Best Bets For UFC Fight Night 157

By BetOnline August 29, 2019

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The Ultimate Fighting Championship is headed overseas for its next event, with the UFC Fight Night 157 set to take place at the Shenzhen Universiade Sports Centre Arena in Shenzhen, China. This will be the promotion’s first trip to the region with a ton of homegrown talent set to compete including in the main event. We’re onboard with a number of the Chinese fighters who’ll have the audience behind them. Here’s our best bets for Saturday’s card:

Women’s Strawweight Championship Bout
Jessica Andrade (20-6) vs. Weili Zhang (19-1)
Odds: Andrade -170

Andrade, the UFC Women’s Strawweight champion, has won four fights in a row – including a pair of knockout wins over Karolina Kowalkiewicz and Rose Namajunas. Each of her last two victories earned her Performance of the Night honors, including her title win over Namajunas in which she also earned Fight of the Night recognition. Andrade’s ferocity and tenaciousness was on display in that last victory as she slammed Namajunas in to the canvas so hard that it completely knocked her out. Now Andrade will clash with Zhang, who has an impressive 19-1 career record but has never faced an opponent as talented as the current champion. She’s actually won 19 consecutive fights, so she’ll be confident, but most of that work has been done against inferior competition.

Zhang is an outstanding striker that is fully capable of standing in there and exchanging blows with Andrade. She has also improved her Brazilian Jiu Jitsu skills over the years to the point where she might very well have the edge over Andrade on the ground. With the home crowd behind her and nothing to lose, Zhang is a very intriguing underdog.

Pick: Zhang

Welterweight Bout
Li Jingliang (16-5) vs. Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos (21-5)
Odds: dos Santos -265

The co-main event for UFC Fight Night 157 will also feature a homegrown contender in Jingliang, who is from Tacheng. Coming off a knockout win over David Zawada in November that earned him Performance of the Night honors, Jingliang improved to 6-1 in his last seven fights overall. Now he will match up with Zaleski dos Santos, who has been impressive in his own right with seven straight victories.

Neither one of these fighters is afraid to stand and throw punches, which could lead to this being one of the most entertaining matchups of the night. While Zaleski is the bigger fighter, Jingliang is fully capable of hanging around in this bout and landing a counter strike that ends it. Zaleski deserves to be the favorite. However, in a fight that could go either way the smart money is on Jingliang to score the upset at +225 odds to win outright. We’ve already seen some action on him as dos Santos opened up at -280 and has come down from there.

Pick: Jingliang

Women’s Flyweight Bout
Yanan Wu (10-2) vs. Mizuki Inoue (13-5)
Odds: Inoue -140

Turning to another value pick, the women’s flyweight bout between Yanan Wu and Mizuki offers plenty of intrigue. Mizuki is coming off a win over Viviane Pereira and is listed as the favorite in this matchup. However, Yanan Wu is a very capable opponent in the underdog role and a decent value option at +120 odds.

Wu is coming off an impressive submission win over Lauren Miller. She has an excellent opportunity to build on that momentum and register another victory in this matchup. In another bout that could go either way, we’ll take a flier on Yanan Wu to score the upset.