Key takeaways
Kamaru Usman beat Jorge Masvidal by unanimous decision after five rounds in the main event of UFC 251 at the Flash Forum in Abu Dhabi. The co-main event also went to the scorecards: Alexander Volkanovski beat Max Holloway, the division's No. 4, after five rounds.
Across the 13 bouts that produced a result, three ended by knockout, two by submission and eight on the judges' scorecards — five stoppages in 13 fights. Three of the eight decisions divided the judges.
The quickest finish belonged to Amanda Ribas, who stopped Paige VanZant at 2:21 of round one, and two of the five finishes came inside the opening round. The longest was Petr Yan's knockout of Jose Aldo, 23 minutes and 24 seconds in. End to end, the 13 fights filled three hours and 7 minutes of cage time.
The main card finished at the higher rate: two of five, against three of the eight below it. Jiri Prochazka (knockout, round two), Makwan Amirkhani (submission, round one) and Davey Grant (knockout, round three) all closed before the judges were needed.
Eleven ranked fighters appeared, and three of them were in the top two bouts, among them champions Alexander Volkanovski and Petr Yan.
