UFC’s April 24th pay-per-view card, UFC 261, has received finalized a 13-fight lineup. The show includes four new bouts that were not previously reported by Knockdown News.
The fights will take place at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida, USA, in front of a live audience.
Oliveira vs. Brown Re-Booked
A welterweight fight between Alex Oliveira and Randy Brown has been given a new date, now being placed in the UFC 261 lineup. The fight was first intended for a February 27th UFC card, although it was moved ahead after Brown withdrew from the fight.
Brown is returning after losing his last bout, getting stopped in the second round by Vicente Luque in August. Prior to then, Brown built up two wins in 2019.
Similarly, Oliveira has won two of his last three but is coming back from a loss. Oliveira last fought in October, where UFC newcomer Shavkat Rakhmonov stopped him within a round with a guillotine choke.
Chinese Talent To Make UFC Debuts
Two new Chinese fighters will step into the UFC cage for the first time at UFC 261.
Following a four-fight win streak in the past three years, Na Liang gets the UFC call-up to fight Ariane Carnelossi. The 24-year-old Chinese talent will be competing in her 20th pro fight, looking for her 16th win.
Carnelossi will look to bounce back from losing her UFC debut in 2019, which came against Angela Hill.
Aoriqileng will fight Jeff Molina in a flyweight contest. Aoriqileng has been on a win streak since 2018, defeating his last six opponents in Chinese promotion WLF.
Molina will be making his UFC debut as well. He earned a UFC contract in August, defeating Jacob Silva on “Dana White’s Contender Series.” Molina was originally scheduled to debut in January against Zarrukh Adashev, although he was later removed from that card due to testing positive for COVID-19.
Sekulic To Return Against Grant
Entering the UFC cage after over two years outside of it, Stefan Sekulic will fight Dwight Grant at UFC 261. Sekulic lost his UFC debut back in 2018 to Ramazan Emeev and has since not been seen on UFC programming.
Grant will look to bounce back from a stoppage loss to Daniel Rodriguez that he took last year.
Updated Lineup
UFC 261 now has three title fights atop a 13-fight card in total. Here is how the lineup looks currently.
Bout 13: Kamaru Usman (18-1) vs. Jorge Masvidal (35-14) (UFC Welterweight Championship)
Bout 12: Valentina Shevchenko (20-3) vs. Jessica Andrade (21-8) (UFC Flyweight Championship)
Bout 11: Zhang Weili (21-1) vs. Rose Namajunas (9-4) (UFC Strawweight Championship)
Bout 10: Chris Weidman (15-5) vs. Uriah Hall (16-9) (Middleweight)
Bout 9: Anthony Smith (34-16) vs. Jimmy Crute (12-1) (Light Heavyweight)
Bout 8: Danaa Batgerel (8-2) vs. Kevin Natividad (9-2) (Bantamweight)
Bout 7: Brendan Allen (15-4) vs. Karl Roberson (9-3) (Middleweight)
Bout 6: Rongzhu (17-3) vs. Rodrigo Vargas (11-4) (Lightweight)
Bout 5: Johnny Munoz Jr. (10-1) vs. Jamey Simmons (7-3) (Featherweight)
Bout 4: Jeff Molina (8-2) vs. Aoriqileng (18-6) (Flyweight)
Bout 3: Ariane Carnelossi (12-2) vs. Na Liang (15-4) (Strawweight)
Bout 2: Dwight Grant (10-3) vs. Stefan Sekulic (12-3) (Welterweight)
Bout 1: Randy Brown (12-4) vs. Alex Oliveira (22-9-1) (Welterweight)
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