Nigeria-born Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight champion, Kamaru Usman’s upcoming title fight will highlight a night of top bouts and three belt deciders on the cards of the Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) body’s first event on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Megasportsarena.com gathered that Usman (16-1 MMA, 11-0 UFC) will defend his belt against Gilbert Burns (19-3 MMA, 12-3 UFC) in the main event of UFC 251, on July 11 in ‘Fight Island,’ the details of which were reeeld out by UFC boss, Dana White, as he made the announcement on ESPN’s “First Take.”
‘The Nigerian Nightmare,’ whose last competed at UFC 245, when he stopped Colby Covington late in Round 5 for his first title defense, was expected to face No. 1 contender, Jorge Masvidal, but the challenger recently had a rift with the sanctioning body over contract negotiations.
That opened the door for Burns, who has gone 4-0 since moving up to the 170 pounds category, most recently dominating former champ, Tyron Woodley at UFC on ESPN 9 on May 30, and he will now gun for the welterweight title, on the same night another champion, Alexander Volkanovski will tango Max Holloway for featherweight belt.
There will also be a clash between Jose Aldo and Petr Yan for the vacant bantamweight title, while Amanda Ribas battles Paige VanZant, Frankie Edgar faces Pedro Munhoz, Ciryl Gane up against Shamil Abdurakhimov and Volkan Oezdemir takes on Jiri Prochazka, with Usman versus Burns tagged the marquee fight of the night.
However, an outspoken rival, Nate Diaz tore into the UFC welterweight champion for accepting to fight a ‘lightweight’ opponent at UFC 251 on ‘Fight Island,’ as he says the matchup is already a no-contest, and took to twitter to express his disgust.
Usman was expected to fight Masvidal, who beat Diaz last year to win the BMF belt, but talks broke down and led to Gamebred publicly criticising the UFC and White, which paved the way for Burns, who is the number one contender on the UFC rankings .
Masvidal is down at number three, but his rivalry with Usman meant a fight between the pair would be potentially ally explosive and was much anticipated by Diaz, who has not been at the top of the rankings for long but the Brazilian is on a six-fight win streak and beat Demian Maia and Tyron Woodley in his last two contests, all of who he is rating higher than Burns.
Diaz wrote on social media: “This is what’s wrong with people claiming they’re fighters settling for less cause they know they’re not worth shit you should’ve fought the next guy in line not the guy who would take less cause he’s told too they’s why no one will remember you guys. This isn’t a title fight.”
