Midweek odds: Usman, Zhang, Shevchenko strongly favored to keep belts

Valentina Shevchenko is favored to keep her belt at UFC 261 | Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC

Here are the midweek betting odds for Saturday’s UFC 261 event, where the promotion’s welterweight, strawweight, and wome…


Valentina Shevchenko is favored to keep her belt at UFC 261
Valentina Shevchenko is favored to keep her belt at UFC 261 | Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC

Here are the midweek betting odds for Saturday’s UFC 261 event, where the promotion’s welterweight, strawweight, and women’s flyweight champs are all expected to come out victorious.

A stacked UFC 261 card is coming our way this Saturday (April 24th) with three titles on the line in the PPV main card portion of the event. The UFC’s welterweight crown will be up for grabs in the main event, with the co-main getting a contest for strawweight gold. The third championship to sway in the balance will be in the women’s flyweight division. Bloody Elbow is here to bring you the midweek betting odds for these high-stakes matchups, as well as for the rest of the UFC 261 roster.

The UFC’s 170-pound king, Kamaru Usman, will be rematching BMF Jorge Masvidal in the card’s headliner — and the oddsmakers are expecting the same result as their UFC 251 meeting not even one year ago. Usman is available with a heavily favored moneyline of -420, with a +335 comeback on Masvidal. Granted, Jorge took that first fight on short notice, but will a full camp really change anything? We shall see.

The UFC’s 115-pound champ, Weili Zhang, is making her return to the cage following her epic classic with former queen, Joanna Jedrzejczyk last March — to take on another former champ in Rose Namajunas. Zhang is a sizable betting favorite over the challenger, clocking in at around -210. As for Rose, she can be found with an underdog tag of +175. Rose has shocked the world before, but how in the world do you beat Zhang?

In the third championship bout on the UFC 261 main card, women’s flyweight champion, Valentina Shevchenko, will be defending her belt for the fifth time. This go around will be against the now 125-pound challenger, Jessica Andrade. Shevchenko is a huge betting favorite yet again, with her monstrous moneyline residing around the -430 mark. That has Andrade seeing one of her largest dog tags of her career at a value of +345. The crazy thing is, Andrade seems to be head and shoulders above all other potential title challengers, and she is still this large of an underdog.

Check out the UFC 261 betting odds, courtesy of BestFightOdds.com:


Be sure to check back in with Bloody Elbow to catch the final betting odds on fight day, as the moneylines tend to shift a bit following the weigh-ins. Be sure to subscribe to our Bloody Elbow Presents YouTube channel to stay up to date with all of our podcast content. Happy hunting!