Atop UFC Vegas 51 on Saturday night in Las Vegas was a welterweight rematch nearly six years in the making. Vicente Luque and Belal Muhammad had first met in 2016, part of the massive UFC 205 card.
Much had changed since that time. For one, a pair of fighters rather green in terms of UFC experience in 2016 were now veterans of the 170lb division. For another, welterweight was now badly in need of fresh opponents — fresh bodies, frankly — for champion Kamaru Usman, who was quickly lapping the division and had not lost since 2013, in just his second fight as a professional.
Ergo, the winner of Saturday night’s main event, topping an admittedly thin card, had the chance to inch closer to a title shot. Though admittedly, names like Leon Edwards and Khamzat Chimaev — and perhaps even Colby Covington, yet again — were ahead of them at the moment.
Outside of the main event duo, there was little in the way of star power at UFC Vegas 51. The co-feature consisted of debuting Contender Series winners Caio Borralho and Gadzhi Omargadzhiev; on the preliminary card, popular heavyweight Chris Barnett welcomed Martin Buday to the promotion.
Following the event, tune in for the UFC Vegas 51 post-fight press conference. A live stream is available in the embed above.
