With the loss of Irene Aldana vs. Raquel Pennington following Aldana’s promotion to a bantamweight title fight at UFC 289, UFC Vegas 73 was left in need of a new main event.
It found one in the form of a women’s strawweight match-up between Angela Hill and Mackenzie Dern, originally scheduled for UFC Charlotte last weekend. Pushed back a week, the fight had an extra two rounds tacked on, and is a classic grappler versus striker affair in which Hill will no doubt look to avoid the dangerous ground game of BJJ star Dern.
Our staff has their picks in — here’s how we see Saturday’s five-fight main card playing out.
| Writer / Fight | Ferreira vs. Johnson | Fialho vs. Buckley | Godinez vs. Ducote | Shahbazyan vs. Hernandez | Dern vs. Hill |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alex Behunin (51-30) |  |  |  |  |  |
| Jamie Theodosi (51-30) |  | | | | |
| Chris Prawdzik (48-33) | | | | | |
| Jay Anderson (42-39) | |  | | | |
| Dylan Rush (39-42) | | | | |  |
| Eddie Law (37-44) | | | |  | |
| Cade Morehouse (0-0) | | |  | | |
There were no unanimous picks among our staff for UFC Vegas 73, but there were some heavy favorites. Among them, Mackenzie Dern, who all but two writers responding see coming away with her hand raised following Saturday’s main event.
The co-main event at UFC Vegas 73 was even more of a lock, with only one writer seeing Anthony “Fluffy” Hernandez getting the win over Edmen Shahbazyan, who was looking to make it two win in a row.
Loopy Godinez was another heavy favorite. All but one writer responding feels the former LFA strawweight champ gets the job done against ex-Invicta FC 115lb champion Emily Ducote.
Andre Fialho and Michael Johnson were the favorites in their respective main card match-ups, meanwhile.
