UFC 261: Usman vs. Masvidal 2 was a mixed martial arts event produced by the Ultimate Fighting Championship that will take place on April 24, 2021 at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida,^[2]

The promotion had initially planned to hold the event in Singapore. However, negotiations with the Singaporean government fizzled amongst COVID-19 protocols and the promotion initially turned to their home base of Las Vegas. On March 15, UFC president Dana White announced the event will be moved to Jacksonville, Florida, with a full capacity of "15,000 UFC fans", marking the first time since UFC 248 on March 2020 that a full capacity crowd will be available (the UFC hosted a trio of events in Abu Dhabi in January with a limited number of fans) Jacksonville also hosted the UFC's first fights back after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic on May 2020, before the organization started hosting events in either Las Vegas or Abu Dhabi.

A UFC Welterweight Championship rematch between the current champion Kamaru Usman (also The Ultimate Fighter: American Top Team vs. Blackzilians welterweight winner) and Jorge Masvidal headlined the event.

They previously met at UFC 251, where Usman defended his title via unanimous decision.

In a stunning showcase of his evolving game and pound-for-pound talent, Usman made the fifth defense of his 170-pound title by knocking Jorge Masvidal out cold in Round 2 of their UFC 261 main event rematch inside VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida.

A UFC Women's Strawweight Championship bout between the current champion Zhang Weili and former champion Rose Namajunas took place as the co-main event.

Elsewhere on the card, Rose Namajunas captured gold for a second time with a stunning knockout of Weili Zhang in the co-main event.

A UFC Women's Flyweight Championship bout between current champion Valentina Shevchenko and former strawweight champion Jéssica Andrade completed the triad of title fights.

In the fifth defense of her 125-pound title, Shevchenko (21-3) had her way with stunning ease against former strawweight champion Jessica Andrade (21-9) by dominating her on the ground en route to a second-round TKO on Saturday

A middleweight rematch between former UFC Middleweight Champion Chris Weidman and Uriah Hall took place at UFC 258 in February.

They met previously in September 2010 at a Ring of Combat event for the organization's middleweight title, with Weidman winning via TKO.

However, Weidman was pulled from that event in late-January due to a positive COVID-19 test.

Chris Weidman suffered the same freak broken leg that Anderson Silva did against him when he threw an opening calf kick to start his fight with Uriah Hall in a featured bout.

Weidman immediately crumpled to the floor and was taken out on a stretcher as Hall and the crowd watched on in agony

Johnny Walker was expected to face Jimmy Crute in a light heavyweight bout.

However, Walker pulled out due to an injury and was replaced by former UFC Light Heavyweight Championship challenger Anthony Smith.

Randy Brown and Alex Oliveira were expected to meet in a welterweight bout at UFC Fight Night: Rozenstruik vs. Gane, but Brown pulled out due to undisclosed reasons.Brown

(13-4 MMA, 7-4 UFC) tapped Oliveira (22-10-1 MMA, 11-8 UFC) with a one-armed rear-naked choke at the 2:40 mark of Round 1.

The welterweight bout closed out the UFC 261 preliminary card at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Fla.

It aired on ESPN following early prelims on ESPN+ and ahead of a main card on pay-per-view

A bantamweight bout between Mark Striegl and Johnny Muñoz was expected to take place at the event.

However, Striegl was removed from the bout on March 24 due to undisclosed reasons and replaced by Jamey Simmons.

In turn, Simmons also pulled out on April 8 for undisclosed reasons.

As a result, Munoz was removed from the card as well and will rescheduled for a future event