Jack Green predicts a successful defence for the strawweight champion in Saturday night's co-main event at UFC 261 in Jacksonville.
Here are Jack Green‘s best UFC picks for Weili Zhang v Rose Namajunas at UFC 261. Visit the Betway Insider for picks on all the biggest fights.
Zhang v Namajunas odds
UFC strawweight champion Weili Zhang will step into the Octagon for the first time in over a year on Saturday night as she defends her title against Rose Namajunas.
It has been 13 months since Zhang last put her belt on the line in arguably the greatest women’s MMA fight of all time against Joanna Jedrzejczyk.
In a five-round war that showcased both fighters’ incredible skill and resolve, Zhang came away with a split-decision win over one of the best strawweights ever.
She now faces former champion Namajunas, who also defeated Jedrzejczyk in back-to-back fights between November 2017 and April 2018 to claim and subsequently defend the title.
The American then dropped the belt to Jessica Andrade in May 2019 before gaining revenge over the Brazilian in a non-title fight last July.
Now a longtime contender at the top of the division, Namajunas has a 9-4 professional record – including 7-3 in the UFC – and is the {ODDS:694471903:13/8} underdog in Saturday’s fight.
Zhang, meanwhile, is unsurprisingly the clear favourite at {ODDS:694471901:1/2}, having won 21 consecutive fights since losing her professional debut.
Zhang v Namajunas prediction
This should be a fascinating fight between two elite strikers who will almost certainly want to stay on their feet.
Jedrzejczyk aside, Namajunas is the most skilled technician in the history of this weight class, and winning the belt against such a dominant champion proves that ‘Thug Rose’ is a special fighter.
Even in her defeat to Andrade, Namajunas was clearly winning the stand-up exchanges before being knocked out by a slam.
The concern for her in this fight, though, is that in the rematch with Andrade – which she won – she began fading as the bout went on and the Brazilian exerted her physical dominance.
Like Andrade, Zhang is a big, powerful strawweight, but she’s also a much more nuanced striker.
The champion beat Andrade by TKO inside a minute to win the belt in Shenzhen back in August 2019, and her 10 career knockouts prove that she has the power to stop any opponent at any time.
We’ve never seen such a combination of skill, speed and power in this division, so it’s hard to see past Zhang successfully defending her belt again on Saturday night.
Although Namajunas holds an advantage on the mat, only one of her last seven fights have ended in submission and this one is more likely to be a stand-up battle.
For that reason, it’s worth backing Zhang to come through what could be couple of tricky early rounds before earning the win on points.
Zhang to win by decision {ODDS:694472019:6/4}
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