Two Lightweight prospects, Kody Steele vs. Noah Gugnon, face off in the second fight on today’s UFC 333 Early Prelims! The UFC 333 card begins at 10:00 a.m. ET, with the Early Prelims on Paramount+. The card takes place at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. This event is headlined by a Featherweight Championship fight between Alexander Volkanovski and Movsar Evloev.
Check out my best bet for Kody Steele vs. Noah Gugnon at UFC 333 below.
Exact Method of Victory: KO/TKO/DQ (+130)
Steele, 31, enters this bout with an 8-1 record with six finishes in his career. He trains at Syndicate MMA in Las Vegas, led by top-tier head coach John Wood. Former UFC Bantamweight Champion Merab Dvalishvili, who faces Petr Yan in the co-main event, also trains at Syndicate MMA. At UFC 312 in February 2025, Steele suffered his first career MMA loss to Rongzhu, who was making his UFC debut. But he returned in May and scored a first-round submission against Dom Mar Fan.
Now Steele faces Gugnon, who is 10-2 with 10 finishes. Gugnon is currently in the midst of a six-fight winning streak, with all of them coming by knockout or submission in the first or second round. He won his UFC debut over Milos Janicic in August by first-round submission.
In this fight, Steele is the favorite at -155 with Gugnon as a +130 underdog on DraftKings Sportsbook. The total is set at 2.5 rounds, with the under at -166 and the over at +130. This fight is also -220 not to go the distance and +165 to last 15 minutes. In this matchup, both fighters have a 71″ standing reach, while Gugnon is slightly taller (5’11” vs. 5’9″).
Four of Steele and Gugnon’s previous five wins have come by knockout. That said, my favorite play is for this fight to end by KO/TKO/DQ at +130. Even though Steele and Gugnon both won their last fight by submission, they’ve more often shown a willingness to strike. Since both are skilled on the ground, that could cancel each other out and make the bout take place primarily on the feet.
Stats provided by UFC Stats.
