Welterweight champion Kamaru Usman will defend his title against Jorge Masvidal in the main event of UFC 251, the UFC has officially announced.

After Gilbert Burns was forced to withdraw from the Fight Island card’s main event bout, reports surfaced that a replacement fight had been agreed to between the pair, pending the completion of COVID-19 testing.

Prior to the official announcement of the bout, UFC president Dana White posted a hype video on his verified Twitter account.

Usman will be making the second defence of the welterweight title he won by defeating Tyron Woodley at UFC 235.

He earned a unanimous victory over Colby Covington at UFC 245 in December to retain the title.

Masvidal, who made his UFC debut in 2013, will be getting his first shot at undisputed UFC gold.

He won the BMF belt in his last fight, a third-round TKO victory over Nate Diaz at UFC 244.

Prior to that fight, he set a record with the fastest KO in promotion history with a :05 second, flying knee victory over Ben Askren.

Usman and Masvidal have had some bad blood between them and the pair got into a shouting match at the Super Bowl in Miami.