UFC 314 DFS Picks & Lineups: Volkanovski vs. Lopes Cheat Sheet, 4/12

UFC 314: Volkanovski vs. Lopes takes place this Saturday live from Miami. The card kicks off with the Early Prelims at 6:00PM EST on ESPN+, followed by the prelims at 8:00 on ESPN/ESPN+ and the Main Card at 10:00PM on ESPN+ PPV. Alexander Volkanovski looks to reclaim gold against a new challenger in Diego Lopes.

Volk is the best featherweight of all time, but it is rare to see someone his age reclaims the title, but he enters this fight as the favorite against the surging Diego Lopes. Michael Chandler takes on Paddy Pimblett in an action packed co-main event that should be all action.

Check out all the latest UFC 314 DFS picks and lineups, plus matchup breakdowns for the entire fight card below and as always feel free to reach out to me in Discord or on X/Twitter at @MikeIannoneDFS. 

Now let's look at the UFC 314 cheat sheet and some plays for Saturday's event. Good luck with your UFC 314 DFS picks and lineups!

UFC 314 DFS Picks & Lineups: Volkanovski vs. Lopes Cheat Sheet

Main Event UFC DFS Picks

Volkanovski is arguably the greatest featherweight of all-time and he is going to look to reclaim his throne against a new challenger in Diego Lopes. Volk is getting up there in age and coming off of a couple of knockouts isn't what you want to see in an aging superstar, but he has taken over a year off, so I expect him to be in good form. Lopes is going to be more explosive to start the fight but the longer it goes the more it favors Volk. Volk's wrestling should be good enough to keep the fight standing and in a 25 minute striking battle I'll take him to regain his title. Both of them are playable on DraftKings, and the fight is stackable in cash games. Lopes has a higher ceiling than any other underdog outside of Chandler.

Expensive UFC DFS Picks

Hooper has wrestling upside, and once he gets on the ground, he is extremely active. Miller is getting up there in age so even on the feet I think Hooper can hold his own, if he avoids a crafty submission, he should score 100+.

Erosa better be ready for war because Elkins is going to bring pressure. Erosa has slick submissions, and good volume on the feet so he could win this fight wherever it goes, but I think if it stays a technical striking battle, he should be able to dominate the fight. Elkins is going to be bleeding from the minute the fight starts so the optics are going to be that Erosa is winning, so even in a close fight he should get the decision.

I love the camp change for Mikey O, switching to the Fighting Nerds camp. He has power and speed advantages, and he has clipped better competition with his power than Dumas. Dumas might wrestle to slow the pace down, but if he can defend the takedowns, he should dominate the fight.

Silva has huge KO power, but it comes down to if Bryce Mitchell is going to wrestle. Silva has been taken down pretty easily by inexperienced grapplers but if it stays standing, Silva will land something big and put out Bryce's lights.

I should probably have more confidence in Tulio, but outside of his power he doesn't do much. He needs the KO to score well, and Gore is fairly durable. 

Mid-Range UFC DFS Picks

There are two five round fights on this card, so the fighters from that fight are almost a must play at their price. Chandler has a ton of power and can throw out a lot of volume over five rounds. I've seen Chandler in there with the best in the world, but this is a huge step up for Paddy. I'm taking the underdog straight up this week.

This is probably the most important fight to get right this week. Paddy has good submission skills, but taking down Chandler isn't an easy task. I think this line should be flipped, but even with that Paddy still makes for a great play because his ceiling is as high as anyone on the card for only $8400.

This fight is going to play out in one of two ways; Virna is going to shoot a ton of takedowns, and if she gets them she'll settle for control time. She doesn't strike much on the ground so unless she is controlling the fights for long stretches, she won't be winning the fight, but for DraftKings scoring that plays well.

This is another fight in the mid-range who is taking a step back in competition and they've made him the underdog. Getting inside of Woodson's striking can be tough but if Ige lands clean, he can KO Woodson. I think Ige wins this fight more often than not, but he doesn't really score well in victories but that doesn't matter as much as the underdog.

If this fight stays standing Yan is going to dominate it and I could even, see her finding the finish. Due to the threat of the takedown, she has a really low floor, but she's another live dog in the mid-range that can score well if she gets the fight that she wants.

This should be a close fight, but I don't see either of them getting the finish, so it has a lower ceiling than some of the others. If the fight likely doesn't finish inside of the distance, I'll likely only be playing the dog at these prices.

Woodson has major advantage in reach, but he is giving up a lot of power. Ige is notoriously durable so I'm not expecting Woodson to get the finish, and at his price he's almost unplayable with a +600 inside the distance line.

Pay-Down UFC DFS Picks

I am irrationally high on Reyes this week. At his best he is a top 5 fighter in this division, pushing Jon Jones to his limit. I expect Krylov to shoot takedowns at some point and I'm not sure if Reyes has the defensive wrestling needed to stay standing, but if he does, I expect him to win this fight in a striking battle.

Patricio at one point in time was a top 135/145lb fighter, but his best years have passed him by. I think he is tough enough to push Yair to a decision, and if his wrestling is one point he can win this fight. 

Mitchell has a clear path to victory, if he gets the takedown and holds position, he can dominate this fight. Everyone remembers Mitchell getting KO'd by Emmett, but he's been in wars before and his chin held up. This is a big test for Silva, and if he isn't ready he is going to get his neck snatched.

Raposo has a tough fight on his hands with Sumudaerji having the speed advantage in his hands, but Mitch is a good wrestler and he could break Su with the pace. Mitch is still only 26 years old so even though he was on The Ultimate Fighter 5 years ago he's still super young and improving fight to fight.

Elkins is always good for a war so Erosa is going to have to really put it on him if he wants to get him out of there. Elkins can wrestle but is also willing to strike so he can accumulate points in multiple ways. He bleeds in almost every fight that he is in so if you roster him, just know he's going to be bleeding but that is the norm for him.

Gore has power and sneaky submission skills. He is going to be outgunned here but he can still win this fight if he takes advantage of a big shot or Tulio leaving his chin out there.

Dumas can wrestle a little bit, but he's just slow in general. At +160 and $7200 he should get a decent amount of ownership, but it feels like he is going to be giving up too much speed early in the fight for him to win this fight.

Miller's age is finally starting to show and he's slowing down drastically in fights. He doesn't throw much volume on the feet, and Hooper's ground game is really strong so if it hits the ground, he's probably going to be fighting off submissions and elbows. I won't be playing much Miller if any.

UFC DFS Optimizer: Sample UFC 314 Lineup

MMA DFS Strategy: Live Dogs

• Lopes, Chandler, Xiaonan, Ige, Reyes

Volkanovski vs. Lopes UFC 314 DFS Picks & Stats