Daniel Cormier scoffs at betting odds for upcoming UFC main event

Daniel Cormier believes that betting odds for a huge UFC headliner may have indirectly been inconsiderate of a former champion.

Fans won’t have to wait much longer for the highly anticipated light heavyweight encounter between Jamahal Hill and Khalil Rountree. The two will collide in the UFC Baku main event on Saturday. Just ahead of fight night, Rountree has emerged as a slight betting favorite.

It’s a shift that Cormier feels is a bit dismissive of Hill, who has held UFC gold before.

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Cormier Thinks UFC Baku Odds Disrespect Jamahal Hill

During an episode of ESPN’s “Good Guy/Bad Guy,” Daniel Cormier discussed the oddsmakers having Khalil Rountree as a favorite over Jamahal Hill (h/t MMAJunkie).

“Little detail in this fight that I think a lot of people are overlooking: Khalil Rountree, for as well as he fought against Alex Pereira, that was the only guy he’s ever fought inside the top 10,” Cormier said. “But he opened as a betting favorite over Jamahal Hill this weekend. Is that disrespectful to Jamahal Hill?

“He (Rountree) took a lot of damage while not being able to go the 25 minutes is very telling – especially when we’ve seen Jamahal do that,” Cormier added. “I think it’s disrespectful to Jamahal. Jamahal Hill has done some things social media wise and publicly that make people not like him. The fanbase, they just don’t want to like him. Belal Muhammad struggles with that at times. He tries to be more engaging, it doesn’t work. People go, ‘I can’t stand Belal Muhammad.’ Same thing with Jamahal. Jamahal had a couple of hiccups, I can’t remember exactly what he did last year, but the fanbase just turned on him, and I think it’s because of that.”

Hill and Rountree are fighting to remain in the UFC light heavyweight title picture. Hill has suffered back-to-back losses against Alex Pereira and Jiri Prochazka, while Rountree was stopped by “Poatan” in his last outing. BJPenn.com will be providing live coverage of UFC Baku on Saturday.