3 storylines to watch at UFC 261

Gold will be up for grabs in three divisions at UFC 261 in Jacksonville, Florida.

In Saturday's main event, welterweight champion Kamaru Usman will defend his belt in a rematch with Jorge Masvidal.

In the co-headliner, Zhang Weili will put her strawweight title on the line against former champ Rose Namajunas. Rounding out the trio of title fights is a women's flyweight tilt between champion Valentina Shevchenko and former strawweight queen Jessica Andrade.

Here are three key storylines heading into the pay-per-view card.

Will more preparation time be enough for Masvidal?

One of the biggest reasons Masvidal is getting another opportunity to dethrone Usman is the fact that he accepted his first title shot last July on six days' notice when Gilbert Burns tested positive for COVID-19.

Usman-Masvidal was one of the biggest fights the UFC could make at the time, and it didn't feel right that the challenger had less than a week to get ready.

On Saturday, there will be no excuses, and we'll hopefully get the best versions of both fighters. Masvidal should be in better shape now that he's gone through a full training camp and won't have to undergo a severe weight cut during fight week. He tired out against Usman last summer, and that likely won't happen in the rematch.

However, the extra preparation ultimately won't be enough for Masvidal to change the outcome and walk out of the cage with the welterweight belt around his waist.

Usman is a difficult stylistic matchup for Masvidal, and a two-month camp isn't going to change that. The most likely outcome is we see a repeat of the first fight. Last time, Usman was getting ready for Burns, so it's possible he'll have a better handle on what Masvidal brings to the table and dominate him even more. On the flip side, Masvidal could definitely make the rematch more competitive by keeping it on the feet for longer durations. But, in the end, expect Usman to rely on his grappling again to get the job done.

Does Andrade stand a chance against Shevchenko?

Andrade has scary power for the women's 125-pound division. She is relentless and has been compared to former light heavyweight star Wanderlei Silva. That's why she's widely considered the biggest test for Shevchenko.

We saw Jennifer Maia actually win a round against Shevchenko last November by holding her against the fence. Though Andrade will want to go for the knockout, it's possible she could use a similar game plan to try to dethrone the dominant champion.

But the problem is Shevchenko is a very smart fighter, and she knows exactly what Andrade will bring to the table in their title fight. We've seen Andrade lose to fighters like the champion before. Joanna Jedrzejczyk dominated her in a 2017 strawweight title bout by keeping the distance and striking her way to victory. Shevchenko is essentially a better version of Jedrzejczyk in the stand-up department, so she'll likely be able to use a similar game plan to beat Andrade.

Andrade poses the biggest threat to Shevchenko, though it's still not much of a threat overall. The Brazilian challenger will need to have the performance of a lifetime to go down in the history books as a two-division champion by knocking Shevchenko off her pedestal.

Which title fight is the best?

Zhang-Namajunas will be the highlight of the title bouts, and it's not even close.

Usman and Masvidal met in the cage nine months ago, with "The Nigerian Nightmare" soundly beating the challenger in a somewhat lackluster fight. It's simply not that intriguing of a matchup.

Shevchenko-Andrade is great matchmaking, as the latter - a hard-hitting wrecking ball - is widely considered the toughest test available for the champion at 125 pounds. But Shevchenko is still a sizable favorite, and it would be a big surprise if Andrade won.

Zhang-Namajunas is perfect matchmaking and should be a competitive fight, making for the best title fight, by far.

The champion hasn't stepped into the Octagon since retaining her belt in March 2020 against Jedrzejczyk in the consensus "Fight of the Year," and now the first Chinese-born UFC champ is back for another big test versus Namajunas.

Namajunas, who's coming off a bounce-back win over Andrade, has the best chance of the three challengers this weekend to pull off the upset and take the throne. She has more big-fight experience than Zhang and could test the reigning champ in the grappling department if that's where the fight goes.

Whether Zhang retains or Namajunas becomes a two-time champ, there's no chance this 115-pound tilt isn't full of action. Usman-Masvidal may be the main event, but Zhang-Namajunas is easily the best title fight on the card.