It’s a little ironic that the one time the UFC can’t do an “International Fight Week,” the promotion’s annual blowout July card is as international as it’s ever been.
The worldwide coronavirus pandemic caused UFC 251 to get moved to “Fight Island,” a.k.a. Yas Island, Abu Dhabi. There, Saturday night’s card will be topped with three title fights featuring competitors with roots in locations as disparate as the mainland U.S., Nigeria, Hawaii, Australia, Russia and Brazil.
With Jorge Masvidal replacing Gilbert Burns on short notice in the welterweight title main event against champion Kamaru Usman, Alexander Volkanovski defending the featherweight belt against the man from whom he took the belt, Max Holloway, and Petr Yan challenging former longtime featherweight kingpin Jose Aldofor the vacant bantamweight belt, there are no lack of storylines heading into the grand opening of the UFC’s July run of shows in the Middle East.
The UFC 251 main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and ESPN+.
Without further ado, then, here are six burning questions heading into UFC 251.
Is this Jorge Masvidal’s moment of truth?
UFC 251 got an undeniable boost when Masvidal (35-13 MMA, 12-6 UFC) stepped in on a week’s notice to fight Usman (16-1 MMA, 11-0 UFC).
Masvidal is by far the biggest name associated with this show, the sort who will bring viewers who might have previously been on the fence about buying the show into the fold.
If you look at this one way, you can paint this as the ultimate win-win situation for Masvidal: “Gamebred” says he got close to the money had asked for during his recent holdout in order to take this fight. He gets the title shot which has eluded him in his long career and the opportunity to take things to yet another level. And if he loses? Well, he was the guy who was willing to fly to the Middle East on short notice to save a show and take on an enormous challenge. Who would hold that against Masvidal?
But it’s not quite that simple. The stakes are, in fact, enormous. Masvidal has fought for 17 years and 48 official fights (and that’s not counting his Miami backyard roots) to get himself into this position. He has to fight an absolute killer in Usman, and no matter how his team tries to spin it, he obviously hasn’t had a full training camp. If he wins, his ascension to superstardom is complete. If he falters, he falls back into the pack at age 35.
But then, fortune favors the bold, and that’s exactly what makes this a can’t-miss fight.
Will Kamaru Usman finally break through with the masses?
In another day, Usman’s story would have made him a superstar: A humble immigrant who came to America, worked hard, and achieved his dreams.
But we live in an age of endless bullsh*t and bombast, so a fighter who grinds his way to the top in a no-nonsense manner and doesn’t do much in the way of trash talk doesn’t get the attention than, say, a less talented fighter who punches out old men at restaurants receives.
Conventional wisdom has it that UFC 251 became a much bigger deal when Burns had to drop out and Masvidal took his place. Now it’s on Usman to seize the day. He’s fought 11 times in the UFC and won all 11. Not even a conclusive win over Colby Covington got him into the superstar echelon. An exciting win over one of the sport’s hottest fighters could be what it takes to finally put the champ over the top as an A-level draw.
Can Max Holloway avoid the immediate title rematch curse?
Stop if you’ve heard this one before: The UFC is going straight to the title rematch well.
This hasn’t worked out so much for the company in recent years. Cody Garbrandt got knocked out by T.J. Dillashaw to win the bantamweight title, lost worse than the first when they went right back to a rematch, then got knocked out by Pedro Munhoz, not usually considered a KO threat, before he finally got back into the win column last month.
Joanna Jedrzejczyk was brutally finished by Rose Namajunas to lose the strawweight belt, got an immediate rematch, and lost a decision. Circumstances have been kinder to JJ than Garbrandt, as she’s managed two more title shots, but either way, a fighter who once looked invincible is still 2-4 in her past six.
Now, the UFC is running with a rematch between new featherweight titleholder Volkanovski (21-1 MMA, 8-0 UFC) and former champion Holloway (21-5 MMA, 17-5 UFC). Volkanovski took a convincing decision at UFC 245 to take the belt. The five-round loss came just eight months after Holloway took a 25-minute beating from Dustin Poirier, when he attempted to go up to lightweight and fight for an interim belt.
Maybe I’m wrong here, and Holloway regains the title, leading to a classic trilogy. Holloway’s spirit is certainly willing. But you look back at where Garbrandt and Jedrzejczyk were before they both got back-to-back title shots and where they are now, and can’t help but wonder if “Blessed” ends up in the same boat.
Can Jose Aldo pull off an epic upset?
On paper, Aldo (28-6 MMA, 10-5 UFC) getting a shot at the bantamweight title at this stage of the game seems more a lifetime achievement award than a statement of his actual place at 135 pounds.
The former longtime featherweight king has fought exactly once in the UFC bantamweight division, losing a close call to Marlon Moraes at UFC 245. He’s lost two straight, four of six, and five of eight dating back to his memorable knockout loss to Conor McGregor in 2015.
But then, McGregor fight aside, Aldo hasn’t been getting blown out of fights. Many thought he beat Moraes, and he’s still shown flashes of his former greatness, like his tremendous comeback win over Jeremy Stephens in 2018.
Does Aldo have enough left to take out Yan 14-1 MMA, 6-0 UFC), a merciless killer who seems to have the aura of the next great one in the division? We’ll find out.
Was the first Jessica Andrade-Rose Namajunas fight a fluke or nah?
For the better part of a round and a half, Rose Namajunas was in full control of her UFC 237 strawweight title defense against Jessica Andrade. Then, in the blink of an eye, Andrade (20-7 MMA, 11-5 UFC) slammed Namajunas (8-4 MMA, 6-3 UFC) onto the mat on her neck and shoulders, a knockout slam which doubled as one of the sport’s all-time scary moments before it became clear Namajunas was going to be all right.
The notion Andrade’s title win in May 2019 was something of a fluke didn’t lose any steam after Andrade then went out three months later and lost the title to Zhang Weili in just 41 seconds.
Now, the duo finally rematch after various fits and starts. Was the first fight, to paraphrase the late Dennis Green, what we thought it was? And a couple related side questions: Is Namajunas, the wonderfully talented competitor who has always been forthright about her misgivings about the business, ever going to be the same after such a loss? Or is Andrade the world-class competitor she’s never quite gotten the recognition for in spite of a title reign? This fight should serve as a referendum on both.
Will Paige VanZant’s bout mark the end of an era?
Remember the “Sage and Paige Show?” That was the unofficial nickname for the Dec. 10, 2015 event in Las Vegas which featured two untested fighters thought to be destined for superstardom based as much on perceived marketability as for fighting skills, themselves.
Paige VanZant and Sage Northcutt were featured on that event. Since then? Well, Northcutt, now 24, is currently in ONE Championship. PVZ, meanwhile, lost to Namajunas in that evening’s main event.
That kicked off a stretch in which she’s gone 2-3 over a span of nearly five years, and she’s coming up on the final fight of her UFC contract. The 26-year-old VanZant (8-4 MMA, 5-3 UFC) has proven herself plenty tough, win or lose, against top-level competition, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise she’s taking on another tough out in up-and-coming star Amanda Ribas (9-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC) .
That market is far removed from where it was for untested fighters with upside five years ago, and unless PVZ puts on a spectacular show, this fight could mark the final chapter of an era in which the company got a little too excited about a pair of potential stars and pushed them a little too fast.
