Rose Namajunas will be looking to successfully defend her women’s strawweight title for a second time when she takes on Jessica Andrade on Saturday in the main event at UFC 237 as a +110 underdog on the UFC odds at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.
Namajunas has been idle for 13 months since outlasting Joanna Jedrzejczyk to claim a five-round unanimous decision in their rematch at UFC 223, marking her third straight victory and lifting her professional mixed martial arts record to 8-3 going into Saturday night’s match at Jeunesse Arena.
Namajunas has produced mixed results since joining the UFC in 2014. The 26-year-old American suffered a third-round submission loss to Carla Esparza in her bid to claim the inaugural women’s strawweight crown in her UFC debut at The Ultimate Fighter 20 Finale. However, she has won six of seven fights since, with her lone defeat coming by split decision against Karolina Kowalkiewicz in a three-round clash at UFC 201 that also earned her a Fight of the Night bonus.
Namajunas also earned a Performance of the Night bonus with her stunning first-round TKO win over Jedrzejczyk at UFC 217, and has now finished opponents in six of her eight career wins.
With plenty of hometown support likely on hand in Brazil on Saturday night, Andrade will enter the octagon perched as a -140 favourite at online betting sites. The 27-year-old has won six of seven matches since making her strawweight debut with a second-round TKO victory over Jessica Penne at UFC 199. However, her lone loss during that stretch came during her first bid for the UFC women’s strawweight title against Jedrzejczyk at UFC 211 that ended with a unanimous decision loss.
Going the distance is nothing new for Andrade, who has seen four of her past five fights decided by the judges. However, Andrade wasted no time picking up the win in her last outing, finishing Kowalkiewicz with a knockout on punches just 1:58 into their UFC 228 clash to claim Performance of the Night honours.
Elsewhere on the UFC 237 odds, former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva searches for his second win in six outings as he battles Jared Cannonier as a +115 underdog, while former UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo looks to win three fights in a row for the first time since 2014 as he clashes with Alexander Volkanovski as a -145 favourite.
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