The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) plans to stage UFC 261 in front of a packed house at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida on Saturday, April 24.
On Monday, Dana White, the UFC President announced that they were set to welcome fans back to the show for number 261. The main event is the headlining bout of a rematch between Nigerian-American professional mixed martial artist, Kamaru Usman and Jorge Masvidal.
Included in the card are two more fights with titles on the line. Valentina Shevchenko will defend the women’s flyweight championship against Jessica Andrade, and Rose Namajunas will challenge women’s strawweight champion Zhang Weili for that belt.
Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, UFC 261 will be only the second major public sporting event in the United States. Just as White announced the return of a packed house, the Texas Rangers want to follow suit to open up Globe Life Field on April 5 in their match against the Toronto Blue Jays even as vaccination adminstration throttles up across the US.
Earlier this month, Greg Abbott, the Texas governor, lifted the state-wide COVID-19 restrictions enforced to stem the spread of the virus. This caught the attention of White and was behind the confidence of his declaration for UFC 261.
“I want to go to Texas ASAP. I’ll go in the next two, three weeks. I’m ready to roll. We’ll be first. We’ll open this thing up, we’ll sell it out and be on our way,” White enthused.
After Usman dispatched Gilbert Burns via third-round TKO at UFC 258 on Saturday February 13, he immediately called out Jorge Masvidal as his next opponent. The American mixed martial artist, Masvidal, has not won a fight since beating Nate Diaz on Saturday, November 2 two years ago. His only other fight since then was that unanimous decision loss to Usman in July last year, but he only had six days to prepare after accepting the fight.
He has since used that as an excuse and has been vocal in his claim that a full training camp would make a decisive difference. Currently, there appears to be a genuine feeling of animosity between both fighters, and Usman will want to clear the air on Masvidal cashing in on the excuse that he lost only because of a shortened camp.
It makes the interest in the bout all the more heightened, something which a live audience will amplify.
