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UFC 213: Nunes vs. Shevchenko 2 Odds, Tickets, Predictions and Pre-Weigh-in Hype

Saturday just can’t come soon enough for many UFC fans as UFC 213’s fight card is full of exciting fights, particularly the co-main event between Yoel Romero vs. Robert Whittaker and the main event featuring bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes vs. Valen…

It’s been a long and tumultuous road for Romero, the UFC’s No. 1 contender in the middleweight division, as he has been brushed aside for a title shot by champion Michael Bisping, who is currently recovering from a knee injury after a failed attempt to fight the returning Georges St-Pierre.

With the interim 185-pound title on the line Saturday night in Las Vegas, the “Soldier of God” will be looking to take out the fast-rising Kiwi, Whittaker, to set up a date with Bisping for the undisputed title.

As for Nunes, she is looking to defend her belt for the second time against Shevchenko after dismantling Ronda Rousey last December.

Shevchenko is looking for revenge after losing to Nunes in a three-round bout back in March 2016 in a fight where she began to takeover in the third round before it was too late. This time around, however, their fight is five rounds so things might shape up a little differently than before.

Here’s a look at the complete card with odds from OddsShark, ticket information and predictions for the co-main and main event at UFC 213.

UFC 212 Fight Card and Odds

Main Card: PPV at 10:00 p.m. ET

Amanda Nunes -105 vs. Valentina Shevchenko +125
Yoel Romero +105 vs. Robert Whittaker -135
Daniel Omielanczuk +475 vs. Curtis Blaydes -750
Fabricio Werdum EVEN vs. Alistair Overeem -130
Anthony Pettis -240 vs. Jim Miller +190

Prelims: Fox Sports 1 at 8:00 p.m. ET

Travis Browne -200 vs. Aleksei Oleinik +160
Chad Laprise -600 vs. Brian Camozzi +400
Thiago Santos -155 vs. Gerald Meerschaert +125
Jordan Mein +135 vs. Belal Muhammad -165

Early Prelims: UFC Fight Pass at 6:30 p.m. ET

Rob Font -325 vs. Douglas Silva de Andrade +250
Cody Stamann -280 vs. Terrion Ware +220
Trevin Giles -305 vs. James Bochnovic +235

Tickets: Score Big

Co-main event: Yoel Romero vs. Robert Whittaker

After knocking out Chris Weidman at UFC 205 with a brutal flying knee, Romero cemented himself as the top contender in the UFC’s middleweight division. It seemed as though Romero was to be given the next title shot, but the return of GSP got in Romero’s way and caught Bisping‘s attention.

When that fight fell apart largely to GSP‘s inability to fight earlier than November of this year, UFC president Dana White scrapped the fight and was going to give Romero the next title shot. But then Bisping claimed that he would not recover from his knee injury in time, so the UFC put up an interim belt for Romero and Whittaker to fight over.

Whittaker is in a position that not many people saw coming so soon. When he finished Jacare Souza back in April, every fighter at 185-pounds was put on notice. A new threat emerged in the former rugby player with fists of stone, and he was awarded with a bout against one of the most physically-gifted fighters the UFC has ever seen.

Just check out how impressive he looked during his open workout Wednesday, courtesy of MMAjunkie:

Saturday’s co-main event is an interesting fight for a number of reasons. Whittaker showed good takedown defense against Souza, but Romero is a whole other animal. An Olympic silver medalist, Romero’s wrestling is far beyond the skill-level of any fighter in the UFC, regardless of weight classes.

Romero will look to use his wrestling and explosiveness to get Whittaker on the ground and maul him. As for Whittaker, the gameplan is simple: stay on your feet at all costs.

Whittaker has proved he can hang with the big guns of the middleweight division with wins over Uriah Hall, Derek Brunson and the aforementioned Souza, but it’s hard to imagine that he can finish, let alone win against a fighter of Romero’s pedigree.

Romero truly believes that he is on a mission from God to win the title, and it’ll take a lot more than a good right hand from Whittaker to knock him off course. Look for Romero to take control of the fight from the get-go with his superior grappling skills and wear down Whittaker to earn the stoppage in the third round.

Prediction: Romero wins interim title.

