Zalal, who is riding a long win streak, could put himself among the contenders with an impressive win over the former 135-pound champion here.Our co-main event is Norma Dumont vs. Joselyne Edwards in the women’s Bantamweight division. Both these ladies are on good win streaks, too, and they are projected to have a fun brawl.

Rounding out the main card is Rafa Garcia vs. Alexander Hernandez, Davey Grant vs. Adrian Luna Martinetti, Montel Jackson vs.

Raoni Barcelos and Marcus Buchecha vs. Ryan Spann.The featured “Prelim” is Rodolfo Vieira vs. Eric McConico. This portion of the card also has Jafel Filho vs.

Cody Durden and Mayra Bueno Silva vs. Michelle Montague.As always, there’s lots to bet on this card and we’ve got odds for all the fights below:UFC Vegas 116 Main Card Money Line OddsAljamain Sterling (+120) vs. Youssef Zalal (-142)Sterling’s last fight was his bizarre contest with Brian Ortega back in Aug. 2025 (details here).

Ortega looked like death warmed up on the scales for that fight and that carried over to the bout itself. The fight, which was forced to be at 155 pounds, saw Sterling essentially fighting a training dummy. He won with a lopsided unanimous decision.

That was Sterling’s first fight since he lost to Movsar Evloev by decision. Sterling has competed just three times since he lost the title to Sean O’Malley in 2023. This isn’t due to injury, though.

It’s because of his much-publicized fractious relationship with UFC brass.Zalal, meanwhile, has charged up the 145-pound rankings since he re-signed with the company in 2024. He’s won five straight since March 2023, scoring finishes in all but one fight. Last time out, he arm-barred Josh Emmett in around 90 seconds (re-live that here).

Before that, he dominated Calvin Kattar for a decision in a fight where it looked like Zalal was playing with his food a little too much. This run has Zalal on an eight-fight win streak (10 if you count some boxing and kickboxing side quests he had along the way). He was cut from UFC before that run started after he went 0-3-1.

During that time, he lost a decision to Ilia Topuria. He and Emmett are the only men to go the distance with Topuria.This is a hard fight to pick. It’s hard to know where Sterling is at when we don’t see him that often and considering the weirdness around his last fight.

We’ve only seen him three times at Featherweight and two of those opponents didn’t really show up (that’s includinghis fight versus the anemic Kattar).I’m sure that Zalal is going to provide more resistance than Ortega and Kattar did. The big question is whether his game is suited to defeat Sterling. Both these guys love a back take and love to control and tire their opponents.

Zalal is more immediately interested in submissions, though.Sterling is a great wrestler, but can he out-wrestle guys at Featherweight, where he’s almost always going to be the smaller guy? He couldn’t do it against Evloev. Zalal is not Evloev, but he does have a big size advantage working in his favor.Zalal is also the better striker.

On paper their stats are very similar. Sterling’s significant strike accuracy is 52 percent and Zalal’s is 50 percent. If we were just looking at strikes when standing, I suspect Zalal’s number would be much higher than Sterling’s, though.

They both have good striking defense, too. Sterling defends 59 percent of significant strikes thrown his way. Zalal defends 66 percent.If this is a kickboxing match, then I think Zalal wins it quite comfortably.

It might go that way. I can see Sterling and Zalal both thinking they have the advantage on the feet and thus wanting to press their luck there.The most exciting way this fight could go is if both men throw themselves into grappling exchanges and look for submissions. I favor Zalal in that scenario, too, since he has amazing flexibility, body awareness and quickness in those grappling transitions.

His size would also be a big help there, too.Since I like Zalal in both the scenarios I see happening, I’ve got to go with him. That being said, I still think there’s a chance Sterling is able to pull this one out.Best bet: Youssef Zalal moneyline (-142)Norma Dumont (-245) vs. Joselyne Edwards (+200)Dumont has won her last six fights.

However, because of her inactivity, it’s hard to say she’s got much momentum. Her last fight back in Nov. 2025 was a split decision win over Ketlen Vieira. Her prior fight to that was in Sept. 2024 in The Sphere. That’s where she literally rearranged