Alexander Volkanovski vs. Yair Rodriguez – Preview and Prediction
Alexander Volkanovski and Yair Rodriguez will headline a stacked UFC 290 card that will cap of the UFC’s annual International Fight Week.
The fight will mark a unification fight as Volkanovski is the featherweight champion, but Rodriguez holds the interim title in which he won the night Volkanovski unsuccessfully challenged for the lightweight title.
Now lets do a preview and a prediction of the UFC 290 main event. The full preview can be seen in the video above.
Breakdown
Volkanovski maybe the featherweight GOAT. If you don’t consider him the featherweight GOAT, then you can at least admit he’s in the conversation.
So far in his career, he’s unbeaten at 145 pounds and his loss to lightweight champion Islam Makhachev, is his only loss in the UFC and his first loss since 2013.
Rodriguez on the other hand has lost at featherweight, but as of late he’s looked great.
He’s 3-1 in his last four fights and the only loss was a back-and-forth war against Max Holloway, who has literally beaten every featherweight not named Volkanovski.
When he won his interim title, he absolutely battered Josh Emmett in an eye opening performance.
Tale of the Tape
Favors Rodriguez who is four years younger and four inches taller.
Surprisingly, Volkanovski has the slight reach advantage, but either way, Volkanovski is typically the smaller fighter and he’s used to that throughout his career.
Oddsmakers
They are big time behind Volkanovski.
DraftKings, FanDuel, Sport Betting, Bet MGM and Unibet all favor the Australian champion and by a large margin.
At this point, we should expect that as Volkanovski is unbeaten at featherweight and has been ranking up title defenses.
Prediction
Rodriguez has all the tools for the upset here. In fact, if you have the money, it might be a good bet.
The Mexican fighter is long, hits hard, and his confidence is at an all time high. In may steal a round or two and make things interesting.
The safe bet and my prediction is to go with Volkanovski. His boxing is amazing and in his last fight he showed he can grapple with the best of them.
Interesting fight stylistically here, but I think we here “And Still.”
Volkanovski by decision.
