Chidi Njokuani vs Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos Predictions, Picks & Odds

The welterweight clash between the always fun to watch Elizeu Zaleski and the long and tough Chidi Njokuani figures to be an entertaining fight between two aging competitors hoping to stay in the thick of the division. 

UFC odds have Zaleski as a -200 favorite and Njokuani is a +150 underdog, but my Zaleski vs. Njokuani predictions for March 15 see value in betting on the length of the fight.

Njokuani vs Zaleski dos Santos prediction and best bet

• My fight prediction: Njokuani ML (+150 at BET99)
  
  
• My best bet: Over 2.5 rounds (+110 at BET99)

Fight analysis
These welterweights are in the twilight of their careers, but they come to fight and are often in entertaining bouts. Starting with Zaleski, he’s always been a talented striker who comes in shape and has excellent conditioning.

He’s coming off a win against an overmatched late substitute in Zack Scroggins, snapping a two-fight skid. In that stretch, he managed to outhustle Rinat Fakhretdinov down the stretch to earn a draw but followed that up with a loss to Randy Brown when he couldn’t deal with the reach advantage, despite scoring four takedowns.

The Brown fight showed that — as springy and strong as he can be — he struggles when he can’t get in range. He’ll have trouble doing that against Njokuani, who will have an even bigger reach advantage than Brown and knows how to maintain his striking range.

Njokuani is a middleweight transplant who dropped down to welterweight after a three-fight losing streak and has won two straight. He looked particularly impressive in his last win over Jared Gooden, where he let his hands go and outlanded Gooden 105-20, though he did get taken down twice.

Njokuani’s takedown defense is listed at 74%, but it doesn’t look that way as he’s been taken down six times in his last five fights. Zaleski is capable of securing takedowns and wrestling when he gets inside.

This fight comes down to how well Njokuani utilizes his long 80-inch reach. Zaleski isn’t as tricky of a striker when forced to fight on the outside, and with Njokuani being the physically stronger fighter, those long strikes will make their mark even if he chooses to fight more conservatively than he did against Gooden.

If Zaleski bypasses that reach, he can cause trouble with his speed and grappling. But this fight doesn’t have an obvious winner. Both fighters must take chances and bring it every round in a bout that’ll be tough to score.

We’ve seen Zaleski look less than dynamic against this type of opponent before, and at 38, he’s closer than ever to hitting his physical ceiling. Though Njokuani is no spring chicken at 36, his length and size should be enough to tilt the bout in his favor.

Best bet analysis
Though Njokuani is coming down from middleweight, he isn’t hitting like a man from a bigger division squeezing down a size.

The Scroggins fight was Zaleski’s first knockout in six years, but that fight couldn’t have ended any other way, and all of his fights since 2020 have gone the distance.

Chidi Njokuani vs Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos odds

Method of Victory	Njokuani	Zaleski dos Santos
To win outright	+165	-210
To win by KO/TKO	+370	+170
To win by decision	+525	+230
To win by submission	+1700	+975
Draw	+2500	+2500

Odds as of 3-15.

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Chidi Njokuani vs Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos tale of the tape

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