The UFC is back for a stacked night of fights at the UFC Apex this Saturday night September 7th.

(Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)

The main event is featured in the welterweight division between two surging contenders Gilbert Burns and Sean Brady. Both fighters will be looking to stake their claim for a title shot with a win this weekend.

This fight card top to bottom will be one you will not want to miss with that said, let's take a look at the best bets for this weekend's fight card.

UFC Vegas 97 Best Bets and Predictions September 7th

Sean Brady vs Gilbert Burns Betting Odds and Prediction

Best Odds: Sean Brady (-180) DraftKings Sportsbook

Sean Brady comes into this main event spot against Gilbert Burns off of a win after suffering his first defeat in his UFC career against the current welterweight champion Belal Muhammad.

• Sean Brady is now 6-1 in his UFC career and 16-1 overall.
• Of those 6 UFC wins, 3 of them have come decision most recently submitting Kelvin Gastelum via a kimura in the third round.

Belal Muhammad showed there were levels to this game when he got the TKO victory back in 2022. Brady was able to go back to the drawing board, put in the work, and got a big win back in December 2023.

Now, Brady gets to face off with former title challenger Gilbert Burns in hopes of picking up his biggest win yet this weekend. Brady is just hitting his prime at 31 years old meanwhile, Burns could be on his last legs at age 38.

Burns is coming off a brutal knockout defeat to Jack Della Maddalena in his last fight and has now lost back-to-back fights for the first time in his UFC welterweight career.

This is the time when Brady can capitalize on Burns struggling in his career and seeing as how Brady can compete on the canvas with Burns and he is the better striker, he has the skills to get the job done.

As long as Brady can fend off the takedowns from Burns to let some takedowns of his own and avoid the big shots on the feet, he can control Burns for the majority of the fight and land the bigger shots to get the late finish or the nod on the judge's scorecards.

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Cody Durden vs Matt Schnell Betting Odds and Prediction

Best Odds: Cody Durden (-275) BetMGM Sportsbook

Cody Durden is stepping in on less than a week's notice to face off against Matt Schnell after Alessandro Costa had to withdraw from the fight.

• Durden has signed a new four-fight deal with the UFC for taking this fight on short notice.
• He comes into this fight losing two in a row for the first time in his UFC career.
• Durden is now 5-4-1 in his UFC career with 1 win by KO/TKO and 4 wins by decision.

Durden is a fighter who is always going to push the pace and put pressure on his opponents. That bodes well in this matchup against Schnell who tends to break under pressure.

We've seen Schnell get clipped on numerous occasions and this could be the fight where we see Durden's striking shine. However, he is still going to look to take this fight to the canvas and from there rain down heavy ground and pound until the referee needs to intervene and stop the fight.

Andre Petroski vs Dylan Budka Betting Odds and Prediction

Best Odds: Andre Petroski (-275) BetMGM Sportsbook

Andre Petroski was looking like he was going to be a contender in the UFC's middleweight division when he rattled off five straight wins but then two losses in a row halted his surge up the rankings.

• Petroski got back on track in his last fight by dominating Josh Fremd for the unanimous decision.
• Petroski is now 6-2 in his UFC record and 11-3 overall.
• Of Petroski's 6 wins in the UFC, 3 of them have come by finish which are split between 1 KO/TKO and 2 submissions.

Petroski may not be the tallest middleweight on the UFC roster but he makes up for it with his strength which helps with his grappling. He is at his best when he is dominating in the grappling but this is a fight where Petroski could potentially win on the feet as well as on the canvas.

His opponent Dylan Budka is a promising prospect but he dropped his UFC debut after dominating in round one, he didn't have the gas tank in round two as he got knocked out by Cesar Almeida.

The same thing could happen here in this spot against Andre Petroski. Petroski can match the grappling of Budka and really take it to Budka wearing him out after a very bad weight cut getting the finish midway through this fight and extending his winning streak to two in a row.