DFS Lineup Picks
Eryk Anders, $8500 - vs. Antonio Arroyo
It must be hard to find someone with more fights in the past three calendar years than Eryk Anders. Since July 2017 he's stepped into an Octagon 10 times, although that volume hasn't translated to a great winning rate. He was 3-1 in his first four, but after that and starting in mid-2018 Anders is just 4-2 in his last six fights (he lost his last one this past May via decision).
On the completely opposite side of the spectrum, Antonio Arroyo has just one fight under his UFC-belt, losing in his promo-debut to Andre Muniz back in November 2019. Almost one year to that day he will be back fighting once more.
Although Arroyo carries a much shorter UFC resume than that of Anders, this fight doesn't seem to be that much in favor of the latter. Anders has a 60% chance of winning and the money line is just at -152 for him (Arroyo's is at 120). I'd go with Anders in a boring decision. Not a lot to like here.
