After stops in Jacksonville and Las Vegas, UFC took up residency on Fight Island in Abu Dahbi. UFC 251 serving as the inaugural event. The card culminated with Kamaru Usman defeating Jorge Masvidal by decision.
Now, to be fair to Masvidal, he did take the fight on only six days notice. Further he had to drop a considerable amount of weight to qualify. Notwithstanding those issues, he demonstrated flashes of his own dominance against Kamaru Usman. The first round in particular with both fighters landing their own respective blows in the stand up game.
However, Usman proved to be too much for Masvidal. He demonstrated an improved fight game. Ducking many of Masvidal’s early overhand punches and countering with either body punches of his own, or dipping low to demonstrate his wrestling skills and get a takedown. Usman wracked up five takedowns in total. As the fight wore on Masvidal appeared to tire with the sum total of Usman’s efforts proving too much for Masvidal.
What’s next for Kamaru Usman – that is not definitively known, but the future looks rather bright. In the meantime, peep the highlights here.