Charles Oliveira will put his lightweight crown on the line for the first time on Saturday night when he faces Dustin Poirier in the main event at UFC 269 as a +135 underdog on the UFC odds at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.
Oliveira claimed the vacant title with a second-round TKO win over Michael Chandler at UFC 262, while also extending his current undefeated streak to eight fights going into Saturday night’s bout at T-Mobile Arena.
In addition to lifting him to the top of the lightweight division Oliveira also broke the UFC record for most career finishes with his win over Chandler, and he claimed his eighth Performance of the Night bonus in 11 contests since making his lightweight debut. The 32-year-old Brazilian now sports a professional MMA record of 31-8 that features just three wins by decision, but he has yet to see any action in championship rounds.
Listed as a -165 favourite at betting sites for Saturday, Poirier returns to action for the first time since tallying TKO victories in a pair of dates with former lightweight champion Conor McGregor earlier this year.
Now riding a three-fight win streak, Poirier briefly reigned as interim UFC lightweight champion after earning a unanimous decision victory over Max Holloway at UFC 236. However, he subsequently fell short in his bid to claim the undisputed title at UFC 242, where he fell to Khabib Nurmagomedov by submission in the third round in his only loss over his past 10 octagon appearances.
Earlier in the evening, Amanda Nunes will defend her UFC women’s bantamweight title for the first time in almost two years as she takes on Julianna Pena as a heavy -950 favourite on the UFC 269 odds.
Nunes has been far from idle since earning a unanimous decision win over Germaine de Randamie in her last bantamweight clash back at UFC 245. The 33-year-old Brazilian has kept busy in the interim by successfully defending her UFC women’s featherweight title on two occasions, capped by a decisive first-round tap-out win over Megan Anderson earlier this year at UFC 259.
A loser in two of her past four outings, Pena will be the sixth fighter to challenge Nunes’ dominance of the UFC women’s bantamweight division when she steps into the octagon as a distant +575 underdog. Pena fell by submission in her recent losses to de Randamie and Valentina Shevchenko, but rebounded to claim a third-round submission win over Sara McMann last time out at UFC 257.
Elsewhere on the UFC 269 odds, Santiago Ponzinibbio battles fellow welterweight Geoff Neal as -130 chalk, while Cody Garbrandt tangles with Kai Kara-France as a -145 wager in a clash of flyweights.
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