After the exciting action of UFC 257, all eyes now turn to the main event of UFC 258 as Kamaru Usman takes on Gilbert Burns in a welterweight division title decider.

With both competitors weighing in at 170lbs during the weigh-in, it is sure to be a close contest, with perhaps a slight advantage towards the champion Usman due to a greater reach range in comparison to his opponent.

Usman stands at 6ft whereas Burns is at 5ft 8in, so expect Burns to turn to kicking and grappling during this bout and Usman to use boxing to control the pace of the fight and take advantage of his power and reach advantage.

Burns has a strong record of 19 wins from 22 bouts, with strong submission stats which means that the Brazilian needs to get past the reach of Usman, perhaps through the use of kicking to try and expose Usman to allow him to step in and utilise his grappling game.

If Burns is going to win, it will most likely come from a submission, so expect him to be quite explosive in the early part of the fight to disrupt the tempo of the bout.

For Usman, statistically he is the favourite with more weight and a better reach. On top of that, he is the reigning welterweight champion with an impressive record of 17-1.

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He definitely will utilise his reach advantage to control the fight as much as he can do and try to stop Burns from applying his grappling game. However, that’s not to say that Usman can use the power of his boxing jab and kicking to break the defence of Burns, and use his own strong floor game to finish the fight.

Covington Knows About Usman's Power

Just a reminder of Usman’s great power, he broke the jaw of Colby Covington at UFC 245 in 2019, which is definitely something the Burns camp will want to avoid.

You can see the x-ray of Covington's jaw below.

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That is one hell of a crack in Covington's jaw, and that just goes to show how much power Usman carries in his punches.

Land sweetly with one of those, and it will be night night for Burns.

GiveMeSport's Sam Righton says...

I feel that this fight will go to Usman as he has so many things going his way, but if Burns manages to burst the bubble of that reach and gets Usman to the floor early on, I will not be surprised if we have a new welterweight champion. It’s going to be a close one.