Alastair Overeem will be looking to win three in a row in the octagon for the first time in over three years when he takes on fellow heavyweight Jairzinho Rozenstruik on Saturday in the main event at UFC on ESPN 7 as a narrow -125 favourite on the UFC odds at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.
Overeem has been dominant while recording first-round victories in each of his past two fights going into Saturday night’s bout at Capital One Arena in Washington D.C.
Overeem finished Alexey Oleynik with an opening-round TKO win as a -265 favourite at UFC Fight Night 149 back in April, and needed just over four minutes to finish Sergei Pavlovich and pay out as a +110 underdog at online betting sites in their date at UFC Fight Night 141 in November of last year. With those victories Overeem snapped a two-fight losing streak, and improved his professional MMA record to 45-17. However, the 39-year-old Englishman has not finished opponents in three straight fights since a first-round knockout of Todd Duffee that earned him the DREAM heavyweight title back in 2010.
Closely trailing Overeem as a -105 bet on the UFC Washington odds, Rozenstruik takes an unblemished 9-0 pro MMA record into Saturday night’s main event. The 31-year-old mixed martial artist and kick boxer needed just 29 seconds to finish veteran Andrei Arlovski last month at UFC 244, paying out as -150 chalk. That win came on the heels of a spectacular knockout win just nine seconds into a date with Allen Crowder at UFC Fight Night 154 as a strong -225 wager that also earned him a Performance of the Night bonus.
Overall, Rozenstruik has recorded first-round finishes in seven of his nine professional fights, including two of his three appearances since joining the UFC earlier this year. The 31-year-old Suriname native has seen just one pro fight go the distance, a three-round split decision win over Andrey Kovalev at Rizin 10 in May 2018.
Elsewhere on the UFC Washington odds, a pair of struggling heavyweights clash as Ben Rothwell battles Stefan Struve as -145 chalk. In women’s strawweight action, Marina Rodriguez looks to remain undefeated in her professional MMA career as she takes on Cynthia Calvillo as a -135 favourite. And earlier in the evening a pair of women’s bantamweights square off as Aspen Ladd clashes with Yana Kunitskaya as a -160 favourite.
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