Last year in the midst of a pandemic, Dana White, the UFC owner, did something that has never been done before. He bought and held professional fights on an island. The first fight scheduled on ‘fight island’ was set between the welterweight champion Kamaru Usman and contender, Gilbert Burns. However, this fight didn’t take place that weekend because Burns and his camp tested positive for COVID-19 and were not allowed to travel to ‘fight island.’ Nonetheless, the fight must go on! Dana White contacted Masvidal and offered him the opportunity to step into the ring with the champ, he gladly accepted. With only 6 days to cut weight and tons of travel, Masvidal came into the fight ill-prepared and paid the price for it by adding another loss to his record. Due to the limitations, Masvidal called for a rematch that was then set for April 24th, this weekend! Here are my expectations for the fight:

Usman K.O in the first three: Usman being one of, if not the best striker in the UFC, will try to keep this fight on the feet where he can begin to surgically land punches past Masvidal’s guard. It’s anticipated that Masvidal will try to counteract this by overwhelming him with barrages of strikes or taking him to the ground. However, Usman is a very poised fighter with one of the best takedown defenses in the UFC, meaning he’s not going to the ground if he doesn’t want to. And as for Masvidal oupacing? Usman looks for points in the fight to counter-strike, so he’ll welcome the chance to go toe to toe again with Masvidal.