The UFC landed on Fight Island on Saturday with UFC 251. Going down on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, the stacked card featured three title fights. In the main event, Jorge Masvidal had came in on one week’s notice, after Gilbert Burns was removed from the card due to testing positive for the coronavirus, but was unable to dethrone Kamaru Usman. After five rounds, ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ was awarded the win via unanimous decision.
In the UFC 251 co-main event, Alex Volkanovski also defended his title. After winning the title against Max Holloway at the end of last year at UFC 245, the Australian again won via decision, this time by split decision.
In the third title fight of the card, Petr Yan secured the vacant bantamweight title by defeating the former featherweight champion, Jose Aldo. The Russian turned up the heat in the third round and after some brutal ground and pound, the referee finally stepped in and stopped the fight.
Elsewhere on the UFC 251 card, Rose Namajunas avenged her loss last year to Jessica Andrade by beating the Brazilian via split decision; and Amanda Ribas needed less than three minutes to submit Paige VanZant.
Official Results from UFC 251:
Main Card:
Kamaru Usman defeats Jorge Masvidal via unanimous decision (50-45 x2, 49-46) to defend his welterweight title
Alexander Volkanovski defeats Max Holloway via split decision (48-47, 47-48, 48-47) to defend his featherweight title
Petr Yan defeats Jose Aldo via fifth round TKO (3:24) to win the vacant bantamweight title
Rose Namajunas defeats Jessica Andrade via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Amanda Ribas defeats Paige VanZant via first round armbar submission (2:21)
Prelims:
Jiri Prochazka defeats Volkan Oezdemir via second round KO (0:49)
Muslim Salikhov defeats Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos via split decision (30-27, 28-29, 29-28)
Makwan Amirkhani defeats Danny Henry via first round anaconda submission (3:15)
Leonardo Santos defeats Roman Bogatov via unanimous decision (29-26 x3)
Early Prelims:
Marcin Tybura defeats Maxim Grishin via unanimous decision (30-27 x2, 30-26)
Raulian Paiva defeats Zhalgas Zhumagulov via unanimous decision (29-28 x3)
Karol Rosa defeats Vanessa Melo via unanimous decision (30-26 x2, 30-27)
Davey Grant defeats Martin Day via third round KO (2:38)
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