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Andrade vs. Zhang |
Jingliang vs. Zaleski |
De La Rosa vs. Kara-France |
Evloev vs. Lu |
Inoue vs. Yanan |
|
MMA Junkie readers’ consensus picks 2019: 144-73 (66%) |
Zhang (62%) |
Zaleski (77%) |
Kara-France (75%) |
Evloev (84%) |
Inoue (69%) |
Nolan King @mma_kings 2019: 53-17 (76%) |
Andrade |
Zaleski |
Kara-France |
Evloev |
Inoue |
Simon Head @simonhead 2019: 55-20 (73%) |
Andrade |
Zaleski |
Kara-France |
Evloev |
Inoue |
Dan Tom @DanTomMMA 2019: 150-67 (69%) |
Andrade |
Zaleski |
Kara-France |
Evloev |
Inoue |
Simon Samano @SJSamano 2019: 148-69 (68%) |
Zhang |
Zaleski |
Kara-France |
Evloev |
Inoue |
Farah Hannoun @Farah_Hannoun 2019: 43-21 (67%) |
Andrade |
Zaleski |
Kara-France |
Evloev |
Inoue |
John Morgan @MMAjunkieJohn 2019: 144-73 (66%) |
Zhang |
Zaleski |
Kara-France |
Evloev |
Inoue |
Ken Hathaway @kenshathaway 2019: 141-76 (65%) 2018 Champion |
Zhang |
Zaleski |
Kara-France |
Evloev |
Inoue |
Mike Bohn @MikeBohnMMA 2019: 141-76 (65%) 2014 Champion |
Andrade |
Zaleski |
Kara-France |
Evloev |
Inoue |
Steven Marrocco @MMAjunkieSteven 2019: 140-77 (64%) |
Andrade |
Zaleski |
Kara-France |
Evloev |
Inoue |
Brian Garcia @thegoze 2019: 140-77 (64%) 2017 Champion |
Andrade |
Zaleski |
Kara-France |
Evloev |
Inoue |
George Garcia @MMAjunkieGeorge 2019: 133-84 (61%) |
Andrade |
Zaleski |
De La Rosa |
Evloev |
Yanan |
Abbey Subhan @kammakaze 2019: 131-86 (60%) |
Andrade |
Zaleski |
Kara-France |
Evloev |
Inoue |
Dave Doyle @davedoylemma 2019: 73-52 (58%) |
Zhang |
Zaleski |
Kara-France |
Evloev |
Inoue |
Matt Erickson @MMAjunkieMatt 2019: 121-96 (56%) |
Zhang |
Jingliang |
De La Rosa |
Lu |
Yanan |
The UFC is back in China this week, and an upstart title challenger will try to capture a belt in front of her home fans.
UFC on ESPN+ 15 takes place Saturday at Universiade Sports Center in Shenzhen, China. The main card streams on ESPN+ following prelims on ESPN.
(Click here to open a PDF of the staff picks grid in a separate window.)
In the main event, Jessica Andrade (20-6 MMA, 11-4 UFC) puts her women’s strawweight title on the line for the first time when she takes on challenger Weili Zhang (19-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC). Andrade is a slight favorite in the fight, and she’s got a fairly sizable lead in the picks from our 14 MMA Junkie editors, writers, radio hosts and videographers, who are picking her at a 9-5 clip – even though nearly two of every three of our readers are picking Zhang to win.
In the welterweight co-feature, China’s own Li Jingliang (16-5 MMA, 8-3 UFC) takes on Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos (21-5 MMA, 7-1 UFC). Zaleski is a heavy 3-1 favorite, and only one picker is taking Jingliang to upset the Brazilian.
That blowout trend carries over to the rest of the main card. Only two pickers are going against Kai Kara-France (19-7 MMA, 2-0 UFC) in his flyweight fight against 2-1 underdog Mark De La Rosa (11-2 MMA, 2-2 UFC).
The unbeaten Movsar Evloev (11-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC) has a huge 13-1 edge in his featherweight fight against fellow UFC debutant Zhenhong Lu (18-6 MMA, 0-0 UFC). Evloev is more than a 5-1 favorite against Lu, who makes his promotional debut in front of his home fans.
And to open the main card, Wu Yanan (10-2 MMA, 1-1 UFC) will try to pull off a slight upset for the home crowd when she takes on former Invicta FC champion Mizuki Inoue (13-5 MMA, 0-0 UFC), who makes her UFC debut and has a whopping 12-2 lead in the picks despite being just a mild favorite.
In the MMA Junkie reader consensus picks, Zhang (62%), Zaleski (77 percent), Kara-France (75 percent), Evloev (84 percent) and Inoue (69 percent) are the choices.
Check out all the picks above.
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