UFC 275 main card preview & best bets – Saturday, June 11

The women’s strawweight bout between Zhang Weili and Joanna Jedrzejczyk on this Saturday’s UFC 275 card will serve as an eliminator match to determine who is next in line for a shot at the divisional championship. Here’s a preview of that matchup and the other two fights leading up to UFC 275’s two title fights in Valentina Shevchenko vs Taila Santos and Glover Teixeira vs Jiri Prochazka.

Women’s Strawweight: Zhang Weili (-165) vs Joanna Jedrzejczyk (+145)

Zhang Weili (21-3-0) suffered a second straight loss to Rose Namajunas by split decision in the co-main event of UFC 268 last November. Prior to her two losses to Namajunas, Weili was a perfect 20-0-0 over her previous 20 fights including a 4-0-0 record through her first four fights in the UFC. Her last win came in a thrilling championship match against Joanna Jedrzejczyk at UFC 248 in March of 2020 that Weili won by split decision.

Jedrzejczyk (16-4-0) hasn’t fought since that loss to Weili and is 2-4-0 over her last four fights with a loss to Valentina Shevchenko and two losses in back-to-back title fights against Namajunas. Like Weili, Jedrzejczyk had a long string of success before running into Namajunas, compiling a 14-0-0 record through the first 14 fights of her career including six wins in title fights.

It’s hard to handicap a fighter that has been out of the octagon for as long as Jedrzejczyk has. It’s possible that ring rust works against her here, but given that she’s still only 34 years old and that her last fight against Weili was lost by a razor-thin margin, we’ll take a shot on her pulling off the upset here

Flyweight: Rogerio Bontorin (+190) vs Manel Kape (-225)

Manel Kape (17-6-0) wrapped up 2019 with a pair of impressive first-round knockouts over Ode Osbourne and Zhalgas Zhumagulov. All but one of Kape’s 17 career wins have come via stoppage with 11 knockout wins and five submission victories. Rogerio Bontorin (16-4-0) has fought four times since the start of 2020, losing three matches and having his one win turned to a no contest after a positive drug test. These two fighters are trending in different directions, and this looks like a pretty clear spot for Kape to pick up another highlight-reel win.

Welterweight: Jack Della Maddalena (-151) vs Ramazan Emeev (+131)

Since losing the first two fights of his professional career back in 2016, Jack Della Maddalena (11-2-0) is a perfect 11-0 over his last 11 fights with nine of those 11 wins coming by way of knockout. Ramazan Emeev (20-5-0) meanwhile is 2-2-0 over his last four fights and has seen all seven of his UFC bouts decided by decision. That streak could end this Sunday; Maddalena’s knockout power is real, and we like his chances to score another one in his second UFC bout.

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