UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman will defend his title Saturday against Jorge Masvidal in the main event of UFC 261 in Jacksonville, Florida. It will be the first UFC card in front of a capacity crowd since before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down spectator sports in March 2020.
ESPN has Usman ranked No. 2 in the world on its best pound-for-pound MMA fighters list. At welterweight, ESPN has Usman at No. 1 and Masvidal at No. 7.
At UFC 251 last year, Usman (18-1) beat Masvidal via unanimous decision in a fairly one-sided bout. But Masvidal came into that fight on just six days’ notice after Usman’s initially scheduled opponent, Gilbert Burns, tested positive for the coronavirus. Usman, 33, is looking for his fourth straight title defense and his 14th straight UFC victory.
If Usman, a Nigeria native who trains out of Colorado, were to win Saturday he alone would have the second-longest winning streak in UFC history. Currently, Usman is tied with Khabib Nurmagomedov and Jon Jones with 13 straight victories. Only Anderson Silva has more consecutive wins in UFC history (16).
Masvidal (35-14) is one of the biggest stars on the UFC roster. The Miami native was on a three-fight winning streak before falling to Usman last year. In 2019, Masvidal knocked out Darren Till, Ben Askren and Nate Diaz in a span of eight months to become one of the hottest MMA athletes in the world. The latter was for the mythical BMF title at Madison Square Garden. Masvidal, 36, has been a pro fighter for almost 18 years but has just recently become one of the most popular MMA athletes in the world.
In the co-main event, Zhang Weili defends her UFC women’s strawweight title against former champion Rose Namajunas. Zhang (21-1) has not lost since her pro debut eight years ago, while Namajunas (9-4) has won four of five. ESPN has Zhang ranked No. 4 on its women’s MMA pound-for-pound list. Namajunas is right behind her at No. 5.
UFC women’s flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko will also defend her title against former strawweight champion Jessica Andrade at UFC 261. Shevchenko (20-3) has never lost at flyweight in the UFC and has been defeated by only one woman since joining the promotion: bantamweight and featherweight champ Amanda Nunes. Andrade (21-8) has won five of her past seven fights, including a first-round TKO victory over Katlyn Chookagian last October in her flyweight debut. On ESPN’s women’s pound-for-pound list, Shevchenko is No. 2 and Andrade is No. 6.
Follow along with Brett Okamoto, Marc Raimondi and Jeff Wagenheim as they recap the action as it happens or watch UFC 261 on ESPN+ PPV.
The champs are here! 💍🏈 #UFC261 pic.twitter.com/CKZx00p90Q
— UFC (@ufc) April 25, 2021
Fight in progress:
Welterweight: Alex Oliveira (22-9-1, 11-7-1 UFC, +125) vs. Randy Brown (12-4, 6-4 UFC, -150)
Results:
Welterweight: Dwight Grant (11-3, 3-2 UFC) defeats Stefan Sekulic (12-4, 0-2 UFC) by split decision
The fight ended with Grant trapped in a tight Sekulic guillotine choke, a dominant position that Sekulic achieved in the closing seconds by doing something he’d rarely done during the previous 14-plus minutes. He threw a punch.
The left hand had staggered Grant, leaving him susceptible to the submission attempt. But Grant survived to the horn, and he was rewarded with the decision win. Two judges scored the fight 29-28 in his favor, while the other scorecard read 29-28 for Sekulic.
PAINFULLY TIGHT 😱 HOW DID GRANT SURVIVE!? #UFC261 pic.twitter.com/c4W8uuOYq6
— UFC (@ufc) April 25, 2021
Grant did little to win the fight, honestly, but Sekulic did even less. The narrative coming in was that Sekulic, a 29-year-old Serbian, had not competed since he lost his promotional debut in September 2018. That rust showed.
Sekulic did score a takedown in each round, but the fight was contested mostly on the feet, and he threw almost nothing, opting instead to just keep his distance from Grant’s power. As a result, Grant’s punches often were missing not by inches but by a foot or two. He didn’t land much, but he reached Sekulic a lot more than Sekulic touched him.
Grant, who is 36 and a New Yorker now fighting out of San Diego, has won three of his last four.
— Wagenheim
Middleweight: Brendan Allen (16-4, 4-1 UFC) defeats Karl Roberson (9-4, 4-4 UFC) by first-round submission
Allen took full advantage of a puzzling decision by Roberson, who tried to out-grapple the submission ace.
