The UFC stays in its Las Vegas home base this week for a card featuring a former champ at the top of the lineup.
UFC Fight Night 205 takes place Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. The card streams on ESPN+.
(Click here to open a PDF of the staff picks grid in a separate window.)
In the main event, former women’s strawweight champion Jessica Andrade (22-9 MMA, 13-7 UFC) takes on Amanda Lemos (11-1-1 MMA, 5-1 UFC). Andrade is a -220 favorite at Tipico Sportsbook. The comeback on Lemos is +170. All 11 of our editors, writers, radio hosts and videographers have Andrade as one of two unanimous picks on the main card.
In the co-feature, Clay Guida (37-21-1 MMA, 17-15 UFC) meets Claudio Puelles (11-2 MMA, 4-1 UFC) at lightweight. Guida is a slight favorite at -120, but our staff members have Puelles with a sizable lead at 8-3 in the picks.
Also on the main card, Maycee Barber (9-2 MMA, 4-2 UFC) fights Montana De La Rosa (12-6-1 MMA, 5-2-1 UFC) in a women’s flyweight bout. Barber is a 2-1 favorite, and she has a 7-4 lead in the picks.
Our other unanimous pick is Alexandr Romanov (15-0 MMA, 4-0 UFC), who is a massive 16-1 favorite at heavyweight against Chase Sherman (15-9 MMA, 3-8 UFC), who took the fight on short notice earlier this week.
And to open the main card, Charles Jourdain (12-4-1 MMA, 3-3-1 UFC) takes on Lando Vannata (12-5-2 MMA, 4-5-2 UFC) in a featherweight bout. The fight nearly is a pick’em with Jourdain at -115 to -110 for Vannata. Our pickers have it reasonably close, too, with Vannata at a 7-4 lead.
In the MMA Junkie reader consensus picks, Andrade (64 percent), Puelles (53 percent), Barber (62 percent), Romanov (86 percent) and Jourdain (60 percent) are the choices.
Check out all the picks above.
mmajunkie.usatoday.com
