Kamaru Usman will face Jorge Masvidal in a welterweight title fight on Saturday at UFC 251 on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi.
The promotion announced the fight at midnight on Monday morning.
Masvidal passed his coronavirus test, and he and Usman will leave Las Vegas for Abu Dhabi later on Monday, the sources said. Usman will be on a charter flight and Masvidal will be flying on a private jet, according to sources.
After arriving in Las Vegas on Sunday, both fighters had to undergo a coronavirus test and then be quarantined while awaiting results. If the tests had not passed, the fight could not have continued.
The UFC worked to save Usman’s presence on the card after Gilbert Burns was forced to retire on Friday night.
For the past two months, the UFC and Masvidal have been far apart in contract talks for this fight to happen. In the end, the UFC decided to walk away from the negotiations about a month ago and gave the title fight to Burns, who recently beat former champion Tyron Woodley.
Subsequently, Masvidal posted a series of tweets criticizing the UFC for its business practices, questioning whether the relationship would break for some time. But once Burns was ousted from the card on Friday night, momentum began to develop for the original plan, which is a coincidence of rancor that has been brewing for months. Usman and Masvidal have been embroiled in a heated fight that saw the duo enter a shouting match in the Miami Super Bowl media row earlier this year.
On Saturday afternoon, Usman tweeted, “It may be time for the pig to squeal,” while Masvidal’s co-director posted a series of Instagram stories showing Masvidal on the phone with the caption “negotiating.”
Of course, these days it’s not as simple as just accepting a fight. Masvidal took and passed a coronavirus antibody test on Saturday afternoon. That test shows whether an individual has been exposed to the coronavirus in the past, but it does not determine whether someone currently has the virus. So, at least one obstacle was cleared then. The fighters will still have to pass more coronavirus tests before the night of the fight, as do all fighters competing in Abu Dhabi this month.
Masvidal is considered one of the most popular fighters in the sport, and many believe he was the 2019 fighter of the year after taking impressive victories over Darren Till, Ben Askren and Nate Diaz. In addition to the welterweight title fight, the card also features Alexander Volkanovski against Max Holloway 2 for the featherweight title and Petr Yan against Jose Aldo for the bantamweight title.
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