UFC president Dana White dropped some major fight announcements today, including the main event match for UFC 251 on July 11. White announced the upcoming pay per view event will take place on Fight Island in Abu Dhabi and will be headlined by a welterweight title match between current champion Kamaru Usman and the newly minted No. 1-contender Gilbert Burns.
Burns is coming off a dominant unanimaous decision win over former champion Tyron Woodley last month. He called for a title shot after the win and said earlier this week that he'd be ready to go if the UFC called him about a title fight for UFC 251. Well, the UFC rang after being unable to come to terms with Masvidal. Masvidal has been very vocal on Twitter about his desire to get paid what he believes he is worth.
Leon Edwards would've been next in line to challenge for the belt but the UK's lockdown "proved to be problemenatic for Edwards on short notice fight," ESPN's Ariel Helwani reported. Edwards also took to Twitter to confirm that he was offered the title shot before Gilbert.
"2020 has been tough for me on this side of the world, as it has been for alot of people, but fu-- it, you cant stop what is inevitable," Edwards wrote. "The strap will be mine. Continue to stay safe everybody."
Gilbert Burns is currently riding a six fight win streak with victories over Tyron Woodley, Demian Maia, Gunnar Nelson, Alexey Kunchenko, Mike Davis, and Olivier Aubin-Mercier. He owns a 19-3 record.
Usman (16-1) captured the welterweight title by unanimous decision with a dominant performance over Tyron Woodley at UFC 235 in early 2019. He defended it once in late 2019 with a TKO win over Colby Covington in December 2019.