MMA Fighting - Gilbert Burns Positive For COVID-19, Out Of UFC 251 Main Event Reaction

Episode Date: July 4, 2020

Moments after it was confirmed that Gilbert Burns was forced to withdraw from his welterweight title headliner with Kamaru Usman at UFC 251 following a positive COVID-19 test, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck and Jose Youngs react to the breaking news. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow José Youngs: @JoseYoungs Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All right, Mike Heck here for MMAfighting.com. And as we've seen throughout this Friday, July 3rd, there's been some hiccups, some newly found hurdles when it comes to Fight Island and the four events coming up in Abu Dhabi over the next couple of weeks. But tonight, the biggest fight on the biggest card for Fight Island has been officially postponed as Gilbert Burns has tested positive for COVID-19. Therefore, his welterweight title fight with Kamara Usman will not go down at UFC 251 on July. 11th, but it looks like it may be rebooked on the road. MMA fighting confirmed this news with sources close to the situation following an initial report from Mike Bond of USA Today. Burns, along with coach Greg Jones and his brother Herbert Burns, all tested positive. There were charter flights getting ready to head to Las Vegas in preparation for Fight Island. Neither of those gentlemen were on the flight, nor was the champion Kamara Usman.

Now, UFC 251 will move forward with two title fights next. weekend with Alexander Volcanovsky defending his featherweight title against Max Holloway in a rematch and Peota Jan will take on Jose Aldo for the vacant Bannamway title. What a day it has been. Let us bring in my colleague from MMAFutting.com Jose Youngs to react to this breaking news. And Jose, I always enjoy chatting with you, but sometimes the news isn't always good. And the day started off with some awful news. And that means more and trumps anything else that could happen in the news cycle today. But here I have. am sleeping like a baby. And this is a true story, ladies and gentlemen, all of a sudden,

I just woke up, don't know why. There's no rhyme or reason behind it. And then moments later, this news drops that Gilbert Burns tested positive for COVID-19 and he's out of the main event, and it's Kamar who's been for UFC 251. I reacted like most people did. Man, this is rough. Then it was all about concern for Gilbert Burns. Obviously, he's brother and his coach. We obviously hope everyone makes full recovery. But how did you react to this late breaking news of the day. Well, I've said this before, I became kind of jaded and used to a lot of

chaos that hits the ceiling. I went to when I was in Madison Square Garden with the no-conc, like the not the no-cons, but the cut the end of the fight or the blown-up I have a cowboy at UFC 238. Like, I'm used to this. And I always say, like, I love chaos, but not this, man.

I don't want to see anyone test positive for the coronavirus, especially Gilbert Burns, who coming off the biggest one of scur and his younger and his brother. So, usually I had no reaction but this one I was I was more disappointed than anything else I was very much in terms of the actual fight I was excited for the fight but it just sucks that someone it's it's been a rough day for mixed martial arts as a whole and this is this is this is going to be remembered for a long time it's one of those days that uh things just hit the fan

completely agree and this is a fight that's been built on multiple storylines right like the rise of Gilbert Burns, a guy who, you know, in August of last year was fighting Alexi Conchenko and then all of a sudden just ran off a bunch of wins and getting ready to fight his teammate and, you know, former friend. I probably still be friends after a fight would go down with Kamara Usman and these guys, you know, know, know each other very well. Kamara Usman decided to head to Colorado and work with Trevor Whitman and Justin Gaichie, but the familiarity levels between Usman and Burns really made this fight super fascinating. When we look at the overall picture, and again, the Burns brothers and Greg Jones,

their recovery is far more important than any fight in any kind of a cage or octagon. But when you look at the card as a whole, how much of a hit is this to the card itself? It's, I think it's a big hit. I know I do love the rematch between Volcanowski and Holloway. And then, of course, the Peter Yon and Josie Alito fight and then the rematch with Rose and just got to drive. But this was the main event. It wasn't a rematch. It was enough for an undisputed title.

It's not a vacant title. I know people wanted to see the Mazvi doll. who's going to fight, but Gilbert Burns was ranked number one. He beat the former champion, the number one ranked fighter. So if you're just going off ranking, as Gilbert was the rightful number one contender. So I was super intrigued by this because we just didn't know. Like, we had no idea what was going to happen.

Like Volcanowski Hollow has already happened. I don't personally, I like Jose Alba as a fighter, but I think we all agree that someone like Alshman Sterling probably deserved that shot against Peter Young instead. And I just think this was a fantastic martial arts competition rather than anything like the stories, like you said, but this was just a good fight. So I think this is a big hit for Fight Islands.

This was the main event of the premier card. And Vulcanowski-Hawley is great, but it's a rematch. It was a rematch of a fight that wasn't overly close. It wasn't a dominant win, but it wasn't like anyone's arguing that Max Holloway won. And then, like I said, Aldo is probably taking a spot from someone that might deserve it a little bit more. So big hit in my mind. But the UFC's got to move on. Yeah.

