Alexander Volkanovski will defend his UFC Featherweight Championship against Jung “The Korean Zombie” Chan-sung this Saturday night. See our fight preview and betting predictions for the UFC 273 main event.
Alexander Volkanovski will defend his UFC Featherweight Championship against Jung “The Korean Zombie” Chan-sung this Saturday night. See our fight preview and betting predictions for the UFC 273 main event.
Alexander Volkanovski vs Jung Chan-sungLatest Odds & Fight Info |
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Main Event odds | Volkanovski -800 at Nags.bet | Jung +500 at Nags.bet |
When | Saturday, April 9 – main card from 10pm EDT |
Where | VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena – Jacksonville, Florida |
Watch Live | ESPN+ PPV (US), Main Event (AU), BT Sport (UK) |
Alexander Volkanovski will defend his UFC Featherweight Championship against Jung “The Korean Zombie” Chan-sung this Saturday night. The title fight will serve as the main event of UFC 273 at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida.
Alexander Volkanovski (23-1-0) hasn’t lost since suffering a knockout defeat all the way back in 2013 when his professional career was just getting started. He is a perfect 20-0-0 since then including a 10-0-0 record through 10 fights in the UFC. Volkanovski won the UFC Featherweight Championship with a convincing win over Max Holloway at UFC 245 and has successfully defended it twice, defeating Holloway in a controversial split-decision at UFC 251 before most recently beating Brian Ortega by decision in the Fight of the Night at UFC 266.
Jung Chan-sung (17-6-0) bounced back from a loss to Brian Ortega in his last fight against Dan Ige, defeating Ige by decision last June. The Korean Zombie has won three of his last four fights and has earned nine of his last 10 wins by stoppage with five knockouts and five submission victories. This will be Jung’s second career title fight, nine years after facing Jose Aldo for the featherweight championship in 2013.
Alex Volkanovski was originally supposed to face Max Holloway for a third time in his next title defense, but Holloway was forced to pull out of that fight due to an injury. The UFC decided to give the veteran Jung Chan-sung a shot in this bout instead of plugging in a younger fighter on a hot streak. It will be interesting to see how the Korean Zombie responds to this opportunity; his experience and his ability to end fights both standing up and on the mat should in theory make him a difficult opponent to handle.
The problem here is that Volkanovski is a clear step above. He’s one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world and has proven to be effective against both power strikers and submission specialists alike. This has the potential to be a more entertaining fight than the current odds at Nags.bet would indicate given both men’s ability to go five quality rounds. Still, it’s hard to see the Korean Zombie giving Volkanovski any real trouble in any facet of the game. Expect the champion to use his clear advantage in speed to grind out a convincing win, perhaps even ending his decision streak with a knockout.