UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman will defend his title Saturday towards Jorge Masvidal in the principle occasion of UFC 261 in Jacksonville, Florida. Will probably be the primary UFC card in entrance of a capability crowd since earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic shut down spectator sports activities in March 2020.
ESPN has Usman ranked No. 2 on this planet on its finest pound-for-pound MMA fighters checklist. At welterweight, ESPN has Usman at No. 1 and Masvidal at No. 7.
At UFC 251 final 12 months, Usman (18-1) beat Masvidal by way of unanimous choice in a reasonably one-sided bout. However Masvidal got here into that battle on simply six days’ discover after Usman’s initially scheduled opponent, Gilbert Burns, examined optimistic for the coronavirus. Usman, 33, is searching for his fourth straight title protection and his 14th straight UFC victory.
If Usman, a Nigeria native who trains out of Colorado, had been to win Saturday he alone would have the second-longest profitable streak in UFC historical past. Presently, Usman is tied with Khabib Nurmagomedov and Jon Jones with 13 straight victories. Solely Anderson Silva has extra consecutive wins in UFC historical past (16).
Masvidal (35-14) is among the largest stars on the UFC roster. The Miami native was on a three-fight profitable streak earlier than falling to Usman final 12 months. In 2019, Masvidal knocked out Darren Till, Ben Askren and Nate Diaz in a span of eight months to turn into one of many hottest MMA athletes on this planet. The latter was for the legendary BMF title at Madison Sq. Backyard. Masvidal, 36, has been a professional fighter for nearly 18 years however has only in the near past turn into some of the standard MMA athletes on this planet.
Within the co-main occasion, Zhang Weili defends her UFC girls’s strawweight title towards former champion Rose Namajunas. Zhang (21-1) has not misplaced since her professional debut eight years in the past, whereas Namajunas (9-Four) has gained 4 of 5. ESPN has Zhang ranked No. Four on its girls’s MMA pound-for-pound checklist. Namajunas is true behind her at No. 5.
UFC girls’s flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko may also defend her title towards former strawweight champion Jessica Andrade at UFC 261. Shevchenko (20-Three) has by no means misplaced at flyweight within the UFC and has been defeated by just one girl since becoming a member of the promotion: bantamweight and featherweight champ Amanda Nunes. Andrade (21-Eight) has gained 5 of her previous seven fights, together with a first-round TKO victory over Katlyn Chookagian final October in her flyweight debut. On ESPN’s girls’s pound-for-pound checklist, Shevchenko is No. 2 and Andrade is No. 6.
Observe together with Brett Okamoto, Marc Raimondi and Jeff Wagenheim as they recap the motion because it occurs or watch UFC 261 on ESPN+ PPV.
Combat in progress:
Girls’s flyweight: Aori Qileng (15-6, Zero-Zero UFC, -110) vs. Jeffrey Molina (Eight-2, Zero-Zero UFC, -110)
Outcomes:
Strawweight: Ariane Carnelossi (13-2, 1-1 UFC) defeats Liang Na (9-5, Zero-1 UFC) by second-round TKO
Recap to return.
What a primary battle #UFC261 ????
— Amanda Nunes (@Amanda_Leoa) April 24, 2021
Nonetheless to return:
Welterweight title battle: Kamaru Usman (c) (18-1, 13-Zero UFC, -450) vs. Jorge Masvidal (35-14, 12-7 UFC, +350)
Strawweight title battle: Zhang Weili (c) (21-1, 5-Zero UFC, -200) vs. Rose Namajunas (10-Four, 7-Three UFC, +170)
Girls’s flyweight title battle: Valentina Shevchenko (c) (20-Three, 9-2 UFC, -470) vs. Jessica Andrade (21-Eight, 12-6 UFC, +360)
Middleweight: Uriah Hall (17-9, 9-7 UFC, +105 ) vs. Chris Weidman (15-5, 11-5 UFC, -125)
Mild heavyweight: Anthony Smith (34-16, 9-6 UFC, +170) vs. Jimmy Crute (12-1, Four-1 UFC, -200)
Welterweight: Alex Oliveira (22-9-1, 11-7-1 UFC, +125) vs. Randy Brown (12-Four, 6-Four UFC, -150)
Welterweight: Dwight Grant (10-Three, 2-2 UFC, -220) vs. Stefan Sekulic (12-Three, Zero-1 UFC, +180)
Middleweight: Karl Roberson (9-Three, Four-Three UFC, +145) vs. Brendan Allen (15-Four, Three-1 UFC, -160)
Males’s featherweight: Patrick Sabatini (13-Three, Zero-Zero UFC, -240) vs. Tristan Connelly (14-6, 1-Zero UFC, +200)
Males’s bantamweight: Danaa Batgerel (Eight-2, 1-1 UFC, -190) vs. Kevin Natividad (9-2, Zero-1 UFC, +160)
Light-weight: Kazula Vargas (11-Four, Zero-2 UFC, +200) vs. Rong Zhu (17-Three, Zero-Zero UFC, -240)