Ketlen Vieira vs. Sijara Eubanks Prediction, UFC 253 Card Odds

The UFC has finished a run in Las Vegas, Nevada and is now returning to Fight Island in Abu Dhabi for UFC 253. The card is a highly anticipated one as the main event of the evening will feature a championship bout between Israel Adesanya and Paulo Costa.

One of the other intriguing fights on the undercard will be a women’s bantamweight showdown between Ketlen Vieira and Sijara Eubanks. The UFC odds board has Vieira as a -185 favourite with Eubanks the +145 underdog.

Ketlen Vieira

The 29-year-old Vieira is ranked No. 7 in the women’s bantamweight division but comes into this bout off a loss. She started her MMA career 10-0 but lost to Irene Aldana at UFC 245 in December via a first-round knockout. Vieira had never lost a bout before – let alone being knocked out – so it will be interesting to see how she rebounds. She had been viewed as a fighter on the rise before that as she had picked up four straight wins to start her UFC career. While she has shown well at times, there are others where her performance has been questionable. Of course, there’s the recent loss and then her wins over Cat Zingano and Kelly Faszholz were split decisions, so things could have gone another way.

She doesn’t knock out many of her opponents as she has just two knockouts in her 10 wins. Eubanks won’t have to worry about that but she will have to worry about Vieira’s technical prowess and ground game.

Sijara Eubanks

Eubanks is ranked No. 15 in the division but some are wondering just where she is in her career. At 35 years of age, she’s not a young sprite. Many people figured she was in the twilight of her career when she lost back-to-back fights in 2019 to Aspen Ladd and Bethe Correia. The two losses dropped her to 4-4 in her MMA career and at that point, her UFC prospects were hanging by a thread. However, she’s rebounded big time this year with back-to-back wins over Sarah Moras and Julia Avila. Both wins were via decision and that’s likely what we should expect if she wins here. Two of her first three fights ended via knockout; every single other fight she’s been a part of has gone to a decision.

Eubanks clearly doesn’t have the successful history that Vieira does and that’s why she’s a dog here. A lot of people will be betting this expecting Vieira to end up with the win. A better bet might be to wager on the over under for this fight as we should see this go the distance. Neither fighter really has the prowess to finish this off one way or another, so expect this to hit the judge’s scorecards.

UFC 253 Vieira vs. Eubanks Prediction:

Vieira by Decision