UFC 285: Expert picks and best bets for Jones vs. Gane

Former light heavyweight champion Jon Jones makes his highly anticipated heavyweight debut this weekend as he challenges former interim champion Ciryl Gane for the vacant heavyweight title at UFC 285. The event takes place at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday (10 p.m. ET on ESPN+ PPV, with prelims at 8 p.m. on ESPNEWS/ESPN+ and early prelims at 5:30 p.m. on ESPN+).

Jones has not fought since 2020, when he successfully defended the 205-pound title against Dominick Reyes. Gane, ranked No. 2 in ESPN's divisional rankings, earned a third-round knockout over Tai Tuivasa in his last fight. He lost to Francis Ngannou in his previous heavyweight title shot.

In the co-main event, women's flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko will go for her ninth consecutive title defense when she takes on Alexa Grasso.

Shevchenko, ranked No. 2 in ESPN's women's pound-for-pound rankings, defeated Taila Santos via split decision in her last fight. Grasso, ranked No. 7 in the women's flyweight division, has won four fights in a row, with her most recent victory coming by unanimous decision against Viviane Araujo.

Marc Raimondi spoke to Xtreme Couture MMA coach Erik Nicksick to get his perspective on the main event and UFC women's strawweight fighter Angela Hill for her perspective on the co-main event. ESPN's betting experts Ian Parker and Reed Kuhn add their insights and analysis for the main event and other intriguing bets they like.

Editor's note: Responses have been edited for brevity and clarity.

How Jones wins: For Jones, it's quite easy. There's a huge gap in skill set in the obvious: wrestling. Since Gane fought Francis Ngannou, whom I coach, the only fight we've seen from Gane was against Tai Tuivasa, and there was no wrestling.