Daily Fantasy MMA Picks for UFC Fight Night: Hall vs. Silva on October 31

Why in the world is Anderson Silva still doing this to himself? Once considered to be the greatest UFC champion ever, the 45-year old living legend is a shell of what he used to be.

I’m not just saying that, either.

The Spider hasn’t scored a KO win since 2012, and he has just one victory in his last eight bouts. But here he is, fighting Uriah Hall as part of a headlining battle on UFC Fight Night.

You can bet on this madness with Adam Haynes’ Uriah Hall vs. Anderson Silva betting pick, or you can roll with my MMA DFS picks.

I offered up a mixed bag last week, as I did get Khabib right, but whiffed badly on Ion Cutelaba and Da-Un Jung. Shavkat Rakhmonov got me one more win, but it was a rough week, all around.

Here’s to a nice bounce-back, with my favorite MMA DFS picks for UFC Fight Night: Hall vs. Silva.

Adam Haynes breaks it down quite a bit more eloquently than I ever could at the link above, but the skinny is this; Anderson Silva is done.

He’s been done for some time, as the legendary MMA superstar has won one match since 2012. That is a total free fall from grace, my friends.

Mercifully, Silva promises this fight will be the end to his famed career.

'Sad' Anderson Silva (@SpiderAnderson) confirms retirement at #UFCVegas12: 'For sure, this is the last fight' (via @MikeBohnMMA) https://t.co/S7h2UZyBVp

— MMA Junkie (@MMAjunkie) October 21, 2020

Don’t get me wrong, Silva is one the best best mixed martial artists ever, and even at age 45, he can still hang around in bouts. That’s why he’s grinded his way to four decision finishes (1-3 in such bouts) over his last five outings.

Sadly, he just can’t finish opponents like he once did. Uriah Hall can. He’s shown that ability recently, with Ko wins over Bevon Lewis and Krzysztof Jotko over the last two years.

Hall doesn’t have an amazing record (or a particularly strong chin), but he’s 3-1 in his last four fights, and he’s the better fighter between the two at this point.

Silva is the ultimate YOLO bet if you want to ride the retirement narrative at the top UFC betting websites, but for DFS, the upside and reliability just isn’t there. The smart play is to either fade this headlining fight, or start your build off with the more imposing Hall.

I literally just got done writing up a storm about how Makhmud Muradov was a violent striker and a fun pick to take out Kevin Holland.

Now he isn’t fighting.

Holland was the guy at a disadvantage initially, as he recently fought, and decided to take this match on short notice. Now it’s flipped, and you’re going to want to target Holland relentlessly.

The wild part? I thought this was a lock to be the fight of the night. Now it could be a total landslide, with newcomer Charlie Ontiveros taking aim at Holland.

Holland is a really balanced fighter, he’s efficient, and he can end fights early. He’s also 6-1 in his last seven fights, and is just too good of a fighter to drop this one. He’s a slam dunk suddenly, and I will have him in most of my MMA DFS lineups.

I felt really good about my pricey daily fantasy MMA picks last week, and one of them burned me badly. Hopefully Strickland doesn’t do that to me, as I’m not really seeing a path to him losing to Jack Marshman.

Marshman is a competent fighter with major KO upside (13 knockouts), but he hasn’t gotten the job done consistently in some time now. He’s only 30, but he’s 2-4 over his last six fights, and he has zero KO wins in that span.

Strickland is just the more dangerous fighter at this point, and UFC sportsbooks have him as a huge -330 favorite. This, even though he’s been away from the game for a while due to an accident.

After a two-year layoff due to an accident on his motorcycle, Sean Strickland is ready to get back in the Octagon.

Before he takes on Jack Marshman at #UFCVegas12, he took the time to reflect on how we got here.

– via (@DrakeRiggs_)https://t.co/8Grcj6VE1w

— The Scrap (@thescrapnews) October 26, 2020

I still buy into that pricing, as Strickland is just the far more skilled fighter, and Marshman’s striking – which has clearly lost its effectiveness – is his only shot here.

Strickland has run into some tough luck against really good fighters, and after a two-year break, he needs a fight to rev things back up.

Marshman is his punching bag as he warms up for a bigger fight down the road. I want all of the exposure to Strickland this weekend.

I’ve talked up Hall, Strickland, and Holland. Now it’s time to wrap this thing up with three other fighters who hopefully won’t tank your lineups.

Thiago Moises stands out as an appealing value.

He has the floor game edge against Bobby Green, who will probably prefer to keep this one standing up. Moises has never been finished and can score takedowns, so I think this is a really safe value pick that has a shot at paying off in a big way.

There’s also Greg Hardy, who is apparently not a great guy, but looks like a solid UFC striker. He’s yet to be knocked out, and in six wins he’s KO’d his opponent five times.

Hardy is a big, physical, and explosive dude. He leaves himself open to a lot of damage, but so far he can absorb it, and unleash plenty of it. His opponent is a guy who seems to prefer to take fights to the ground, so if Hardy keeps this one on the feet, I like him to get a high-scoring win.

Lastly, I like Fili to round things out. I don’t mind Bryce Mitchell (the guy he’s facing), as he’s an elite submission artist. However, Fili has such an edge on the feet that Mitchell is probably in considerable trouble if he doesn’t land his takedowns.

Fili has been taken down before, but it hasn’t happened since 2015. His takedown defense is solid, and his striking is substantially better than Mitchell’s. Obviously if Mitchell gets this to the ground, it’s over.

The play is Fili stops that from happening, and stops Mitchell on the feet, altogether.

I think this is a well-blended squad, but like usual, you need them all to hit to take down a big MMA GPP. That’s the dream, but if you like to bet on sports online, it may make more sense to attack some of these fighters individually in the betting realm.