And I feel like throughout this whole process of getting back to work, once this COVID-19 pandemic hit, I feel like the UFC has done a tremendous job. And yeah, there's been some positive tests here and there, you know, Jacare and then like some corners, some people who have competed in past fights. So we've seen like a few come up. But today it's just been multiple positive tests that have come out in different reports. I think MMA fighting reported like 95% of those. And then to find this one out, this probably been more public positive COVID. a COVID-19 tests just today alone based on these final fights that we've seen in all these other cards combined leading into it. So if you're the UFC right now, are you just in complete

scramble mode right now? Or are you just putting your hands together and praying to whatever you believe in that, you know, the worst is behind us? I don't know. It's out of their hands. It's hard to even, like we said this months ago. Like we don't even know what's going to happen in a week. Like on our site and our Slack channel we're talking about like, oh, we had all these articles and stuff planned for like fight week and I'm sure after in case you're working on timeline for Gilbert Burns versus Kamara Usman and like that's all out the window so I don't know what happens like this is a we're in an era where we can't even pick you know tomorrow another title fight falls up or another fight falls out like you and I were talking like for

all we know in 48 hours we could lose a card we don't know so I if I'm the UFC I'm scrambling but there's not much we can you can do outside during a pandemic it's not like they can they can buy an arena or they can like just go to their apex like this is out of their hands. So it's I don't know the answer. Around 15 or so minutes after this news drops, some of the bigger names in the Welterweight division began to chime. We saw Jorge Mazidol tweet out the definition of game bread. Colby Covington offers up his services for a rematch. I guess I guess I'm fascinated by these tweets for a number of reasons.

But the main reason is because it brings up. But question, what would you rate the chances of either of these guys stepping in on short notice to fight Kamar U.S. Is there any chance this happens, or does the UFC just rebook Usman and Burns for August or September, perhaps, and just try to play it as safe as possible? I think they rebook maybe September, especially if I know the plan was for Habib to fight Justin Gagee in September, but of course, rightfully so if Habib wants more time with his family after the passing of his father, I think Gilbert Burns or Kamar Uzman-Gilurrub Burns could slot right in there for maybe another Saudi Arabia car. not Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi card. So I think that makes sense. In terms of chances, I think of the two, I think Covington would get the fight before Mazvedal.

Mazadal, Mazzvedo's not in the best graces with the UFC. It's probably asking for a lot more money. I know the fans would want to see the Mazadal fight. I think that plays in a Mazurals stadium, forgetting when he's paid, but I don't think it's much of it. Like he yourself said, Usman didn't catch that flight, right? He's not even there. Yeah, from what I understand.

But, I mean, it doesn't mean he can't get another one. It's true. It's true. but there's a lot of hurdles to jump through. There's a lot of medicals to go through. I don't know, like Mazel said, he was training. I don't know if Covington was training for a fight specifically. You'd have to imagine any late notice.

If that fight's going to happen, the wheels are in motion now, considering all the hurdles they're going to have to go through. Like you said, there's so many positive tests, they can't risk it happening again. Yeah, it's funny just kind of thinking about, like, the workload that everyone's sort of put into this whole thing. We're trying to prepare and get things done ahead of time. Like I had conversation with John Anick. We talked all about that fight. I spoke with Paul Felder about these fight cards.

And UFC 251, we talked all about that fight. And now we get all these positive tests. But the news cycle, and you sort of alluded to this earlier, you know, mostly for the past couple of months, it's been pretty positive, right? Overall, this has to be one of the roughest new cycle days in the M.A space and quite some time, is it not? Yeah, without a doubt. the passing of Habit's father right out of the gate in the early mornings here Pacific time was, I don't want to say caught everyone on guard because that story was kind of developing pretty much day by day. So it was more tragic than anything you saw.

It's rare that a singular moment kind of unifies the entire mixed martial arts world because everyone hates everyone if you're fighting. So you even saw fighters like Dylan Danes and Conn McGregor kind of reach out. And John Kavanaugh like reach out to send their condolences to Habib. And then this happens. So it's two different ends of the spectrum for two tragedies, but different types of tragedies where Gilbert Burns' future is kind of a mystery and then losing your father's now. I can't quantify that in Towers.

It hasn't happened to me. I can't imagine. It was like Jose Shorty Torres on the East Side. He said it happened to him during a fight camp. And he said it was one of the worst moments of his life. So I can't even put that in the words. So in terms of the new cycle, this is one of the, in my mind, looking back, John Jones testing positive BUSC 200 is probably way up there.

Connor McGregor's retiring, probably way up there. The melee after 229, the strike force melee, of course. So, yeah, this is going to be one of those days that's going to be talked about for a long time. Yeah, and there's a couple of, like, Habib's cousins are supposed to compete on Flight Island, too, and they didn't jump on the charter from where they're at, obviously, for completely understandable reasons after the death of Habib's father. So we don't even know what's going to happen with those two particular matchups. But, man, we certainly, yeah. I can't even fathom what's going through.

Ali Adelis, he's mine right now. That's two of his fighters. And with Habib and Gilbert Burns is Ali, right? So, yeah, it's, uh, and Camaro too. So, like, it's a lot happening right now. For sure. And, uh, that means, you know, with all this crazy news going on, we're going to have a lot to discuss this week on between the links, on what the heck,

on the A-side Live chat and a lot more leading into these Fight Island events. The Brazilian Beast himself, Guillermo, is in route to start his Fight Island journey. So looking forward to seeing his coverage. And, of course, checking out UFC 251 next Saturday night in Abu Dhabi. It's still going to be a great card as it stands right now. We still have the two title fights. And we probably won't have a Welterweight title fight, but you never know. Crazier things have happened.

But Jose, always a pleasure. Thank you for joining me for Jose. Youngs, I am Mike Keck. Thank you for watching. Have a good weekend, everybody. For those of us in the United States, enjoy your Independence Day.