UFC 251 official fight poster revealed
The official fight poster for the stacked UFC 251 card, scheduled for July 11 on Fight Island, has been released by the promotion.
See it below:
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Now boarding for #UFCFightIsland ✈️ Your OFFICIAL #UFC251 poster has just dropped. #InAbuDhabi
UFC 251 will be topped by a trio of compelling title fights.
In the main event, UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman will look to defend his title for the second time against streaking contender Gilbert Burns. Usman won the title with a decision win over Tyron Woodley in early 2019, and made his first defense with a TKO win over Colby Covington later that year. Burns, meanwhile, has gone an impressive 4-0 since moving from lightweight to welterweight, defeating Alexey Kunchenko, Gunnar Nelson, Demian Maia, and most recently, the former champ Tyron Woodley.
The UFC 251 co-main event will see reigning UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski look to defend his belt against the man he won it from: Hawaii’s Max Holloway. The pair first fought back in December, with Volkanovski winning a clear-decision. This time around, he’s vowing to finish his rival.
“This is a rematch and I’ve got something to prove right now, this is bigger than just a win,” Volkanovski told ESPN ahead of UFC 251. “I don’t want to go out there and just beat him, I’ve already done that. I dominated him for five rounds last time, but they give him a rematch anyway.
“People quickly forget how I did it, there were biased opinions and commentary, everything. So I’m a little bit annoyed, I feel disrespected. I’ve got something to prove this time, I’ll put him away inside the five [rounds] this time. I guarantee you that. I’m sending a message.”
The third title fight on the UFC 251 bill will occur at bantamweight, where Petr Yan and Jose Aldo will battle for the throne left vacant when Henry Cejudo retired. Yan will enter the fight with a big win over Urijah Faber behind him, while Aldo, the former featherweight champ, will look to rebound with a close decision loss to Marlon Moraes in his bantamweight debut.
Other highlights of the UFC 251 bill include a strawweight fight between former champions Rose Namajunas and Jessica Andrade, and a flyweight contest between Paige VanZant and Amanda Ribas.
See the full lineup below:
UFC 251 – July 11
Main Card | 10:00pm ET on PPV
- Kamaru Usman vs. Gilbert Burns – welterweight title fight
- Alexander Volkanovski vs. Max Holloway – featherweight title fight
- Petr Yan vs. Jose Aldo – vacant bantamweight title fight
- Jessica Andrade vs. Rose Namajunas
- Amanda Ribas vs. Paige VanZant
Preliminary Card | 8:00 pm ET on ESPN/ESPN+
- Volkan Oezdemir vs. Jiri Prochazka
- Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos vs. Muslim Salikhov
- Makwan Amirkhani vs. Danny Henry
- Leonardo Santos vs. Roman Bogatov
Early Prelims | 6 p.m. ET, ESPN/ESPN+
- Marcin Tybura vs. Alexander Romanov
- Raulian Paiva vs. Zhalgas Zhumagulov
- Karol Rosa vs. Vanessa Melo
- Martin Day vs. Davey Grant
Fight Island, the host of the UFC 251 card, is none other than Yas Island in Abu Dhabi. The UFC has promoted two events on the island previously.
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