UFC 213 comes to us live from Las Vegas on Saturday night and it looks like a pretty solid card, even without the Cody Garbrandt vs. T.J. Dillashaw bantamweight championship fight that was originally scheduled to headline it. After Garbrandt was forced out with a back injury, the UFC still pieced together an exciting card that will feature two championship bouts, plus a handful of other fights that could have explosive finishes.
Amanda Nunes will defend the women’s bantamweight title against Valentina Shevchenko, an old foe, in the main event. Right before that, Yoel Romero and Robert Whittaker will battle for the interim middleweight championship, as current champ Michael Bisping and potential challenger Georges St-Pierre sort out their respective injuries and scheduling conflicts. The card also features hard hitting heavyweights like Alistair Overeem and Travis Browne, plus entertaining lightweights Anthony Pettis (a former champion) and Jim Miller.
Read on for our official UFC 213 preview and our betting predictions (if you’re into that sort of thing).
Prelims on Fox Sports 1
Like usual, we’ll start off by quickly rattling through the preliminary fights that will air for free on Fox Sports 1 at 8:00 P.M. Eastern. The prelims feature a few relative unknowns, with a more famous name in Travis Browne (aka Mr. Ronda Rousey) headlining the non-pay-per-view portion of the card.
Belal Muhammad (-165) vs. Jordan Mein (+135)
The televised card kicks off with Belal Muhammad vs. Jordan Mein, two welterweights in their mid-to-late 20s trying to claw their way up the UFC ladder. We’ll keep this simple: Mein has lost two fights in a row and hasn’t won since 2014. He actually announced his retirement two years ago, before making a comeback. Muhammad, meanwhile, it coming of a decision victory over Randy Brown at UFC 208 and seems to be the more dangerous fighter.
Prediction: Muhammad by Decision.
http://www.sherdog.com/fighter/Belal-Muhammad-108315 Via Sherdog.com