Kamaru Usman will be defending his welterweight title Saturday night in the main event of UFC 258 against Gilbert Burns.

Ever since his UFC debut winning TUF 21 in 2015, “The Nigerian Nightmare” has been on an incomparable tear through the welterweight division, snatching the division’s crown in March of 2019 over then-champion (and all-time great welterweight) Tyron Woodley.

Burns, on the other hand, moved up to welterweight in August of 2019, defeating Alexey Kunchenko and Gunnar Nelson before year’s end. 

In 2020, he defeated Demian Maia and Tyron Woodley to rise to top contender status within the division. Now Burns has primed himself for an opportunity at gold against his former teammate.

The catch? Usman and Burns were training partners under the tutelage of Henri Hooft for seven years. Obviously, these two are rather familiar with one another.

“I know him a lot; he knows me a lot,” Burns said at UFC 258 virtual media day. “There’s a little intrigue right? Because I do believe I’m gonna win, he does believe he’s gonna win, and then we’ll find out Saturday night.”

Burns also spoke about the edge he has over Usman pertaining to his coaching. 

Usman left Sanford MMA in Summer of 2020 to learn under Trevor Wittman. As a result, Burns has heard plenty of advice from former teammates and coaches of Usman regarding his tendencies and weaknesses.

“I think the little advantage that I have, my teammates know him a lot too, my coaches know him a lot too,” Burns said. “His coach doesn’t know me that much. And the thing with me is I believe I’m a different animal at that [welterweight] division.”

Despite the massive amount of familiarity between the former friends and training partners, Usman is all about business, regardless of who it is that he’s facing.

Yet, he completely recognizes that Burns deserves this title shot.

“Gilbert Burns is the toughest test to date, which is why he’s fighting me right now,” Usman said. “If he wasn’t the toughest guy, he wouldn’t be in there with me. I take him very seriously, and I’m worried and focused on just him.”

It’s always really interesting when former teammates square off. While there have been some slight barbs at one another, the lead-up to UFC 258’s main event has been non-confrontational and respectful.

That ambiguity of emotional standing between Usman and Burns only adds to the anticipation of this fight.

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Article source: https://www.mmaweekly.com/ufc-258-who-wins-battle-between-teammates-kamaru-usman-and-gilbert-burns

Bobby Green made weight on Friday for his UFC 258 bout with Jim Miller. Minutes later, he collapsed and was in a medical emergency that forced the cancellation of the bout.

Green tipped the scale at 156 pounds with 15 minutes left in the official UFC 258 two-hour weigh-in window. But when the fighters appeared a short time later for their face-offs, Green and Miller were surprisingly absent.

Following the face-offs, UFC president Dana White met with reporters, informing them that Green had collapsed in the back following the weigh-in.

“Bobby Green just collapsed back there. Doctors are looking at him. They’re trying to rehydrate him right now,” White said.

At that point, it was unclear what would happen to the bout. It was later scrapped from the fight card altogether. A featherweight preliminary bout between Ricky Simon and Brian Kelleher was elevated to the UFC 258 main card.

Late Friday night, Green posted to his Instagram account, admitting that he has a few “hills to get over in fighting,” including the weight cut.

He then went on to address the medical issues that plagued him at Friday’s weigh-in.

“So to be clear, I have air pockets in my lungs, I guess, and my kidneys failed,” Green wrote.

“I messed my back up in training. I thought it was just pain from that.”

Green gave no indication about his recovery from the medical issues or when he might be able to fight again.

UFC 258 now moves forward as an 11-bout fight card, headlined by Kamaru Usman putting his welterweight title on the line opposite former teammate Gilbert Burns.

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Dana White’s full UFC 258 scrum

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Article source: https://www.mmaweekly.com/ufc-258-main-card-bout-nixed-after-bobby-green-suffers-kidney-failure

UFC 258 sees former training partners collide as welterweight champion Kamaru Usman faces Gilbert Burns on Saturday night at the UFC Apex.

