The following event took place on this day one year ago. The article is presented to you in its original, unaltered form, courtesy of The MMA News Archives.
On This Day In MMA History One Year Ago…
Kamaru Usman vs. Gilbert Burns exceeded expectations.
The two fighters met in a welterweight title bout on Saturday night (February 13, 2021) at the UFC 258 pay-per-view event from Las Vegas, Nevada at the UFC Apex facility.
It was a chaotic start as Burns stunned him within 30 seconds in the first round and got Usman on wobbly legs. However, his momentum was halted as he threw a head kick and fell to the ground. Burns wasn’t letting Usman get comfortable as he was always moving forward. Usman used his jabs nicely though and mixed things up with leg kicks.
Usman stunned him with a right hand then unloaded on him. Usman later dropped him with a jab in the second round. The start of the third round saw Usman drop him with a right hand then followed up on the ground with strikes.
Peep the highlights of the fight courtesy of the UFC’s official Twitter account:
MY GOODNESS! The champ smells blood in the water
#UFC258 pic.twitter.com/POk5EsdvND
— UFC (@ufc) February 14, 2021
"PUT SOME RESPECT ON MY NAME!"
You heard @USMAN84kg
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) February 14, 2021
Win or lose, the chase for the belt means everything
— UFC (@ufc) February 14, 2021
In his previous fight, Usman got a decision win over Jorge Masvidal at UFC 251 pay-per-view event from Abu Dhabi’s Yas Island aka Fight Island. Usman beat Colby Covington by TKO at UFC 245 in his first title defense. Usman captured the title from Tyron Woodley when he scored a dominant unanimous win in the co-headliner of the UFC 235 on Saturday, March 2, 2019, at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was on a 14-fight winning streak heading into this fight with 10 of those wins coming under the UFC banner.
For Burns, he was coming off a decision win over Tyron Woodley in May 2020. Before that, he got a TKO win over Demian Maia and a decision win over Gunnar Nelson at UFC Copenhagen. This all came after he moved up from lightweight to defeat Alexey Kunchenko in his welterweight debut. In all, he was on a six-fight winning streak.
UFC 258 Results: Kamaru Usman vs. Gilbert Burns, Maycee Barber vs. Alexa Grasso
MMA News is providing ongoing coverage of UFC 258. We’ve got you covered with live results, video highlights, and post-fight tidbits.
Continue Reading (Archives) UFC 258 Highlights: Usman Smashes Burns (2021) at MMA News.