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UFC 251: Usman vs. Masvidal (7/11/2020) - Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UFC Fight Island)


Elsalvajeloco

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UFC 251: Usman vs. Masvidal 
July 11, 2020
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UFC Fight Island)

UFC Welterweight Championship: Kamaru Usman © (170) vs. Jorge Masvidal (170) (second defense) - Usman, DEC (unanimous)
UFC Featherweight Championship: Alexander Volkanovski © (145) vs. Max Holloway (145) (first defense) - Volkanovski, DEC (split)
UFC Bantamweight Championship: Petr Yan (135) vs. José Aldo (135) (vacant) - Yan, TKO (punches), R5 (3:24)
Jéssica Andrade (115) vs. Rose Namajunas (116) - Namajunas, DEC (split)
Amanda Ribas (126) vs. Paige VanZant (126) - Ribas, SUB (armbar), R1 (2:21)

ESPN/ESPN+ Preliminary Card:
Volkan Oezdemir (205.5) vs. Jiří Procházka (205) - Procházka, KO (punch), R2 (0:49)
Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos (171) vs. Muslim Salikhov (171) - Salikhov, DEC (split)
Makwan Amirkhani (146) vs. Danny Henry (146) - Amirkhani, SUB (anaconda choke), R1 (3:15)
Leonardo Santos (156) vs. Roman Bogatov (155.5) - Santos, DEC (unanimous)

ESPN/ESPN+/Fight Pass Preliminary Card:
Marcin Tybura (252) vs. Maxim Grishin (223) - Tybura, DEC (unanimous)
Raulian Paiva (129)** vs. Zhalgas Zhumagulov (126) - Paiva, DEC (unanimous)  
Karol Rosa (136) vs. Vanessa Melo (141)* - Rosa, DEC (unanimous)
Martin Day (136) vs. Davey Grant (136) - Grant, KO (punch), R3 (2:38)

*Forfeits 30% of purse for missing weight
**Forfeits 20% of purse for missing weight

Event Bonuses ($50,000)
Performance of the Night: Davey Grant
Performance of the NightJiří Procházka
Fight of the Night: Jéssica Andrade vs. Rose Namajunas

Buyrate: 1.3 million
 

Edited by Elsalvajeloco
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10 minutes ago, TheVileOne said:

So the UFC walks away from one of the fights they wanted originally, Masvidal vs. Usman, because Masvidal was asking for too much money. Instead they book Usman against a surging Burns because Burns is a lot cheaper and he's ready to take the fight. Burns falls out of the fight after testing for COVID-19. 

So they end up going back to the negotiating table and give Masvidal almost everything he wanted in the first place which was too much for UFC. Now, they end up booking the fight they should've put together that everyone wanted to see in the first place, except now it's on a few days' notice after they've been promoting an Usman/Burns fight for UFC 251. Instead of giving Masvidal what he wanted before so it's done and they can start pushing the Usman/Masvidal title fight and both men have more time to actually prepare for the biggest fight of their careers. But for whatever reason, UFC only wants to open up the pocketbooks when it's crunch time and they are left scrambling because of last minute craziness. Why is paying a fighter what they think their worth only tenable when you have to fix a big main event at the last minute?

I wonder if someone else said something like that...Hmmm ?

On 6/7/2020 at 11:51 PM, Elsalvajeloco said:

However, the break even for ESPN on these PPVs is around 234k per PPV. If you lose all your stars (and they didn't have many to begin with), they're not reaching that mark. So when this current TV/PPV distribution deal is up, are they just gonna float by on how much they got on this deal? Cause they have a sizeable debt that needs to be serviced. Plus, they gain from being a hot commodity. You're not getting that from Nunes vs. Spencer or Volkanovski vs. Holloway II or Usman vs. Gilbert Burns. If they didn't need to be one, they would not have made the move to get McGregor back or Nate Diaz back. Yes, Dana can pump fake and say everyone can stay at home. However, they have a relationship with ESPN to maintain. If they want it to stay healthy (since ESPN relies on the health of the UFC for their OTT service and linear channels), they need to put on big fights. 

 

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Still not sure why the UFC needed this whole song and dance with Burns vs. Usman just to get back to Masvidal vs. Usman. But whatever. Good on Masvidal. Hopefully, he got the payday he wanted. It sounds like he did. 

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5 minutes ago, TheVileOne said:

Still not sure why the UFC needed this whole song and dance with Burns vs. Usman just to get back to Masvidal vs. Usman. But whatever. Good on Masvidal. Hopefully, he got the payday he wanted. It sounds like he did. 

I dunno why you're confused, VileOne. I was agreeing with you for once out of like a thousand plus posts you've had here.

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  • jaedmc pinned this topic

It's fucking bananas when you down the card. You see three title fights and it's like "this is too much."

Then the next names you see are Adrade and Thug Rose.

Saturday night is too far away for me right now.

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Leonardo Santos has been in the UFC since 2013 (technically November 2012 cause that's when TUF Brazil 2 started filming). He is 6-0-1.

To put this in simpler terms, Kay Hansen and Chase Hooper were both 13, Maycee Barber was 14, and Edmen Shahbazyan was 15 when Leo Santos started in the UFC. He flying armbared GSP in 2005(!). All four might lap him individually in total number of UFC fights in 2 more years. Talk about snakebit.