Main event: Amanda Nunes vs. Valentina Shevchenko

There’s no nice way of putting this: there is bad blood between Nunes and Shevchenko.

Their beef doesn’t necessarily date back to Nunes‘ victory back in 2016, but it certainly added fuel to the fire as Nunes and Shevchenko began trash-talking just moments after Shevchenko finished Julianna Pena inside back in January.

That trash talk escalated until the fighters squared off just a matter of weeks ago, where it appeared that Nunes took a shot at Shevchenko during their stare down when the challenger got a little too close for Nunes‘ liking.

The first fight between “The Lioness” and “Bullet” was dominated by Nunes for the majority of the first two rounds. But in the closing moments of the second round, it appeared that Nunes was beginning to run out of gas as Shevchenko began to dictate the pace of the fight. The third round went to Shevchenko, but Nunes had done enough in the first 10 minutes of the fight to earn the victory on the judges’ scorecard despite ending the fight in bad shape.

In fairness to Nunes, she didn’t have to train for a five-round fight, but that might be the weakness that Shevchenko will be looking for on Saturday. A muay thai artist who has proved more than capable of competing on the ground, Shevchenko will look to keep Nunes‘ at a distance. The last thing Shevchenko wants is to get caught by one of Nunes‘ nasty combinations early in the fight.

In order to upset the champion, Shevchenko has to bring Nunes into the deep end, meaning this fight has to go into the championship rounds in order to have a shot at getting her arm raised by the referee. She won’t be able to finish Nunes, who hasn’t lost or been finished since 2014 to Cat Zingano, but she can win by effective striking and Octagon control, giving her the points on the scorecards.

For Nunes, she has to fight the only way she knows how. And that’s by moving forward.

Against Shevchenko the first time around, Miesha Tate and Rousey, Nunes came out as the aggressor and was able to take care of business early and often. If she’s not able to finish Shevchenko in the opening rounds of the fight, she has to be able to pace herself in order to survive, otherwise Shevchenko’s muay thai strikes to the body will empty out Nunes‘ gas tank before she knows what hit her.

Even though Shevchenko will go into this fight full of confidence after consecutive wins over Holly Holm and Julianna Pena, she won’t have enough to take down Nunes, who will continue to enjoy her time at the top of the division that is in desperate need of stability after Rousey‘s fall from grace.

Anticipate two fighters displaying high-level striking before Nunes catches Shevchenko with a combination in the second round, sending the Kyrgyzstani-Peruvian to the canvas. Nunes will take this fight to the ground and look for the submission via rear-naked choke en route to her third consecutive title defense.

Prediction: Nunes cements her legacy as one of the division’s best-ever champions.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

The Complete Guide to UFC 213: Nunes vs. Shevchenko

International Fight Week has returned.
The UFC’s annual summer event is often dubbed their version of WrestleMania. Historically, it is one of the biggest events of the year, with thousands of fans from across the world descending on Las Vegas for five…

International Fight Week has returned.

The UFC’s annual summer event is often dubbed their version of WrestleMania. Historically, it is one of the biggest events of the year, with thousands of fans from across the world descending on Las Vegas for five days of fights and fun, culminating with a stacked pay-per-view card on Saturday night.

This year, things are a little different.

The UFC is presenting just two fight cards instead of the usual three, and Saturday night’s PPV event is, by any logical measure, just not up to the same kind of quality level we’re used to.

It’s a good fight card, for sure, but any fan in their right mind is already looking past Saturday night toward UFC 214 and its otherworldly bill on July 29. And the best fight of the week might be the Friday main event between Michael Johnson and Justin Gaethje.

Still, we’ve got two title matches on this card and one of those will be violent. So let’s take a look at those fights, plus the rest of the card, and figure out what we should be looking forward to on Saturday night.

Begin Slideshow

Interim Belt Aside, Yoel Romero vs. Robert Whittaker Will Decide World’s No.1 MW

The Michael Bisping era in the UFC middleweight division hasn’t exactly been a model of consistency.
By the time Yoel Romero and Robert Whittaker fight for an interim championship at UFC 213 Saturday in Las Vegas, it will have been nine months since th…

The Michael Bisping era in the UFC middleweight division hasn’t exactly been a model of consistency.

