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Maybe it’s Symbolic that the Only Philadelphia Fighter on the UFC Philadelphia Card is the Biggest Underdog of the Night
Published:
Jeremiah Wells made weight ahead of UFC 330 at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Saturday night:
Wells was born in Hazleton but relocated to Philadelphia years ago and has trained and fought out of Philly for a long time. He is, somehow, the only Philadelphia-based fighter on this card despite the fact that the UFC has not held an event here since 2019. There was reportedly a Caio Borralho/Joe Pyfer matchup targeted for 330, which would have made a ton of sense, but that apparently fell through due to a Borralho injury.
What we ended up with is a classic Philly underdog story. Think 2017 Philadelphia Eagles. Wells is actually opening the early prelims at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday night and he’s a +700 underdog across NJ and PA sports betting apps, fighting rising Kyrgyz star Myktybek Orolbai, who is 16-2-1 and 11 years younger.
Orolbai is 5-1 in the UFC with three finishes and the chatter about this particular bout is that Orolbai should be fighting a ranked opponent at 170 pounds, which may be the most intriguing and stacked UFC division. Wells only fought once in 2024 and once in 2025, and has dealt with relatively recent hand and Achilles injuries, but he’s 5-2 in the UFC and 13-4-1 overall. He has 3 UFC finishes of his own and has fought to a couple of split decisions. He’s pushing 40 years old but he scored a nice decision win against Themba Gorimbo back in November despite losing the first round and giving up a lot of control time. It was a dogged performance in which he seemed to find a second wind and really dug deep to win rounds 2 and 3. He out-cardio’d Gorimbo and kept looking for submissions throughout, scratching out a tough victory.
A scan of the odds shows that Wells is the biggest underdog on the card. Maybe that’s how it’s meant to be. Nobody thought the Eagles would go on to win the Super Bowl after Carson Wentz tore his ACL and Nick Foles stepped up to the plate. But we all know how that turned out. If you want to grab a BetMGM bonus code and put a unit or two on this fight, $5 on Wells to win at +725 would pay out $41.25
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com