It’s a clash that sees Usman take on a man who is very familiar with his game, with the pair having worked together on the mats of Sanford MMA in the past. But now, with the pair working in separate camps, both men think they have the edge over the other as they prepare to do battle for the undisputed 170-pound title in Las Vegas.

Ahead of fight night, we asked our “Spinning Back Clique” panel of John Morgan, Nolan King and Brian “Goze” Garcia to nail their colors to the mast and declare whether Bruce Buffer will be announcing, “And new!” or “And still!” at the end of Saturday’s main event.

Check out their responses via the video above. The full show is available to watch below.

UFC 258 takes place Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and early prelims on ESPN+.

Article source: https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2021/02/ufc-258-video-can-gilbert-burns-dethrone-kamaru-usman

Danny Sabatello was levels above Da’Mon Blackshear on the ground at Titan FC 67 on Friday, and it led to a one-sided main event.

Sabatello (10-1) put his grappling to use over and over throughout the course of five rounds, and Blackshear (8-4) had no answer. As a result, Sabatello left the cage with a unanimous decision victory, as he successfully defended his Titan FC bantamweight title for the first time. The scores were 50-45, 50-45 and 49-46 at the InterContinental Miami in Miami, Fla.

Sabatello’s strategy was no secret from the outset. He attacked with takedowns and established a presence from top position in the first round. It was a route from there on out, with Sabatello controlling Blackshear in the grappling positions, chipping away with ground-and-pound and going for submissions.

The semi-conservative approach from Sabatello garnered come displeasure from the small crowd in attendance as well as the commentary team. Nevertheless, he got his hand raised in his first fight since not receiving a UFC contract for his dominant win at Dana White’s Contender Series 35 in November.

He didn’t care, though, and shared his thoughts to anyone who took issue with his style.

“If you (expletive) (expletives) want to boo me, that’s fine,” Sabatello said in his post-fight interview. “But this is mixed martial arts. You don’t like? Come (expletive) beat me. If it’s not exciting, I don’t give a (expletive). Come beat me. You won’t.”

Blackshear, who, according to the broadcast experienced a travel crisis en route to the event, missed the 145-pound championship limit by three pounds, and would have been ineligible to leave as champion.

Sabatello would have still kept the title had he lost, but it didn’t matter in the end, because he delivered a dominant victory.

Prior to Sabatello’s triumph in the main event, Olivier Murad (5-0) claimed the vacant Titan FC featherweight belt in the event co-headliner in a competitive unanimous decision win over Muhammad Naimov (5-2).

Complete Titan FC 67 result included:

• Danny Sabatello def. Da’Mon Blackshear via unanimous decision unanimous decision (50-45, 50-45, 49-46)
• Olivier Murad def. Muhammad Naimov via unanimous decision (49-46, 48-47, 48-47) – to win vacant featherweight title
• Alberto Montes def. Richie Santiago via submission (anaconda choke) – Round 1, 2:01
• Dilano Taylor def. Lewis Gonzalez via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
• Evelyn Martins def. Melissa Croden via split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28)
• Adrian Garcia def. Rudy Isidro via TKO (body kick) – Round 1, 4:27
• Adi Alic def. Carlos Espinosa via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

Article source: https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2021/02/titan-fc-67-results-danny-sabatello-dominates-title-defend-alberto-montes-claims-gold

LAS VEGAS – Megan Olivi will be back on broadcast duty at UFC 258.

A longtime UFC backstage reporter and analyst, Olivi spoke to members of the media Friday following the official UFC 258 weigh-ins and faceoffs.

Olivi discussed the main event between UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman (17-1 MMA, 12-0 UFC) and challenger Gilbert Burns (19-3 MMA, 12-3 UFC), as well as the co-main event between flyweights Maycee Barber (8-1 MMA, 3-1 UFC) and Alexa Grasso (12-3 MMA, 4-3 UFC). She also discussed her sleeper fights to look out for Saturday and elaborated on a number of different UFC projects she’s been working on.

Check out Olivi’s full news conference in the video above.

UFC 258 takes place Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and early prelims on ESPN+.

Article source: https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2021/02/ufc-258-video-megan-olivi-breakdown-upcoming-projects