UFC 273 Details
- VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena, Jacksonville, Florida
- April 9th, 2022
- Main card starts 10pm ET
- Two five round title fights - Featherweight (145lbs) and Bantamweight (135lbs)
Alexander Volkanovski vs Chan Sung Jung
A huge featherweight title fight will main event this card in one of the most one-sided betting main events in recent memory in the UFC.
Reigning champion Volkanovski comes into the fight as a -750 favourite to retain his title and extend his current 20 fight winning streak, having beaten consensus greatest of all-time Max Holloway in back-to-back fights and then following that up with a dominant victory over Brian Ortega last time out.
Jung, more commonly known as 'The Korean Zombie', wasn't the original opponent for Volkanovski but took the fight on eight week's notice and has had a full camp coming into this one.
He has ammassed a professional record of 17-6, he is 4-3 in his last seven fights. He was comfortably defeated by Ortega two fights ago, but returned to dominate Dan Ige in his last bout and earn this title shot. He comes in as a massive +500 underdog.
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Volk by domination
This fight is likely to be about as one-sided as the odds suggest because stylistically, they match up favorably in the champion's favor.
The Australian is a fantastic striker on the feet, but he's also a brilliant wrestler with dominant ground and pound and has the ability to dictate where this fight will go during the 25 minutes.
Despite being smaller in size, he is incredibly powerful and explosive and uses kicks well to the leg to be able to close distance and that will be very useful for countering the boxing skills of Zombie.
Zombie is a predominant striker, who looks to use his explosive power to land big strikes and his incredible cardio and durability to press forward and cause his opponent problems to open the fight up and give him more chances to land.
The issue he will have in this fight with that game plan is that Volkanovski is excellent defensively, won't stand and trade in a war, and will simply take him down if the opportunity presents itself.
The champion hasn't earned a stoppage win in any of his last four bouts, but that could change here. With the amount of advantage he has in the ground game and the way, he should be able to counter on the feet, except that the champion will be able to do enough damage in the later rounds to force the referee into a stoppage.
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Aljamain Sterling vs Petr Yan
This is a match well over a year in the making after their first meeting back at UFC 259 ended in a controversial fashion and saw a new champion crowned via disqualification for the first time ever.
Yan was the defending champion and had started to dominate the fight after a close opening round against Sterling, before inexplicably kneeing Sterling in the head while he was deemed a downed opponent towards the end of the fourth round.
Sterling was unable to continue and was therefore crowned champion, but it was led to plenty of bad blood between the fighters and finally, they can finish off what they started.
Sterling is an excellent wrestler with a brilliant Brazilian jiu-jitsu submission game from the top position and is a rangy striker but far from the most technical.
Yan on the other hand is one of the most complete fighters in the entire organization with some of the best boxing around and excellent defensive wrestling, too while possessing fantastic knockout power and speed.
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The way the first fight went, minus the illegal knee, tells you pretty much all you need to know about this one. Sterling struggled to get the fight down to the ground where he expected to have an advantage, and on the feet, this is a lopsided mauling in the Russian's favor.
Expect Yan to do more of the same with a dominant performance in all aspects of MMA and earn his title back with a masterful performance.
