UFC 251 is all set to go live from Yas Island in Abu Dhabi on 11 July 2020. This marks a major leap for the sport of Mixed Martial Arts in the Middle East. The event will showcase a stacked fight card with three world title fights. The main event battle between Kamaru Usman and Jorge Masvidal is the most talked-about fight of the night.
The welterweight, featherweight, and vacant bantamweight titles are all on the line on July 11 in the first of four July fight cards to be held in the Middle East. This also marks the most number of championship titles being on the line for a UFC event taking place in the Middle East.
The BMF Champion stepped in to face the champion since the contender, Gilbert Burns had to withdraw from the fight after testing positive for COVID-19. Masvidal stepped in on less than a week’s notice which makes the fight even more exciting. Masvidal (35-13) will be stepping in for his 49th fight making him the most experienced contender yet to capture a championship title.
The reigning Champion, Kamaru Usman (16-1) is on a 15-fight win streak. He is favored by the experts in the main event, in part due to Masvidal accepting the fight on late notice.
The co-main features Alexander Volkanovski defending his featherweight title against Max Holloway. Volkanovski captured the featherweight title from Holloway in December 2019. In the same night, the former featherweight king – Jose Aldo will face Russia’s Petr Yan for the vacant men’s bantamweight championship.
The Arab MMA World has much to anticipate as the Tunisian icon, Mounir Lazzez based out of the United Arab Emirates will make his UFC debut facing Makwan Amirkhani.
There is also exciting line-up of female stars lined up including a rematch between former women’s strawweight champions Rose Namajunas and Jessica Andrade. Paige VanZant is also in action against Amanda Ribas.
Main card
- Kamaru Usman (C) vs Jorge Masvidal (welterweight)
- Max Holloway vs Alexander Volkanovski (C) (featherweight)
- Jose Aldo vs Petr Yan (vacant bantamweight title)
- Rose Namajunas vs Jessica Andrade
- Paige VanZant vs Amanda Ribas
Prelims
- Volkan Oezdemir vs Jiri Prochazka
- Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos vs Muslim Salikhov
- Makwan Amirkhani vs Mounir Lazzez
- Leonardo Santos vs Roman Bogatov
Early prelims
- Marcin Tybura vs Alexandr Romanov
- Raulian Paiva vs Zhalgas Zhumagulov
- Karol Rosa vs Vanessa Melo
- Martin Day vs Davey Grant
About the author
Hari Bhagirath is the former Chief Creative Officer at BRAVE Combat Federation. Currently, he heads Strategic Relations and Financial Communication for a major Fortune 100 organization. He is also the co-founder of Totem Capital, a private wealth management initiative.
