Two featherweight icons share the Octagon in the wee hours of Saturday morning this weekend in the main event of UFC Fight Night Singapore, as former champion, Max Holloway draws fan-favorite veteran, ‘The Korean Zombie’ Chan Sung Jung – and in pursuit of another title challenge, Hawaiian former titleholder, Holloway is rapidly closing as an unheard of betting favorite.
Holloway, the current number one ranked featherweight contender, managed to cement his status as best of the rest at the 145lbs limit back in April, handing English contender, Arnold Allen a one-sided unanimous decision loss in the pair’s UFC Fight Night Kansas City headliner.
As for Jung, the Pohang native has been sidelined since he suffered a fourth round standing TKO loss to common-foe and undisputed champion, Alexander Volkanovski back in April of last year in Jacksonville, Florida.
Max Holloway closing as betting favorite to emerge victorious at UFC Singapore
And given his dominant performances against opposition outside of Volkanovski, Holloway has emerged as a stunning -800 betting favorite to defeat Jung over on Betway, with the South Korean placed as a +500 betting underdog to beat the Hawaiin in this weekend’s Singapore main event.
Landing interim featherweight spoils back in 2016 with a TKO win over former lightweight champion, Anthony Pettis, Holloway would unify and then defend the titles in a pair of championship outings against Brazilian favorite, Jose Aldo.
In a pair of other title defenses, Holloway took out common-foes, Brian Ortega, and former lightweight gold holder and future Hall of Fame inductee, Frankie Edgar.
And despite suffering three successive title fights to Australian rival, Volkanovski over the course of their series during their respective UFC tenures, in between an eventual rubber-match, Holloway would turn in decision wins over perennial division challengers, Calvin Kattar, and former interim champion, Yair Rodríguez.
A former WEC (World Extreme Cagefighting) favorite, Jung, a true sport veteran, and akin to Holloway, a fan-favorite, has twice failed in his bid to become a featherweight champion on two separate occasions.
Expected to seriously consider his fighting future off the back of this weekend’s return to Asia for the promotion, Jung has turned in recent impressive wins over the likes of Dan Ige, Frankie Edgar, Renato Moicano, Dustin Poirier, Mark Hominick, and Dennis Bermudez.
Also of note on the event’s main card, former light heavyweight champion, Anthony Smith is currently priced at +100 to defeat the surging, Ryan Spann for the second time in his career over on Betway as part of the event’s co-headliner, with the latter a current -125 betting favorite.
Another intriguing clash on the main card of this weekend’s Kallang card comes in the form of a potential flyweight title eliminator between former championship challenger, Taila Santos, and the surging, Erin Blanchfield.
Yet to return since suffering a close decision loss to Valentina Shevchenko at the same venue last year, Santos is closing as a +110 betting underdog to defeat New Jersey wrestling and grappling talent, Blanchfield, who is available as a -137 favorite on Betway to emerge with a win – and likely earn he first title fight since arriving in the promotion from the Shannon Knapp-led Invicta FC.