Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) CEO, Dana White, unveiled the UFC 322 pay-per-view (PPV) main card earlier this week with Islam Makhachev vs. Jack Della Maddalena and Zhang Weili vs. Valentina Shevchenko topping the Madison Square Garden bill on Nov. 15 in New York.
Makhachev vacated his lightweight title to challenge the Aussie for welterweight gold. Similarly, Weili was forced to turn in her strap at 115 pounds to face Shevchenko for “Bullet’s” flyweight belt. As we learned from the Ilia Topuria
situation, the promotion is no longer holding titles hostage.
Here are the UFC 322 opening odds, courtesy of SportsBetting.ag:
Jack Della Maddalena +200
Islam Makhachev -235
Odds opened at Makhachev -185 and JDM +160 on May 12.
Weili Zhang -120
Valentina Shevchenko +100
Odds opened Weili -150 and Shevchenko +130 on May 12.
Expect those lines to move (in both directions) as we get closer to fight night.
“I will try to be big, it’s not easy,” Makhachev told MMA Junkie. “All my life, I cut weight, but now when I want to be big, my weight stays in the same position. I try to lift more, we [did] some programs, and slowly, slowly we [gained] two [kilograms] right now. It’s very hard. But I don’t want to be big [because of] food, eating, and not training. I want to be [big] with muscles, I want to train, do the right lifting program, and [gain] some muscles.”
