Author: admin

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC

A new bantamweight champion has been crowned at UFC 251, after Petr Yan defeated Jose Aldo by fifth-round TKO.

Petr Yan is the new UFC bantamweight champion after defeating Jose Aldo by fifth-round TKO at UFC 251.

What was the high point of the fight?

Yan landed a solid right hand that stunned Aldo briefly but the Brazilian recovered well. Aldo looked sharp on the feet going back to his vintage leg kicks, one of which took Yan off of his feet. Yan landed some heavy ground and pound at the end of the first round.

Both men were matching each other’s output on the feet after three rounds, as Aldo landed leg kicks Yan continued to fire back with heavy punches of his own. Yan had Aldo hurt at the end of the fourth and the start of the fifth round. After lots of unanswered ground and pound from Yan, the fight was stopped midway through the fifth round.

Where do they go from here?

It’s a huge feat for Yan picking up a win against the veteran Aldo. The only fight that makes sense for Yan’s first title defence is a bout with Aljamain Sterling, who has won his five fights.

For the first time in his MMA career, Aldo has now lost three consecutive fights. It’s a disappointing loss for the Brazilian, but his next opponent depends on whether he stays at 135-pounds or goes back up to featherweight.

Watch it now, later or never?

It was a great title fight with lots of action from both fighters, watch it now.

YouTube – UFC

Jorge Masvidal may be defeated, but he’s already planning to rise back up the ranks and beat Usman for the title in the future.

UFC 251 went down on Saturday night from Fight Island, aka Yas Island in Abu Dhabi. Headlining the card was a welterweight title fight between champion Kamaru Usman and Jorge Masvidal, a highly hyped fight that played out a bit anticlimactically with Usman controlling Masvidal up against the cage, forcing the striker to spend his time and energy fighting off endless takedowns. And while for the most part Masvidal managed to stay upright he never got the space to get rolling with his striking.

At the end of 25 minutes the judges gave the fight to Usman 50-45, 50-45, and 49-46 (watch the highlights here).

“I hate coming up short,” a disappointed Masvidal said at the post-event press conference. “I’m not going to make no excuses, he was the better man tonight. There was some areas where I didn’t give him enough credit, and some areas where I felt with a better training camp I could definitely surpass him. I think I showed a lot of my wrestling. On six days notice, that I’m not to easy to take down or hold down on the ground.”

“I made a lot of mistakes, I tried to fight in spots. I felt like my gas tank wasn’t in the greatest place. And he fought in better spots, right when I’d get loose and start to open up he was able to clinch and take me back into his world. So I’m not going to take anything away from him. He won fair and square. I’ll do anything it takes to get back in front of that man and compete and get my hand raised.”

As for when we might see Masvidal back in the cage?

“Since I moved up to 170 I haven’t had to cut more than eight or nine pounds and it’s something that when I left 155 I told myself I wouldn’t be doing,” Masvidal said. “So for the next fight I’ll make sure I’m back on schedule, I got barely any weight to cut and I’ll be feeling great whoever the opponent is. I don’t know if I’ll be coming back at the end of the year or early next year. I’m going to sit down with my management and figure that out. But whoever it is next year I just want to come back and get a stoppage and be in peak shape, have a six pack when I get out there. Look right, you know?”

“Right now I’m just very butthurt. I want to do some sprints, I want to hit a punching bag, I want to get on a treadmill. I want to take out my frustrations. I want to elevate my cardio to a new level. I know I can do more. A lot of people make excuses for me, six days notice. But it’s no excuse. Once you sign that dotted line, well you shouldn’t have signed that dotted line if you weren’t in the best shape ever to compete for a world title. I just feel like that. I just feel that … I should have been in better overall shape. So it’s just a matter of time before I get back in there.”

As for who he might face next, Masvidal refused to give a name. But he did make it clear he had no interest in fighting former friend and training partner Colby Covington.

“The fragile guy with the MAGA hat? Definitely not him,” Masvidal said. “because he got finished by this guy with a full training camp. He had like twelve weeks and he got finished so I think that guy is below me by a lot. Six days notice and I was nowhere near getting hurt or getting put out. The gas tank wasn’t the best but I wasn’t going anywhere as far as damage goes, everybody could see that. So definitely not that punk. Leon Edwards? I dunno. If the numbers make sense, whoever it is, if the numbers make sense and it gets me closer to the title.”

With his first hand experience at UFC 251 and a full camp, Masvidal sounded convinced he could beat Usman if given another opportunity.

“I got a good formula in my head on how to beat him the next time,” he said. “I thought I had the formula, now I know the formula. It takes a lot of gas tank, a lot of conditioning, a lot of wrestling rounds with high level guys. So I definitely got a square root on how to beat this guy.”

June M. Williams

Zane Simon & Eddie Mercado are here to breakdown this Saturday’s, July, 11th., UFC 251 PPV event, from FIGHT ISLAND off Abu Dhabi. The guys will have hot takes, possible next fights, as well as reactions to the overall event. This event showcased a welterweight title fight between Kamaru Usman and Jorge Masvidal as well as Max Holloway vs. Alexander Volkanovski 2, and Petr Yan vs. Jose Aldo.

