UFC will be front and center in Las Vegas on Saturday, as T-Mobile Arena will welcome the latest installment of mixed martial arts. The main event is a fight for the UFC Middleweight Championship between the defending champ, Israel Adesanya and Yoel Romero, who was once an interim title challenger and also won a silver medal at the 2000 Olympics in freestyle wrestling. The co-main event is another title bout, as Zhang Weili will defend her UFC Women’s Strawweight belt against challenger Joanna Jedrzejczyk, a former champion. The early preliminary fights will show on ESPN+, with the preliminary card moving to ESPN. The main card will be available on pay per view. We have the full fight card for you, along with UFC betting thoughts on the key fights.
UFC 248: Adesanya vs Romero Preview & Odds
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Main Card (Pay Per View)
- Israel Adesanya vs Yoel Romero (UFC Middleweight Championship)
- Zhang Weili vs Joanna Jedrzejczyk (UFC Women’s Strawweight Championship)
- Beneil Dariush vs Drakkar Klose (Lightweight)
- Neil Magny vs Li Jingliang (Welterweight)
- Alex Oliveira vs Max Griffin (Welterweight)
Preliminary Card (ESPN)
- Sean O’Malley vs Jose Alberto Quinonez (Bantamweight)
- Mark Madsen vs Austin Hubbard (Lightweight)
- Rodolfo Vieira vs Saparbek Safarov (Middleweight)
- Gerald Meerschaert vs Deron Winn (Middleweight)
Early Preliminary Card (ESPN+)
- Emily Whitmire vs Polyana Viana (Women’s Strawweight)
- Giga Chikadze vs Jamall Emmers (Featherweight)
- Danaa Batgerel vs Guido Cannetti (Bantamweight)
Israel Adesanya (18-0, -280) vs Yoel Romero (13-4, +240) features a middleweight who has become an elite contender in a short amount of time, as his UFC career only dates back a little more than two years. He started out as a kickboxing expert, but as he moved into MMA, there were questions about his skills. Before entering UFC, he was able to use his athleticism to escape problems that creeped up when the fight went to the ground. Two of his early UFC wins, over Rob Wilkinson and Marvin Vettori, saw him in trouble on the ground before he got away and picked up wins. In 2019, he beat Anderson Silva in a last-minute main event and then beat Kelvin Gastelum in five rounds. In October, he took down Robert Whittaker in a fight Down Under.
This title defense will match Adesanya with Yoel Romero, who at least at first did not like to wrestle in the cage, especially for someone with his wrestling skills. Instead, he relied on a knockout punch that would come at unusual times. He would use the early rounds to gauge his opponent and then find the right opening for the big strike. In his knockout wins over Lyoto Machida, Chris Weidman, Luke Rockhold and others like them, they were ahead on the cards until they were flat on their backs. Romero has lost three of his last four, which makes a title shot odd for him. However, he just demolished Whittaker in a pair of losses that came down to the cards, and he also had a shot to beat Paulo Henrique Costa his last time out, in a brawl that went the entire 15 minutes.
Both of these fighters like to start slowly and figure out their opponents, which could make this fight a bit ponderous from the beginning. Adesanya has a long reach which will challenge Romero’s desire to bring the clinch. If you bring the offense nonstop, as Costa did, you can beat Romero, but you don’t want to end up on the wrong end of one of those bombs.
Final Prediction: Adesanya wins via decision
Weili Zhang (20-1, -185) vs Joanna Jedrzejczyk (16-3, +160) gives us the fighter who only needed 42 seconds to take down Jessica Andrade in a main event on August 31. Weili Zhang found herself a surprise champion just 13 months into her career as a UFC fighter. She brings a unique combination of quickness and power, particularly for a 115-pound fighter. Her win over Tecia Torres showed her advantages in the physical game when the two grappled. Her first title defense comes against a former champion who will test her.
Jedrzejczyk basically owned the women’s strawweight division until the end of 2017
She snatched the belt from Carla Esparza in a violent beating and took apart Jessica Penne even more brutally. After that, the violence eased, but her consistent domination did not, as opponents could hardly land punches before getting demolished. However, Rose Namajunas beat her at UFC 217, using her length to get through Jedrzejczyk’s defenses, taking the belt and defending it in a rematch. Namajunas is the only woman who has beaten Jedrzejczyk at 115 pounds, and here Jedrzejczyk should be able to pick up enough points to win — unless Zhang decides to close the gap.
Final Prediction: Jedrzejczyk wins via decision
