{"id":89558,"date":"2025-08-22T20:42:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T20:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/89558\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T20:42:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T20:42:07","slug":"ufc-shanghai-predictions-whos-picking-johny-walker-to-upset-zhang-mingyang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/89558\/","title":{"rendered":"UFC Shanghai predictions: Who\u2019s picking Johny Walker to upset Zhang Mingyang?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The UFC is back in China with a rising light heavyweight star at the top of the bill.<\/p>\n

UFC Fight Night 257 (ESPN+) takes place Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai.<\/p>\n

Get pick results from our 11 editors, writers, radio hosts and videographers, as well as additional analysis, below.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Kiefer Crosbie vs. Taiyilake Nueraji<\/p>\n

Records: Crosbie (10-5 MMA, 0-2 UFC), Nueraji (11-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC)<\/p>\n

Odds (as of 08.22.25): Crosbie +385, Nueraji -500<\/p>\n

Junkie pick results: Nueraji 11, Crosbie 0<\/p>\n

Kevin Borjas vs. Su Mudaerji<\/p>\n

Records: Borjas (10-3 MMA, 1-2 UFC), Mudaerji (17-7 MMA, 4-4 UFC)<\/p>\n

Odds (as of 08.22.25): Borjas +150, Mudaerji -180<\/p>\n

Junkie pick results: Mudaerji 6, Borjas 5<\/p>\n

Waldo Cortes-Acosta vs. Sergei Pavlovich<\/p>\n

Records: Cortes-Acosta (14-1 MMA, 7-1 UFC), Pavlovich (19-3 MMA, 7-3 UFC)<\/p>\n

Rankings: Pavlovich No. 5, Cortes-Acosta No. 8<\/p>\n

Odds (as of 08.22.25): Cortes-Acosta +190, Pavlovich -250<\/p>\n

Junkie pick results: Pavlovich 8, Cortes-Acosta 3<\/p>\n

Brian Ortega vs. Aljamain Sterling<\/p>\n

Records: Ortega (16-4 MMA, 8-4 UFC), Sterling (24-5 MMA, 16-5 UFC)<\/p>\n

Rankings: Ortega No. 5, Sterling No. 12<\/p>\n

Odds (as of 08.22.25): Ortega +300, Sterling -375<\/p>\n

Junkie pick results: Sterling 11, Ortega 0<\/p>\n

Johnny Walker vs. Zhang Mingyang<\/p>\n

Records: Walker (21-9 MMA, 7-6 UFC), Mingyang (19-6 MMA, 3-0 UFC)<\/p>\n

Division: Light heavyweight<\/p>\n

Rankings: Mingyang No. 15, Walker honorable mention<\/p>\n

Odds (as of 08.22.25): Walker +280, Mingyang -350<\/p>\n

Junkie pick results: Mingyang 10, Walker 1<\/p>\n

Individual staff member picks, main card<\/p>\n

Readers 120-75: Mingyang (80%), Sterling (68%), Pavlovich (75%), Mudaerji (55%), Nueraji (80%)<\/p>\n

Ken Hathaway 126-69: Mingyang, Sterling, Pavlovich, Mudaerji, Nueraji<\/p>\n

Nolan King 126-69: Mingyang, Sterling, Pavlovich, Mudaerji, Nueraji<\/p>\n

Mike Bohn 126-69: Mingyang, Sterling, Pavlovich, Mudaerji, Nueraji<\/p>\n

Abbey Subhan 122-73: Mingyang, Sterling, Pavlovich, Borjas, Nueraji<\/p>\n

Farah Hannoun 122-73: Mingyang, Sterling, Pavlovich, Borjas, Nueraji<\/p>\n

Simon Samano 119-76: Mingyang, Sterling, Cortes-Acosta, Mudaerji, Nueraji<\/p>\n

Brian Garcia 118-77: Mingyang, Sterling, Pavlovich, Borjas, Nueraji<\/p>\n

Matt Erickson 117-78: Mingyang, Sterling, Cortes-Acosta, Mudaerji, Nueraji<\/p>\n

Danny Segura 115-80: Mingyang, Sterling, Cortes-Acosta, Borjas, Nueraji<\/p>\n

Matthew Wells 113-82: Mingyang, Sterling, Pavlovich, Mudaerji, Nueraji<\/p>\n

George Garcia 107-88: Walker, Sterling, Pavlovich, Borjas, Nueraji<\/p>\n

Preliminary card picks<\/p>\n

Although they don’t count toward the standings, MMA Junkie staff members still pick the fights on the prelims. Here are the results:<\/p>\n

Hayisaer Maheshate vs. Gauge Young: Maheshate 10, Young 1<\/p>\n

Charles Johnson vs. Lone’er Kavanagh: Kavanagh 9, Johnson 2<\/p>\n

Austin Hubbard vs. Rong Zhu: Zhu 9, Hubbard 2<\/p>\n

Kyle Daukaus vs. Michel Pereira: Pereira 10, Daukaus 1<\/p>\n

Yi Zha vs. Westin Wilson: Zha 6, Wilson 5<\/p>\n

Xiao Long vs. SuYoung You: You 11, Long 0<\/p>\n

Diyar Nurgozhay vs. Uran Satybaldiev: Satybaldiev 7, Nurgozhay 4<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC Shanghai predictions: Johnny Walker vs. Zhang Mingyang<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UFC is back in China with a rising light heavyweight star at the top of the bill.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[28097,50460,49,48,641,51932,52954,638,52951,82,52952,52953,640,50876],"class_list":{"0":"post-89558","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-aljamain-sterling","9":"tag-brian-ortega","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-fighting","13":"tag-johnny-walker","14":"tag-kevin-borjas","15":"tag-mma","16":"tag-sergei-pavlovich","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-su-mudaerji","19":"tag-taiyilake-nueraji","20":"tag-ufc","21":"tag-zhang-mingyang"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}