Zane Simon & Eddie Mercado are here to breakdown the UFC 251 PPV event, with hot takes, possible next fights, as well as reactions to the overall event in the player above or on our Bloody Elbow Presents YouTube Channel and BE Presents Podcast Network.

This Saturday’s, July 11th., UFC 251 PPV event, broadcast from the brand new facility on the infamous FIGHT ISLAND (Yas Island) off the coast of Abu Dhabi, showcased a spectacular card featuring three title fights this time out. In our featured Welterweight Championship brawl between the Current Best MMA Welterweight Fighter, Kamaru ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ Usman and The contender was our BMF Champion: Jorge ‘Gamebred’ Masvidal, entering the octagon on a three-fight win streak, having last defeated Nate Diaz in the main event at UFC 244 last November, fighting out of Miami, Florida, with a 35-13 fight record going up against Usman’s unprecedented seventeen-fight win streak, who last famously defeated Colby Covington at UFC 245 back in the main event in March of 2019, with a current 16-1 record.

Also on the card, we had a highly-anticipated Featherweight Championship scrap for our co-main event. It was a battle between the current #1 best MMA Featherweight Fighter, Alexander ‘The Great’ Volkanovski against the #2 best in Max ‘Blessed’ Holloway; the third title fight of the night was for the Vacant Bantamweight Championship and was booked with Petr Yan going up against José Aldo Junior. As if that’s not enough, we also had Jéssica ‘Bate Estaca’ Andrade go up against ‘Thug’ Rose Namajunas for our Fight of the Night – which was preceded by a fully packed undercard… rounding things out we were also treated to POTN efforts put forth by both Davey Grant and Ji?í Procházka. Overall, the card saw eight decisions, three KO/TKO’s and two Subs…. what a fun night of fights we have to discuss with you!

*Note: UFC 251 sets a new single-event UFC record for most fight time with 3:07:27. It passes UFC Fight Night: Werdum vs. Tybura (3:04:18).

Here’s a look at the UFC 251 RESULTS & new fight records:

UFC 251 PPV MAIN CARD | SAT. JULY 11 – 10PM/7PM ETPT

• Welterweight Title Bout – Kamaru Usman (17-1) DEF. Jorge Masvidal (35-14), DEC-Unanimous
• Featherweight Title Bout – Alexander Volkanovski (22-1) DEF. Max Holloway (21-6), DEC-Split
• Vacant Bantamweight Title Bout – Petr Yan (15-1) DEF. José Aldo (28-7), KO/TKO-G & P at 3:24 of Rd 5 of 5, Total 23:24
• 115lbs – Rose Namajunas (9-4) DEF. Jéssica Andrade (20-8), DEC-Split
• 125lbs – Amanda Ribas (10-1) DEF. Paige VanZant (8-5), SUB-Armbar at 2:21 of Rd 1

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Andrade vs. Namajunas 2
PERFORMANCES OF THE NIGHT: ($50K ea.) 1. Davey Grant 2. Ji?í Procházka

ESPN/ESPN+ PRELIMS | 8PM/5PM ETPT

• 205lbs – Ji?í Procházka (27-3) DEF. Volkan Oesdemir (17-5), KO/TKO-Right Cross at 0:49 of Rd 2, Total 5:49
• 170lbs – Muslim Salikhov (17-2) DEF. Elizeu Zaleski (22-7), DEC-Split
• 145lbs – Makwan Amirkhani (16-4) DEF. Danny Henry (12-4), SUB-Anaconda Choke at 3:15 of Rd 1
• 155lbs – Leonardo Santos (18-3) vs. Roman Bogatov (10-1), DEC-Unanimous

UFC FIGHT PASS/ESPN+ EARLY PRELIMS | 6PM/3PM ETPT

• 265lbs – Marcin Tybura (19-6) DEF. Maxim Grishin (30-8), DEC-Unanimous
• 125lbs – Raulian Paiva (20-3) DEF. Zhalgas Zhumagulov (13-4), DEC-Unanimous
• 135lbs – Karol Rosa (13-3) DEF. Vanessa Melo (10-8), DEC-Unanimous
• 135lbs – Davey Grant (10-4) DEF. Martin Day (8-4), KO/TKO-Left Hook at 2:38 of Rd 1

Be sure to follow Zane – @TheZaneSimon and Mookie – @MookieAlexander, and follow @BloodyElbow on twitter for all the latest in MMA happenings. Bloody Elbow Presents is a mixed martial arts podcast network presented to you by Bloody Elbow. Share & Subscribe on any of our podcast platforms below to get the latest in MMA News, MMA Features, UFC Interviews, daily MMA Podcasts, UFC Fight Previews, Post-Fight Shows & More!

If you enjoyed our post-fight show, give us a shout out in the comments here on Bloody Elbow, or give us a “like”, share & subscribe over on one of our other BE Presents Channels: SoundCloud, YouTube, iTunes & Apple TV, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, TuneIn, OverCast, or Player FM– whichever one happens to be your listening platform of choice. While you’re there, don’t forget to subscribe to Bloody Elbow Presents; that way you’ll always be the first to get all of BE’s daily MMA offerings. For previous episodes of the show, check out our playlists on all of our BE Presents channels.