By the time Yoel Romero and Robert Whittaker fight for an interim championship at UFC 213 Saturday in Las Vegas, it will have been nine months since the 185-pound title saw the light of day. Even longer since anybody who might rightly be considered a top middleweight contender got a sniff at the gold.

To find the last time a 185-pound title fight featured arguably the Octagon’s top two middleweights, you have to go all the way back to October 2015, when Luke Rockhold beat Chris Weidman at UFC 162.

Six months later at UFC 199, Rockhold‘s reign ended with a shocking first-round KO by Bisping.

That win not only made Bisping one of the most unlikely titlists in UFC history, it also created that rarest of situations in the Octagon: One where the champion isn’t necessarily regarded as the best fighter in his own weight class.

With any semblance of 185-pound order smashed, Bisping set about marking his own course. He ignored a gaggle of contenders clamoring for his gold in favor of picking and choosing his own matchups. He rematched the legendary Dan Henderson at UFC 204 and then began chasing an on-again, off-again booking against returning former welterweight titlist Georges St-Pierre.

In the process, normal business at middleweight has essentially ground to a halt.

Honestly? It hasn’t been all bad. If nothing else, it has been interesting.

It was initially considered a feelgood story that Bisping became champion. After a career spent as an important and influential draw for the UFC, it was like watching a well-liked coworker rip the wrapping paper off the gold Rolex at his retirement party.

It’s been nice to see “The Count” get a little time to bask in the limelight before calling it a career. On the other hand, his reign has ushered in a noticeable competitive drought in what should be one of the UFC’s most competitive and interesting weight classes.

To make matters worse, after negotiations for the St-Pierre fight bogged down, Bisping revealed he’s still recovering from knee surgery and may not fight again until the end of the year.

The whole situation has caused no small amount of unrest among fans, as well as the 185-pound rank and file. In May, Rockhold essentially advised his fellow middleweights to go on strike until matchmakers could install a workable plan for the weight class.

This week, the former champion made an even more dire pronouncement.

“The division is f–ked,” Rockhold told MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani. “No interesting fights.”

With all due respect to Rockhold, however, it’s possible Romero vs. Whittaker has the potential to un—uhh—screw the 185-pound division in one fell swoop.

For starters, this bout finally gives two elite fighters a crack at winning a version of the title. Even with the interim tag looming, that’s a very good thing.

Second, it’ll be our best chance in a long time to anoint someone the consensus No. 1 middleweight on the planet.

An originally crowded herd of contenders that included Weidman, Rockhold, Romero, Gegard Mousasi and Jacare Souza has thinned a little bit at the moment. That leaves the door open for the winner of this fight to seize the throne atop the world rankings.

Third—and perhaps best of all—this fight shapes up as a scintillating matchup of styles between two of the division’s most compelling figures.

The 26-year-old Whittaker is as aggressive inside the cage as he is affable outside it. Currently riding an impressive seven-fight win streak, he made his bones as a legitimate title threat with a second-round TKO over perennial contender Souza three months ago.

But if Whittaker is a relative newcomer to the championship picture, it doesn’t make him any less dangerous. His five stoppages in nine UFC wins attest to that.

“I’m going to control this fight,” Whittaker said this week, via MMA Junkie’s Fernanda Prates and Ken Hathaway. “I think it’s going to be a smart fight … [but] I just see me putting too much hurt on him.”

Meanwhile, Romero has already been waiting for this opportunity for a long time.

The 40-year-old former Olympic wrestler has been ticketed as a potential title contender from nearly the moment he arrived in the UFC in 2013. With his outstanding amateur credentials and comic book physique, he certainly looks the part of a fearsome MMA destroyer.

After jetting to an 8-0 record in the Octagon, Romero has made good on that obvious potential. After looking a bit green during early UFC appearances, his most recent bouts have shown what the finished product might look like for him—and results have been scary good.

After edging Souza via split decision at UFC 194, he authored a 2016 knockout-of-the-year candidate with a flying knee on Weidman at UFC 205. By stacking those wins back-to-back, it’s hard to make a case anyone deserves a shot at the title more than Romero.

But that doesn’t mean he’s overlooking the up-and-coming Whittaker, either.

