UFC 251 brought too much fun, with three title matches, which highlighted the show. The most important one was between Kamaru Usman and Jorge Masvidal, with the champ defending his title.
Usman Confident Against Unprepared Masvidal
A six-day notice was too big of a handicap for the Gamebred, whose lack of stamina proved to be critical for this battle. As time went by, Usman would get more and more advantage because of his full training camp, but even with all this, the champ couldn’t finish the fight before the final bell.
He would win via unanimous decision, after dictating the tempo and the pace, during the whole event. Kamaru wasn’t specifically attractive or anything; neither did he ent some spectacular hits towards the opponent.
The Nigerian Nightmare was looking for a clinch pushing Masvidal back to the fence, and trying to work something from the inside. He also had a couple of takedowns, but neither of them ended with some notable ground-and-pound combinations.
All of his attacks were rebuffed by Masvidal, who occasionally absorbed some hit, but also, we need to say that apart from the first round, he didn’t endanger Usman in any way, unlike otherwise.
Overall this fight was a bit boring for the fans who had big expectations from it, and eventually, they saw too little.
For Usman, this is his 19th straight fight, 12th in the UFC, where he holds a perfect record. Along with Khabib Nurmagomedov, he has the longest winning streak at the moment in the organization, and apparently, he is ready to extend it.
The next person in his way would be Gilbert Burns, and Dana White confirmed that on multiple occasions. The Brazilian is still the No.1 contender and will get his chance to fight for the title. Durinho has six straight wins, among them the most recent against the former champion Tyron “TheChosen One” Woodley. It was a one-sided beating from which Burns came out as a winner and deserved a title shot.
Yan Trashes Aldo, Volksnovski’s Questionable Win vs. Holloway
Petr Yan became the bantamweight champion, following a victory over the veteran Jose Aldo. The Russian was beating Aldo throughout the entire fight, that is as time went by he would increase the amount of pain handed to the King of Rio as the fans call him.
Eventually, he smashed the rival with 3:24 into the last round, with the referee having to step in. According to many reactions from the MMA community, and Dana White himself, this fight should have stopped earlier, because Aldo couldn’t defend himself.
On the other side, the referees decided to give the win to Alexander Volkanovski in its rematch against Max Holloway. The Aussie kept his belt in a highly controversial way, after winning via split decision.
Virtually nobody who watched the fight gave any advantage to the champ, who was outplayed in the first three rounds, twice wobbling and trying not to get down.
He would bounce back later but not in the measure, which would see coming out as the winner according to a vast majority of the experts and MMA legends. However, the bottom line is that he retained his belt, and that he awaits another challenger in the future.
