The UFC’s dogged emergence from the coronavirus pandemic continues late on Saturday night in the organisation’s latest event to take place inside their Apex facility in Las Vegas.
Headlining the card is the best female fighter on the roster, and almost certainly in the sport’s history. Amanda Nunes stands alone as the UFC’s sole double-champ nowadays and will put the 145-pound version of her two world titles on the line against Felicia Spencer.
Former bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt will be looking to get his climb up the rankings back on track against Raphael Assuncao in a hugely important fight for both men, given that they collectively enter the cage on the back of five losses (Garbrandt x3; Assuncao x2), while there will be another pivotal match in the same division when Aljamain Sterling looks to solidify a future title bout with a win against the very dangerous Cory Sandhagen.
Amanda Nunes vs. Felicia Spencer
Nunes is the heavy favourite here whichever way you slice it. Per the official Parimatch odds, ‘Lioness’ is massively favoured to win the fight by T/KO inside the first two rounds. However, the odds of a finish reduce drastically for her from the point on. Interestingly, and despite recording half of her professional wins by submission, Nunes is also more favoured to win by tapout than her Canadian opponent.
Spencer has been defeated just once in her career when she lost to Cris Cyborg a little less than a year ago and will have to give a career best performance to seize the title from Nunes, who conclusively bested Cyborg in their own fight several months back.
Expected result: Amanda Nunes to defend her crown before the end of the third round.
Cody Garbrandt vs. Raphael Assuncao
It has been an up and down few years for Cody Garbrandt. After becoming the first man to defeat Dominick Cruz in nearly a decade, Garbrandt has now lost three straight and is in danger of becoming an afterthought in the 135-pound fold if he loses a fourth. Assuncao, however, finds himself in similar footing having been defeated twice in a row now.
Garbrandt’s mindset will be crucial here. The Team Alpha Male fighter is talented but has a tendency to drift out of his gameplan into wild gunfights; duels that ‘No Love’ lost against T.J. Dillashaw (twice) and Pedro Munhoz. It doesn’t appear that Assuncao will offer the same danger on the feet which should allow Garbrandt to employ a more tactical strategy but the odds still suggest that he is twice as likely to end the fight by T/KO before the 15 minutes elapse. The Brazilian matches those odds by being twice as likely to win by submission.
Expected result: Cody Garbrandt by decision.
Aljamain Sterling vs. Cory Sandhagen
There are a lot of people out there who think that Aljamain Sterling’s next bout should have been for a world title. Instead, the New Yorker finds that delayed by one fight at least but can cement a future title bout with a victory against the surging Cory Sandhagen.
Sterling has been in sensational form lately and has pieced together a very impressive sequence of wins but will have to employ every bit of his arsenal to stifle Sandhagen, a fighter for whom title talk has also been growing. Both fighters are very capable in every area but the inventiveness shown by Sterling in recent performances could pose problems for his opponent. These two are very evenly matched up, with the odds suggesting that Sandhaagen has the edge on the feet while Sterling has the same on the ground.
Expected result: Aljamain Sterling threatens with several submissions before winning a unanimous decision.
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This weekend’s card is headlined by a world title bout between Amanda Nunes and Felcia Spencer. You can see the latest odds for all of the UFC 250 fights via the our official betting partner Parimatch.
