Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream UFC 251 live on
your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the
ESPN app.
The
Ultimate Fighting Championship kicks off its “Fight Island”
series of events with a pay-per-view offering featuring three title
fights, which are all now official.
Headlining the card is the welterweight title grudge match between
Kamaru
Usman and Jorge
Masvidal. Two other titles are on the line as Alexander
Volkanovski will look to defend his featherweight belt against
Max
Holloway, and Petr Yan faces
Jose
Aldo in a fight that will crown a new bantamweight champion
after Henry
Cejudo retired.
While Usman started his mixed martial arts career a pedestrian 1-1,
“The Nigerian Nightmare” has won 15 straight fights since then. He
upset Tyron
Woodley last year to win the belt and followed it up with a
“Fight of the Year” contender against Colby
Covington. He’ll now look to make another successful title
defense against a fighter he’s had a war of words with. The
champion had little issue making weight and came in at 170
pounds.
While he took the fight on just a week’s notice, this will be
nothing new for Masvidal (35-13), who is always willing to scrap
whether backstage or in a backyard in Miami. “Gamebred” lives up to
his nickname in every way and is on the best streak of his career
having picked up knockout wins over Darren Till,
Ben
Askren and Nate Diaz.
He’ll look to add UFC champion to his impressive list of
accomplishments. Despite the short notice, Masvidal looked good on
the scales and weighed 170 pounds.
Although 13 fights in total are now official after the weigh-ins
took place, Raulian
Paiva (129)* and Vanessa
Melo (141)** both badly missed weight. Paiva came in three
pounds over the flyweight limit and was fined 20 percent of his
purse, while Melo tipped the scales five pounds above the
bantamweight limit and has surrendered 30 percent of her purse.
UFC 251’s main card will air live on pay-per-view beginning at 10
p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT, while preliminary action will be on ESPN and
ESPN+ starting at 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT. The first two hours of
prelims will also air live on UFC Fight Pass.
UFC 251 Weigh-in Results:
Kamaru
Usman (170) vs. Jorge
Masvidal (170)
Alexander
Volkanovski (145) vs. Max
Holloway (145)
Petr
Yan (135) vs. Jose Aldo
(135)
Jessica
Andrade (115) vs. Rose
Namajunas (116)
Volkan
Oezdemir (205.5) vs. Jiri
Prochazka (205)
Paige
VanZant (126) vs. Amanda
Ribas (126)
Elizeu
Zaleski dos Santos (171) vs. Muslim
Salikhov (171)
Makwan
Amirkhani (146) vs. Danny Henry
(146)
Leonardo
Santos (156) vs. Roman
Bogatov (155.5)
Marcin
Tybura (252) vs. Maxim
Grishin (223)
Zhalgas
Zhumagulov (126) vs. Raulian
Paiva (129)*
Karol
Rosa (136) vs. Vanessa
Melo (141)**
Martin
Day (136) vs. Davey Grant
(136)
* Paiva missed weight by three pounds and has been fined 20
percent of his purse.
** Melo missed weight by five pounds and has been fined 30
percent of her purse.