UFC 251: Kamaru Usman vs Jorge Masvidal, who wins this one?
So it's official, Kamaru Usman Vs Jorge Masvidal is going down at the fight island in Abu Dhabi. It's been a while since we've had two fighters who have a real beef between them. In Kamaru Usman and Jorge Masvidal, you have two fighters that hate each other and want to take each other's heads off.
First of all, yes, I do feel bad for Gilbert Burns. He had earned his shot by beating Tyron Woodley. But Jorge Masvidal was always the first choice and if the negotiations hadn't fallen off then this was the default fight that UFC was looking to make. So yes, Even though I feel sad for Burns I do feel pumped that Masvidal and Usman are going to fight for the title.
Ok, so with that out of the way, let's just sit back and try to predict who enters the octagon as the Favorite for this fight. According to the betting odds, Kamaru Usman starts as a clear favorite.
First, let's look at it from Usman's perspective. He was in camp, he was training, his conditioning was supposed to be on point. Masvidal on the other hand was already out of the fight and he has himself admitted that he needs to lose more than 20 pounds in 6 days to make the weight.
It's not ideal for Jorge in any which way who is a master tactician as he usually sits down with his coaches and charts a game plan against his opponents. He had one in place for Darren Till and he knocked him out with that. He had one in place for Ben Askren and that led to the fastest Knockout in UFC history. With just a week left for the fight, he doesn't get enough time to strategize.
He doesn't get enough time to sharpen up on his wrestling skills and the worse part is that he would be spending the next 6 days trying to get the extra weight of more than 20 pounds off him. The situation is just not ideal for "GameBred" and the smart money should go to Kamaru Usman.
Now looking at it from Masvidal's perspective, for sure Kamaru Usman is a great wrestler and he would try to wrestle against Jorge from the beginning. But even if Jorge doesn't have the credentials of a Kamaru Usman as a wrestler he has trained with elite-level wrestlers all his life. The likes of Joel Romero and Colby Covington would have spent hours on the mat training against Jorge so taking him down is not going to be easy and the longer the fight stays on the feet the more it favors Jorge and as he has shown recently, he carries the power to knock out his opponents cold.
If we compare the two fighters, Usman has the edge in wrestling while Jorge has the edge in striking. In terms of conditioning, Usman would have the edge as he was preparing for the fight while the ability to finish the opponent would go with Masvidal. If the fight is ending within the first three rounds then it would arguably be a Masvidal knockout sealing the deal but if the fight goes into the deep waters of 5 rounds then you have to favor Kamaru.
Who wins? Masvidal just celebrated the first anniversary of his Knockout of Ben Askren, it was around that time last year when the Mystique of Masvidal started catching everyone's attention. This Sunday although I would be cheering for this journey to go on from strength to strength, I feel Kamaru Usman defends his title with a decision victory after 5 rounds.