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@AxB: Is this on at the usual time UFC PPV main cards are over here or is it on at a more suitable time? Thanks. I vaguely remember the main event on these shows happening once at 9pm UK time. Either way if it's the usual 3am-6am main card job, this is one I'll wake up for. 

I'm looking forward to this show. The main event is very intriguing with Jorge Masvidal stepping up on short notice to fight Kamaru Usman for the UFC Welterweight Championship. Kudos to both. Be interesting to see if Max Holloway can do anything different in his rematch for now Alexander Volkanovski's UFC Featherweight Championship. I don't envy Jose Aldo making the 135lb UFC Bantamweight Championship and if he does having to make it again as champion. We all scratched our heads when he announced he was dropping down a weight class than going up. I expect Thug Rose to extract revenge on Jéssica Andrade, she was on top the whole fight until getting dropped on her dome for Andrade to take Namajunas' UFC Strawweight Championship.

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2 hours ago, The Natural said:

@AxB: Is this on at the usual time UFC PPV main cards are over here or is it on at a more suitable time? Thanks. I vaguely remember the main event on these shows happening once at 9pm UK time. Either way if it's the usual 3am-6am main card job, this is one I'll wake up for. 

I'm looking forward to this show. The main event is very intriguing with Jorge Masvidal stepping up on short notice to fight Kamaru Usman for the UFC Welterweight Championship. Kudos to both. Be interesting to see if Max Holloway can do anything different in his rematch for now Alexander Volkanovski's UFC Featherweight Championship. I don't envy Jose Aldo making the 135lb UFC Bantamweight Championship and if he does having to make it again as champion. We all scratched our heads when he announced he was dropping down a weight class than going up. I expect Thug Rose to extract revenge on Jéssica Andrade, she was on top the whole fight until getting dropped on her dome for Andrade to take Namajunas' UFC Strawweight Championship.

Prelims 1AM-3AM, Main Show 3AM-6AM (probably going longer). So it's starting at 7AM local time (prelims at 5AM).

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If it really was an outdoor show, we'd be able to watch the sun rise during the fights. Only it probably isn't, because the sun would then be low in the sky for the main card fights which would give a big advantage to whoever had their back to it.

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I think the problem with the outdoor thing is it's getting up to 105°F (between 40-41 Celsius) in Abu Dhabi. The low is around 90-92°F at night with high humidity. Hopefully, they don't want anyone to die from heatstroke.

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That's two major ATT coaches coming down with COVID-19. The other is Marcos da Matta aka Parrumpinha, who has been the lead BJJ instructor at ATT and a staple in corners for several years now.

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7 minutes ago, jaedmc said:

Time to make a call and see if Latory Gonzalez is available.

Hopefully, they don't have to resort to that. ?

Thankfully, American Top Team has the deepest bullpen in MMA because they still have Dyah Davis (the late Howard Davis Jr.'s son) for boxing, Katel Kubis for kickboxing, and Conan Silveira for everything in between. Even though Din Thomas left, Thiago Alves is a coach there now it looks like. However, being in Florida, it's evident they probably should have stayed resolute and kept the gym closed.

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I hope Mike Brown will be OK. Best wishes and get well soon.

As much as I respect these guys for going forward with their fights, it's still very very scary with the pandemic present.

EDIT:

While it's not outdoors, the Octagon setup for Fight Island does look interesting.

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Edited by TheVileOne
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Not showing up, dawg.

How in the fuck is Masvidal dunking a pizza days out from a fight he just signed for? It is for the title at 170 and not some catchweight fight, right? Aren't dudes usually sticking to veggies and chicken breasts if they're lucky?

Image

Dude is trying with that look. I love it.

Edited by Oyaji
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If Jorge Masvidal wins the UFC Welterweight Championship on less than a week notice, has anybody else done that in the UFC? I can't think of anybody. I know Michael Bisping used Left Hook Larry to take Luke Rockhold's UFC Middleweight Championship on 17 days only in March 2016.

Edited by The Natural
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7 hours ago, TheVileOne said:

I hope Mike Brown will be OK. Best wishes and get well soon.

As much as I respect these guys for going forward with their fights, it's still very very scary with the pandemic present.

EDIT:

While it's not outdoors, the Octagon setup for Fight Island does look interesting.

0?ui=2&ik=6e2d37951e&attid=0.0.3&permmsg

 

7 hours ago, Oyaji said:

Not showing up, dawg.

How in the fuck is Masvidal dunking a pizza days out from a fight he just signed for? It is for the title at 170 and not some catchweight fight, right? Aren't dudes usually sticking to veggies and chicken breasts if they're lucky?

Image

Dude is trying with that look. I love it.

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Holy shit, what a stacked card!  I am not sure what I am more giddy about:  Usman defending against Masvidal or Jose mother fucking Aldo once again competing for a title even thought I think that Petr Yan will probably kill him.

Thug vs. Andrade is a war on paper so I hope it holds up in the real.

I hope Kamaru doesn't destroy himself trying to murder Masvidal, because I really want to see him defend against Burns.

Edited by J.T.
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