“All opponents are dangerous,” Romero said this week, via MMA Junkie’s Mike Bohn and Hathaway. “He’s a young fighter, he’s hungry. These things always make your opponent dangerous.”

There has been some controversy to Romero’s UFC run, however. In between the Souza and Weidman wins, he was suspended six months for a positive drug test later determined to be the result of a contaminated dietary supplement. Though Romero’s claim that he’d done nothing wrong appeared to hold up, some people weren’t going to let him off the hook so easily.

One of those people is Bisping, obviously. The current champ has mocked Romero as a steroid user and waffled on whether he would deign to give the consensus No. 1 contender a title shot.

This week, however, the champion sent the clearest signal he may be open to fighting the Whittaker-Romero winner—even if his intent was merely to put more pressure on GSP.

“Georges, you’ve got until Saturday,” Bisping told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour (via Fansided’s Mike Heck). “Because on Saturday, I’m going to be on the FS1 post fight show and one of those two, tune in, Whittaker or Romero will be joining me at the desk, so you know that will have fireworks. If I can’t say I’m fighting GSP by then, then I have to say that I’m fighting Whittaker or Romero.”

UFC President Dana White also told MMAJunkie in an exclusive interview that Bisping‘s next fight will be against the winner of Romero-Whittaker, making it feel as though we’re tantalizingly close to getting the middleweight division back on track.

The first step toward that goal happens this weekend, when either Romero or Whittaker will leave T-Mobile Arena with a UFC belt around his waist.

The guy who holds that interim title may well hold the key to getting the weight class moving again.

With all due respect to the standing champion, they’ll also be regarded as the best 185-pounder in the world until Bisping gets his chance to prove that ranking wrong.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC Fight Night 213 Predictions – Yoel Romero Vs. Robert Whittaker

UFC 212 was no doubt a highly entertaining event which was full of talented fighters going at one another, but in all honesty, it lacked the illustrious, big names that the fans wants to see. When the fight card came out, most people were underwhelmed. It looks like the UFC have keenly identified their previous short comings and have evidently more than compensated for them with the fight card for UFC 213. There are several highly anticipated big name fights that will be fought come July 8th in T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada. However, in the men’s class, the fight that everyone will have their eyes on is Yoel Romero (12 – 1) against Robert Whittaker (18-4) in the middleweight division.

It is no secret that the middle weight division has been cursed with a lack of bouts in the UFC. The dates have had one set back after another as the UFC scramble to get put together a middleweight title bout between Michael Bisping and Georges St-Pierre. The rest of the fighters in the division have been put on a hold, and now finally Yoel Romero can take on Robert Whittaker and the wait, if anything, has only added to the build up of this fight. Whittaker has proved his mettle as a fighter, he has steadily progressed through the ranks for three years now and has even taken down an established contender such as Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza. However, Romero is no slouch either and has been on a roll himself with victories against revered talents such as Lyoto Machida and Chris Weidman. In fact, Romero is on an unstoppable 8 fight winning streak.

While Whittaker is more technical and seems to have superior cardiovascular fitness levels, Romero is a sensational finisher. It is going to be a tough fight to call, but we have to put our money on Romero to win by unanimous decision.

Chris Weidman vs. Anderson Silva III Nearly Happened This Year

In only two days’ time, it will be the four-year anniversary of when Chris Weidman shocked the whole mixed martial arts (MMA) universe by knocking out a clowning Anderson Silva at UFC 162, changing the course of revered UFC middleweight division in the process. After their UFC 168 rematch six months later where Silva broke […]

The post Chris Weidman vs. Anderson Silva III Nearly Happened This Year appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

After their UFC 168 rematch six months later where Silva broke his leg, Weidman went on to defend the title twice against two former light heavyweight champs in Lyoto Machida at UFC 175 and Vitor “The Phenom” Belfort at UFC 187. Four straight wins over true UFC legends in tow, it looked as if Weidman was on his way to becoming a legend himself.

