Posted in: MMA, Sports, TV | Tagged: bleeding cool, cable, jessica andrade, jorge masvidal, kamaru usman, rose namajunas, streaming, television, tv, ufc, ufc 261, valentina shevchenko, zhang weili

UFC 261 Preview: Three Title Fights In Front Of A Full Crowd

UFC 261 will take place tomorrow night in Jacksonville, and will be one of the first major sporting events with a full crowd in attendance. Tickets went on sale and quickly sold out the entire arena, VyStar Veteran's Memorial Arena in Jacksonville holds over 15,000 for a UFC card, and even with concerns over the pandemic, they sold it out in no time at all. "Everybody's talking about, they're first, they're first – they're not first," Dana White said when tickets went on sale. "We're first. Nobody's going to do it like we're going to do it. They're talking outdoor arenas, most of them probably won't sell out, social distancing, all that stuff. We're selling out an arena, packed, record-breaking, and I'm going to go everywhere that people want to do that."

Three UFC Title Fights Should Ignite The Crowd

As for the card itself, well, it is stacked. For the second time this year, three belts will be on the line. In the main event, Jorge Masvidal tries once again to unseat reigning welterweight champion Kamaru Usman. The two fought last year with Masvidal taking the fight on a week's notice and losing a unanimous decision to the champ. Now, with about 5 weeks of preparation, he gets a second shot. Two fantastic women's title fights are also on the card, as Zhang Weili defends her strawweight belt for the second time against the always-game former champ Rose Namajunas. The third title fight sees a solid matchup between the amazing flyweight champ Valentina Shevchenko and the always dangerous Jessica Andrade.

The full UFC 261 fight card will take place tomorrow night exclusively on ESPN+. You can find the full fight card down below. Look for the first-ever UFC fighter rankings Sunday after the big card tomorrow as well! We will be doing monthly rankings in each weight class for both male and female UFC fighters, as well as a pound for pound top 10.

UFC 261 MAIN CARD

• Kamaru Usman vs. Jorge Masvidal TITLE FIGHT
• Zhang Weili vs. Rose Namajunas TITLE FIGHT
• Valentina Shevchenko vs. Jessica Andrade TITLE FIGHT
• Uriah Hall vs. Chris Weidman
• Anthony Smith vs. Jim Crute

UFC 261 UNDERCARD

• Alex Oliveira vs. Randy Brown
• Dwight Grant vs. Stefan Sekulic
• Karl Roberson vs. Brendan Allen
• Pat Sabatini vs. Tristan Connelly
• Danaa Batgerel vs. Kevin Natividad
• Kazula Vargas vs. Zhu Rong
• Qileng Aori vs. Jeffrey Molina
• Na Liang vs. Ariane Carnelossi

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