Allen, who made his first appearance under the banner of Sanford MMA in south Florida, tapped Roberson with a heel hook at 4:55 of the opening round. The finish came after Roberson attacked Allen’s leg from the bottom, but then looked for a leg lock himself, rather than use the threat to get back to his feet.
Florida royalty in the building 🐊 #UFC261 pic.twitter.com/qzrO4yb5TP
— UFC (@ufc) April 25, 2021
That proved to be a bad choice, as Allen collected his ninth career win by submission, as well as his ninth victory inside the first round. The 25-year-old has looked pretty sensational since signing with the UFC as a contestant on Dana White’s Contender Series in 2019. He holds wins over Roberson, Kevin Holland, Tom Breese and Kyle Daukas. He has one loss to Sean Strickland.
Prior to the finish, Allen showed off some of renowned kickboxing coach Henri Hooft’s tactics, as he targeted Roberson’s lead leg with kicks. Roberson never seemed to get going in this one. All four of his pro losses have come via submission.
— Okamoto
Men’s featherweight: Patrick Sabatini (14-3, 1-0 UFC) defeats Tristan Connelly (14-7, 1-1 UFC) by unanimous decision
The story around this fight centered around Connelly and it being his first fight since a spirited, 2019 win against the much bigger Michel Pereira.
Sabatini spoiled the narrative.
Using the power in his hands and his Division-I level wrestling, Sabatini picked up a unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28) over Connelly in his UFC debut.
Man, I gotta get some grappling rolls in with Sabatini when I’m back on the east coast. I feel like it would be fun, competitive, and a lot freestyling going on in the training RDs #UFC261
— Aljamain Sterling (@funkmasterMMA) April 25, 2021
Sabatini dropped Connelly in the first round and outgrappled him thereafter. In the second, Sabatini shot for a takedown early and got it, eventually getting to Connelly’s back. Connelly rallied a bit in the third with a hard right hand and a takedown of his own. But Sabatini already had the bout all locked up.
Sabatini, 30, is a former two-time Cage Fury Fighting Championship featherweight champion. The Pennsylvania native, who wrestled at Rider University, has won three straight. His only loss since 2018 came when he broke his arm in February 2020 in a fight with James Gonzalez. Connelly, a 35-year-old Canada native, had won five straight coming in, including that underdog performance against Pereira in September 2019, two divisions up at welterweight.
— Raimondi
Men’s bantamweight: Danaa Batgerel (9-2, 2-1 UFC) defeats Kevin Natividad (9-3, 0-2 UFC) by first-round TKO
The fight was not yet a minute old, and Natividad was determined to be the aggressor. He got clipped by a right hook, but he kept coming. And got clipped — and finished — with another hook, this one a Batgerel left hand.
Batgerel, a 31-year-old Mongolian who fights out of Jackson Wink MMA in Albuquerque, New Mexico, was backing up when he landed the telling shot, and Natividad fell to his knees, where he took another shot from Batgerel that put him on his back, defenseless. At that point referee Herb Dean jumped in, waving off the bout as a TKO at 50 seconds.
For Batgerel, it was his second win in a row after he’d dropped his UFC debut in 2019.
Natividad, who is 28 and a native of Hawaii, trains in Tempe, Arizona. He has lost two in a row since joining the UFC in October riding a five-fight winning streak.
— Wagenheim
Lightweight: Kazula Vargas (12-4, 1-2 UFC) defeats Rong Zhu (17-4, 0-1 UFC) by unanimous decision
A 10-year veteran of MMA, Vargas has been fighting professionally for nearly half of Rong’s entire life — and that experience showed in their three-round matchup.
Vargas, of Mexico City, defeated the 21-year-old prospect by unanimous decision, via official scores of 30-26, 29-28 and 29-28. Rong, who entered the bout as the youngest fighter on the UFC roster, definitely flashed some of the potential that has earned him a spot in the UFC, but he showed some inexperience as well.
Wait …30-26🤔🤔
— Belal Muhammad (@bullyb170) April 24, 2021
Originally from Tibet, Rong got off to a very inactive start. According to UFC Stats, Vargas attempted more than 100 strikes in the opening round, while Rong failed to attempt even half as many. As Rong looked to be more aggressive in the second round, he fell into a deep guillotine attempt that nearly ended the fight.
