UFC 248 takes place Saturday night in Vegas with two titles on the line featuring Israel Adesanya defending his middleweight title against Yoel Romero and Weili Zhang defending her strawweight title against Joanna Jedrzejczyk.
Israel Adesanya is the favorite coming into this title defense against Romero. The Last Stylebender is coming in at a -175 to -185 favorite against The Soldier of God who is a +235 underdog. Romero has a 1-3 record in his last 4 fights in the UFC with the only win coming against Luke Rockhold. Still, Romero has been competitive in his losses although he’s lost steam fighting 5 round fights. Adesanya looked impressive this past October against Robert Whittaker but was challenged by Kelvin Gastelum last spring in a 5 round battle. The fight will depend on whether Romero can land a shot early in the fight. Despite his supernatural fitness, the 43-year-old will get worn down by the younger Adesanya in the later rounds. Look for Adesanya to retain via unanimous decision.
The other title defense will be an intriguing matchup between Zhang and the former strawweight titleholder Jedrzejczyk. The question is whether Joanna Violence can return to her form pre-Rose Namajunas. Oddsmakers don’t believe so as the champ is the favorite at -175 and Jedrzejczyk is +150. The answer is unlikely as Zhang’s power will be just too much for the former chance and look for this to end with at KO in the 2nd round.
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