‘Fight Island’ Kamaru Usman vs. Jorge Masvidal — UFC 251 live results, analysis

For the first time since 2007, the UFC will host its annual, marquee pay-per-view event for the month of July at a location other than Las Vegas as UFC 251 will be held Saturday on “Fight Island.” It will be the first of four consecutive cards on Abu Dhabi’s Yas Island.

The event features three title fights, including a main event welterweight matchup in which the challenger — Jorge Masvidal — accepted the fight on six days’ notice, and the champion — Kamaru Usman — was told to fly home just over a week ago, because his fight appeared to be off after Gilbert Burns tested positive for COVID-19.

The buildup to UFC 251, which will take place inside a “safe zone” amid the coronavirus pandemic, has been anything but conventional, but we’ve still arrived at arguably the best MMA card of the year.

In addition to Usman (16-1) vs. Masvidal (35-13), UFC 251 will see a featherweight title rematch between Alexander Volkanovski (21-1) and Max Holloway (21-5), and a bantamweight championship featuring Jose Aldo (28-6) and Petr Yan (14-1).

Another key bout features the return of Rose Namajunas, who faces Jessica Andrade in a rematch of their May 11, 2019 bout in which Namajunas lost her title via second-round KO. Andrade went on to lose the belt to Zhang Weili, and Saturday’s winner could be Weili’s next opponent.

Follow all the action here with live results, analysis and social media reaction from various fighters.

Fight lineup:

PPV (via ESPN+), 10 p.m. ET

Welterweight championship: Kamaru Usman (c) (16-1, 11-0 UFC, -230) vs. Jorge Masvidal (35-13, 12-6 UFC, +190)
Men’s featherweight championship: Alexander Volkanovski (c) (21-1, 8-0 UFC, -220) vs. Max Holloway (21-5, 17-5 UFC, +185)
Men’s bantamweight championship: Petr Yan (14-1, 6-0 UFC, -240) vs. Jose Aldo (28-6, 10-5 UFC, +200)
Strawweight: Jessica Andrade (20-7, 11-5 UFC, +175) vs. Rose Namajunas (9-4, 6-3 UFC, -200)
Women’s flyweight: Amanda Ribas (9-1, 3-0 UFC, -750) vs. Paige VanZant (8-4, 5-3 UFC, +525)

Prelims, ESPN/ESPN+, 6 p.m. ET

Light heavyweight: Volkan Oezdemir (17-4, 5-3 UFC, -160) vs. Jiri Prochazka (26-3-1, 0-0 UFC, +140)
Welterweight: Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos (22-6, 8-2 UFC, +120) vs. Muslim Salikhov (16-2, 3-1 UFC, -140)
Men’s featherweight: Makwan Amirkhani (15-4, 5-2 UFC, -200) vs. Danny Henry (12-3, 2-1 UFC, +175)
Lightweight: Leonardo Santos (17-4-1, 6-0-1 UFC, -165) vs. Roman Bogatov (10-0, 0-0 UFC, +145)
Heavyweight: Marcin Tybura (18-6, 5-5 UFC, -110) vs. Maxim Grishin (30-7-2, 0-0 UFC, -110)
Men’s flyweight: Raulian Paiva (19-3, 1-2 UFC, -170) vs. Zhalgas Zhamagulov (13-3, 0-0 UFC, +150)
Women’s bantamweight: Karol Rosa (12-3, 1-0 UFC, -240) vs. Vanessa Melo (10-7, 0-2 UFC, +200)
Men’s bantamweight: Davey Grant (11-4, 2-3 UFC, +140) vs. Martin Day (8-3, 0-1 UFC, -160)
(c) = defending champion