The UFC is back with a huge card taking place in Madison Square Garden. We will see two championship bouts, the first featuring Valentina Shevchenko and Weili Zhang for the Women’s flyweight championship, and the Welterweight Championship between Jack Della Maddalena and Islam Makhachev.
This card is absolutely stacked, so get ready. Today, I will break down my 3 favorite bets for this weekend’s fight card. Let’s get into it!
Sabatini has had a very impressive run so far in the UFC. He is 7-2 with his only losses coming to long-time vet Damon Jackson and title contender Diego Lopes.
He is an extremely strong grappler who has 3 submission wins in his UFC run. He will now take on Mariscal, who has been on fire since joining the UFC. He is 5-0 with some quality wins and seems to be catching his stride as a fighter.
This fight is going to come down to Sabatini’s ability to keep Mariscal on the ground. Mariscal is scrappy as they come, but Sabatini has been able to suffocate his opponents in basically every single one of his wins. Mariscal is going to fight like hell, but I think Sabatini will be able to handle it and drag him into some tough situations.
MY PICK: Pat Sabatini -130
In the first title fight of the night, we have two legends of women’s MMA facing off. Valentina has 8 total title defenses in her UFC career, and will be looking to add another against Weili Zhang, who is making her debut at Flyweight after dominating the Strawweight division. Both of these women are extremely well-rounded, so this is certainly going to be a fun fight to watch.
Shevchenko certainly will have some size advantage in this one, but her strong suit is defense. She has a career 63% striking defense number, which she will need to utilize to avoid the constant pressure and power that Weili brings.
For Weili to win, she will need to avoid the counterstrikes and takedowns that Shevchenko uses off of her defense. I expect this fight to be very close, but I think Valentina’s size, striking, and wrestling are going to give her the edge in this fight. She also has very appealing odds for me.
MY PICK: Valentina Shevchenko -135
This should be an awesome clash between two fighters with very different styles. Islam brings amazing wrestling and grappling to the cage, while JDM relies mostly on his boxing. The former lightweight champ, Makhachev, is looking to capture the Welterweight title in his first try, but JDM is looking to defend his belt and crown himself as the king of the welterweight division. Since joining the UFC, JDM is 8-0 and has 5 finishes. Islam holds an insane 16-1 record with 11 finishes, and his last loss came 10 years ago.
This fight is very interesting to me because of how well JDM fought against Belal Muhammad. Muhammed is another wrestling-heavy opponent, and JDM had every answer for his wrestling, which eventually led to him landing a ton of damage on the feet. Islam is a step above Muhammad in my opinion, so this will be a huge test.
I do, however, think this is also a huge test for Islam. He is jumping into the fire at a weight class that is 15 pounds heavier than his last. These guys are much bigger, and cardio may be an issue if he tries to hold JDM down the entire fight. I have trouble picking who is going to win this one, but I do think this fight goes pretty deep. Over 3.5 rounds has some great value.
MY PICK: Over 3.5 Rounds -135