Vargas continued to show his mettle in the final round, although Rong’s power visibly affected him. He was staggered in the center of the Octagon by a long right hand, and spent most of the round keeping Rong at bay with his jab and footwork. Late in the fight, Rong showed his frustration by pointing to the ground and throwing a questionably late elbow.
It’s a big win for Vargas, who came into the bout with a 1-2 record in the UFC. Rong loses his UFC debut and suffers his first loss since 2018.
— Okamoto
Flyweight: Jeffrey Molina (9-2, 1-0 UFC) defeats Aori Qileng (15-7, 0-1 UFC) by unanimous decision
Qileng was absolutely relentless, pressing forward for the better of three rounds. But Molina showed that just because a fighter is moving ahead and pressuring does not mean he is winning the fight.
Molina was able to weather every Qileng storm en route to a unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-27) victory. Finally, in the third round, Qileng slowed down a bit and Molina capitalized with a barrage of hard punching combinations. Qileng got a second wind and rocked Molina at the end of the third, but the win was already wrapped up.
“He’s tough as nails,” Molina said in his postfight interview. “I felt like the jitters were real. But I got over them.”
Aoriqileng and @jmolina_125 just put on a show! 👏
Stream #UFC261 on ESPN+ ➡️ https://t.co/11j8ptNbRf pic.twitter.com/bhFrgtXMb2
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) April 24, 2021
It was an extremely entertaining fight. Molina and Qileng had big exchanges in the first round. In the second, Molina dropped Qileng twice with punches, one right at the end of the round. Qileng dropped Molina once in the second and once at the end of the third.
The third is when Molina fully took over. Molina countered Qileng punches as he was coming and finally slowed Qileng down, putting on the pace himself with big boxing combinations. Qileng ate all those shots and still managed to mount offense at the end of the round. But Molina did enough.
Molina, 23, has now won eight straight. This was his UFC debut. The Glory MMA product was coming off a win over Jacob Silva on Dana White’s Contender Series last August. Qileng, a 27-year-old Mongolia native, had a six-fight winning streak snapped. This was also his debut in the UFC.
— Raimondi
Strawweight: Ariane Carnelossi (13-2, 1-1 UFC) defeats Liang Na (9-5, 0-1 UFC) by second-round TKO
What a way to start the night. The fans who arrived early for the first fight card with a capacity crowd in over a year were treated to one of the greatest rounds in UFC history. It was back-and-forth danger for five minutes, starting with Liang getting a knockdown with her first punch — a right hand to the chin seconds into the fight — and then being dropped herself moments later during an exchange at center cage, with the still-sparse crowd roaring its approval.
From there, the fighters traded punches and grappling advantages for five high-gear minutes. Liang appeared a step ahead early on, seizing control on the canvas and landing damaging blows, but Carnelossi reversed position and went for an armbar, only to have Liang reverse back into control and into an armbar of her own.
What a first fight #UFC261 👏🏼👏🏼
— Amanda Nunes (@Amanda_Leoa) April 24, 2021
It was honestly tough to keep track of all the telling blows and positions. But the round ended with Carnelossi in side control, landing left hand after left hand, undefended. Referee James Folsom implored Liang to fight back. But then the horn sounded.
Liang just lay there until one of her cornermen came and got her, helping her to her stool. She looked finished. And she essentially was. Carnelossi took her to the canvas early in Round 2 and began landing blows again, which again were undefended. And Folsom stepped in at 1:28 to end it.
Carnelossi, who is 28 and from Brazil, got back on track after losing her UFC debut to Angela Hill in 2019, ending a 12-fight winning streak. Liang, a 24-year-old from China, saw a four-fight winning streak end in her UFC debut.
— Wagenheim
Still to come:
Welterweight title fight: Kamaru Usman (c) (18-1, 13-0 UFC, -450) vs. Jorge Masvidal (35-14, 12-7 UFC, +350)
Strawweight title fight: Zhang Weili (c) (21-1, 5-0 UFC, -200) vs. Rose Namajunas (10-4, 7-3 UFC, +170)
Women’s flyweight title fight: Valentina Shevchenko (c) (20-3, 9-2 UFC, -470) vs. Jessica Andrade (21-8, 12-6 UFC, +360)
Middleweight: Uriah Hall (17-9, 9-7 UFC, +105 ) vs. Chris Weidman (15-5, 11-5 UFC, -125)
Light heavyweight: Anthony Smith (34-16, 9-6 UFC, +170) vs. Jimmy Crute (12-1, 4-1 UFC, -200)