Photo Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea for USA TODAY Sports

Fast-forward two years, though, and after a brutal beating from Luke Rockhold, a devastating flying knee from Yoel Romero, and a controversial TKO loss to Gegard Mousasi, and Weidman is suddenly fighting to merely be a top contender in the deeply talented 185-pound fray heading into his headlining bout against rising star Kelvin Gastelum in the main event of July 22’s UFC on FOX 25 from the Nassau Coliseum.

During an appearance on today’s episode of The MMA Hour, however, Weidman revealed he almost had another big fight lined up this year after the UFC offered him a trilogy match at June 3’s UFC 212 from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, after Gastelum of all foes was forced out for failing a drug test for marijuana. Weidman was still getting the injuries from his fight versus Mousasi checked out, and had to decline:

“The UFC was asking me if I would fight Anderson Silva. This was, I think three and a half weeks before that fight was going on. In Rio, and I’m just like ‘no’. I was still getting things checked out on my body, and going to different doctors.”

Photo Credit: Kevin Hoffman for USA TODAY Sports

And even though he’s on by far the worst run of his career, Weidman still wasn’t desperate enough to fight a man he’s already beaten twice before in his volatile hometown on super-short notice:

“I had just gone to Vegas, got it all checked out. I already beat the guy twice, I’m going to take a fight on short notice and head to his hometown to fight him? I’m like ‘yeah, that’s not happening. If you want me to fight Anderson again, bump it up a couple of weeks, if you want to do it in Nassau Colosseum or some other time, but I’m not going to do it on short notice.”

Weidman was ultimately booked versus Gastelum in his present must-win fight, yet it’s at least somewhat legitimate to wonder if Weidman would be better off fighting an aging 41-year-old superstar with huge name value rather than a surging 25-year-old knockout striker who’s looked nothing less than lethal in recent outings.

If he does somehow get past Gastelum, perhaps a trilogy match with “The Spider” could be a possibility while the all-out mess of the middleweight division is sorted out when Yoel Romero meets Robert Whittaker for the interim belt at this weekend’s UFC 213 and then waits for injured champion Michael Bisping to finally return and defend the title against a real contender.

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Jacare Souza Gives Prediction For Romero vs. Whittaker

Jacare Souza knows who he is picking in the interim middleweight title match-up between No. 1-ranked Yoel Romero and No. 3-ranked Robert Whittaker, seeing as he has shared the Octagon with both men. It was announced earlier this year that current UFC 185-pound champ Michael Bisping would defend his strap against the returning former welterweight […]

The post Jacare Souza Gives Prediction For Romero vs. Whittaker appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Jacare Souza knows who he is picking in the interim middleweight title match-up between No. 1-ranked Yoel Romero and No. 3-ranked Robert Whittaker, seeing as he has shared the Octagon with both men.

It was announced earlier this year that current UFC 185-pound champ Michael Bisping would defend his strap against the returning former welterweight king Georges St-Pierre, however, no date or venue was ever set for the bout. St-Pierre stated that he wouldn’t be ready to fight until after October, prompting UFC President Dana White to call the fight off and make other arrangements.

Instead, “Rush” will return to his former championship weight of 185 pounds while Bisping nurses an injury. In the meanwhile, the UFC’s middleweight title will receive an interim champion this weekend (Sat. July 8, 2017) when Romero and Whittaker are locked in the Octagon.

Jacare Souza is a man who has fought both of these top-ranked middleweight contenders, suffering a controversial split decision loss to Romero in December of 2015 and a knockout loss to Whittaker earlier this year, and offered his pick for this weekend’s title clash. The Brazilian picked Romero to walk away victorious due to his massive size and ability to remain calm under pressure (quotes via MMA Fighting):

“I think Romero wins this fight,” Souza said. “He’s stronger, keeps the distance well and is really calm. Robert Whittaker can surprise him and win because he’s really fast for the middleweight division, but I bet on Romero.”

Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

Although the UFC waited until after Jacare lost to Whittaker to implement the interim strap, he isn’t holding any grudges and is eager to see a good fight between two of the UFC’s finest at 185 pounds:

“Better late than never,” he said. “Robert Whittaker is a great champion and earned this chance. I’m happy for him. And Romero also proved he deserved it by knocking out (Chris) Weidman. They deserve to fight for the interim belt and then fight Bisping.

“The division is finally moving now. I’m coming back and will earn my title shot.”

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