In the main event of UFC 273, the featherweight title is one the line as Alexander Volkanovski defends his belt against Korean Zombie. The card goes down on Saturday, April 9 in Jacksonville, Florida.
UFC 273 Opening Odds:
Alexander Volkanovski -330
Korean Zombie +265
Current UFC 273 Odds (as of March 7):
Alexander Volkanovski -510
Korean Zombie +375
Volkanovski and Zombie’s recent fights
Alexander Volkanovski (23-1) is undefeated in the UFC at 10-0 and in a 20 fight win streak. He last fought back in September and he beat Brian Ortega to defend his belt for the second time. Prior to that, he edged out Max Holloway by split decision at UFC 251 to retain his belt after defeating Holloway by decision at UFC 245 to win the featherweight strap. He was supposed to fight Holloway this time around but the Hawaiian suffered an injury and two months out, Zombie stepped up.
Korean Zombie (17-6) returned to the win column as he beat Dan Ige by decision back in June in a five-round main event. In the fight before, he lost a decision to Brian Ortega after knocking out Renato Moicano and Frankie Edgar. Zombie has been the main event in his past eight fights, with 7 of them being on Fight Night. The last time he was on pay-per-view was back in 2013 at UFC 163 where he fought Aldo for the featherweight title. After the loss, he took four-and-a-half years off due to a mandatory military service.
Are the odds surprising?
At first glance the odds are very surprising seeing Volkanovski as a -500 favorite. Although the featherweight champ has been unstoppable in the UFC, in his last fight against Ortega he was only a -200 favorite and was only -200 against Holloway in the second fight as well as being an underdog in the first fight. Zombie, meanwhile, normally is the betting underdog as he was the underdog to Dan Ige, the underdog to Dennis Bermudez and Renato Moicano but was a -200 favourite against both Ortega and Edgar. The last time he was this big of an underdog was when he fought Aldo where he was a +600 underdog and was a +475 underdog against Mark Hominick so he has won as a big underdog before.
How might the odds change?
Volkanovski will likely be a parlay piece for a lot of casual bettors as they will know him as the champ, but to the sharps, seeing that +375 line will no doubt get sharp action on him, as Zombie as the power and well-rounded ability to possibly pull off the upset. I do think the lines will get a bit closer but it still will be Volkanovski around -450 to -475 by the time they step into the Octagon with Zombie being a +350 to +360 underdog.
