How the public is betting Bellator 243

Bellator MMA is back for its second event since restarting its promotion in late July. Bellator 242 took place at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut and saw Sergio Pettis win a unanimous decision over Ricky Bandejas in the main event.

The promotion is back on Friday, August 7th with Bellator 243, 24 hours ahead of UFC’s Fight Night event. The main event of the Bellator card is Michael Chandler vs. Benson Henderson in a rematch of Chandler’s November 2016 split decision win in a light heavyweight championship title defense.

DraftKings Sportsbook is offering up some betting splits information, which tells how the betting public is picking the card. They’ve got numbers on the four-fight main card, and the public is heavily backing the favorites.

All four have roughly ²⁄₃ of the money or more on the favorite, and all four have at least 81 percent of the total bets placed on the favorite.

Michael Chandler (-240): 78% handle, 81% bets
Benson Henderson (+195): 22% handle, 19% bets

Matt Mitrione (-130): 65% handle, 88% bets
Timothy Johnson (+105): 35% handle, 12% bets

Myles Jury (-230): 94% handle, 92% bets
Georgi Karakhanyan (+180): 6% handle, 8% bets

Curtis Millender (-345): 93% handle, 94% bets
Sabah Homasi (+260): 7% handle, 6% bets

One fight on the preliminary card we don’t have numbers on yet is Valerie Loureda vs. Tara Graff. Both only have two fights under their belts, but Loureda is immensely popular on social media and is looking to build her following at Bellator. The fight was added on July 29th, and Loureda is feeling confident about it.

Update: DK has added money line odds for Loureda-Graff. Loureda is listed at -770, while Graff is +450. We don’t have splits yet, but we’ll keep an eye out. I’d expect a sizable percentage ends up betting on Loureda.

Update 5:58 p.m.: 84 percent of the handle and 85 percent of the bets are on Loureda.