UFC 223 Odds: Holloway Big Underdog on Betting Lines vs. Nurmagomedov

Stepping in on six days' notice for injured lightweight champion Tony Ferguson, featherweight champ Max Holloway (19-3) has been installed as a +325 underdog (bet $100 to win $325) against top contender Khabib Nurmagomedov (25-0) for the 155-pound title in the main event at UFC 223 this Saturday at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

The Ferguson-Nurmagomedov matchup has been cancelled for the fourth time in as many years, setting the stage for Holloway to potentially join former champ Conor McGregor as the only UFC fighters ever to hold two titles at the same time.

Of course upsetting the unbeaten Nurmagomedov will be no easy task, as the 29-year-old Dagestani is a heavy -450 favorite (bet $450 to win $100) on the UFC 223 odds at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.

Following a two-year absence due to injuries himself, Nurmagomedov has gone 3-0 with three dominant performances in his last three bouts, capped by a unanimous-decision victory against Edson Barboza at UFC 219 on December 30. That latest win over Barboza earned a Performance of the Night bonus and this title shot.

For Holloway, a featherweight title matchup versus Brian Ortega looms on the horizon, although the opportunity to win two championship belts and help save the UFC 223 card has taken priority. Ortega had replaced an injured Holloway against Frankie Edgar at UFC 222 and scored a surprising first-round knockout. Holloway is riding a 12-bout winning streak, with his last loss coming against McGregor nearly five years ago.

The co-main event at UFC 223 will also see a title belt on the line when women's strawweight champ Rose Namajunas (7-3) takes on former champ Joanna Jedrzejczyk (14-1) in a rematch from UFC 217 last November 4 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Namajunas stunned Jedrzejczyk via first-round TKO to win the title, and she is listed as a slight -105 underdog this time around despite being the champ.

Jedrzejczyk blamed an extreme weight cut for the first loss of her career, and she is a much smaller favorite in the rematch at -125. The 30-year-old native of Poland won the strawweight title a little more than three years ago with a second-round TKO of Carla Esparza, and she defended the title five times before falling to Namajunas in a shocker.

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