MMA Fighting - Jorge Masvidal Steps In To Face Kamaru Usman At UFC 251 Reaction

Episode Date: July 6, 2020

MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee react to the weekend's massive news of Jorge Masvidal stepping in to face Kamaru Usman for the welterweight title in the new main event of UFC 251. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee 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

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. All right, Mike Heck here for MMAfighting.com. And we wanted to make sure we didn't jinx anything or jump the gun. But now that it's promotionally official, initial COVID-19 tests have been passed. It is time to react to the big news from this past weekend. As we discussed late Friday night, Gilbert Burns is out of the UFC 251 main event against Kamara Usman for the welterweight title. And now, Jorge Mazadol will step in on six days notice to, fight Kamara Usen. This is just wild because, as you may recall, myself and Jose Youngs discussed

whether or not this was a possibility to have Mazadol or even Colby Covington jump in at the 11th hour. We left it at it's doubtful, but crazier things have happened. And with everything involved, this might be the tops in the craziness department. Now, obviously, there were some hurdles to overcome to get to this point as expected. The negotiations to get this fight locked and loaded was probably the biggest one, especially on Mazadal's side. He's been very local lately about fighter pay, contracts, et cetera. But in the end, everyone was able to come to terms. Usman and Mazadal traveled to Vegas on Sunday. Mazadal had to pass a COVID-19 test, which he found out late Sunday night that he did. And we have a new main event to christen Fight Island this Saturday

night at UFC 251 for the Welterweight title. What a wild story. This has been. There are still some hurdles to get over, but barring a positive COVID test in Abu Dhabi. This is signed sealed and delivered. And to join me in reacting to this news, let's check in with my colleague over at mameafining.com, Mr. Alex Kaylee, MMA media's most popular Twitter follow. I believe that's what he said in our Slack channel.

But Alex, thank you for being here. I know you're a very busy guy. People are calling you left and right. But when you found out first that Gilbert Burns was out of the fight, and this is super, super unfortunate news for him and all of this, how did you react to that news? And then what was going through your mind

when you started seeing reports that, Jorge Mazadol would be a possibility and ultimately the guy to step in and save the day here. How do we get here? How do we get to this spot? MMA, I think people need to realize, MMA, people know this. I'm not saying anything that fans of the sport don't already know. MMA is not a point A to point B to point C, you know, business. It's not linear.

It is the equivalent of the in the movies when the guy goes crazy and is trying to figure out, trying to hunt down the guy who, you know, who killed his wife. And he's got the, he's got the reds yarn on the board. zipping here and there. So we've got, so in this case, we've got Jorge Mazbadole and Kamar Usman, Gilbert Burns, COVID-19, Abu Dhabi. This is all these crazy, Las Vegas, UFC Apex. We've got all these pieces. And it's, it's, we, I mean, our own site, we've posted at least half a dozen stories about Jorge Moswell and his problems with the UFC and negotiations and wanting more money. And, you know, we've got to be thinking, and then when you see that story,

Gilbert Burns and getting the tell shot, you're going to be thinking, well, it's going to be a while before we see Mazvedal fight again and possibly get that fight with Usman. Within 48 hours again, you know, the unfortunate news for Gilbert Burns, suddenly this fight happens. And now we're all just kind of moving forward. We're all just kind of moving forward.

Happy with the matchup, it's a matchup. It's a matchup. So many of us wanted to see. The circumstances almost don't matter. And, man, I don't know how we got here, but suddenly there it is. U.S.I.C. 251. Kumar Uzman, Jorge Mazvedal,

title fight. It is just an crazy. crazy, July 4th weekend that all this went down on. So, you know, too bad for Gilbert Burns,

obviously, but what a compelling fight we have ahead of us. Yeah, this is just wild. We've been covering in the sport for a long time, and there have been

a lot of crazy stories that we've covered along the way. But talk about timing, being absolutely everything. Jorge Mazadol and his team played this thing brilliantly.

Mazadol told ESPN, I think that interview was released earlier today that the UFC didn't hit his number on the nose, but they were still very close in doing so. And here's,

one thing that I've noticed throughout this whole thing over the last 24 hours or so. Mazadol stepping in like this, it's a savage move. No doubt about it. And people have been rightfully praising him for the savage move. But what about Kamara Usman, Alex? Like, he's preparing to fight a teammate, someone he was very familiar with, a whole different style than Mazadol is going to bring to him on Saturday night. And I don't know if it's just me, Mr. A.K. Lee, but I haven't seen much in the praise department going in Kamara Usman's direction. He deserves a lot of credit in this as well. And he deserves to be painted in the same savage brush as Jorge Mazvedal, does he not? Yeah, anyone who's thinking like, oh, well, of course Uzman took the fight.

It's an easy matchup because the other guy is less prepared. No one stepping into a cage with Roy Mazvado is going to have an easy time. I don't care if he's taking the fight on 10 hours notice. Yes, a week is a short amount of time, but Mazvidal is exactly the kind of guy who you would expect to be able to step up in the situations. It's well documented, of course, his street fighting background, just how much of a veteran he is, I think with over, over 40 fights. He's seen it all. So one week notice for him, it's not ideal, but it's not going to be a huge problem. He is going to be a difficult opponent for Usman. So yes, Usman deserves tons of credit for accepting this fight. Like you said, Burns, completely different guy, completely different

scenario. It's such a hard thing to ask anyone to take a late notice opponent. I don't care who that opponent is. And again, it doesn't sound like Usma complained. If anything, I think he He had a tweet referencing deliverance shortly after, I guess, before, around the time the rumors started coming out that it could be Mazvedal coming in. And so clearly, he's all aboard with promoting it. And he deserves credit for that because a week to go, it's not a lot of time to boost what should have been a massively, massively promoted fight. I guess in some ways it's been promoted, you know, just over social media over the last

few months and, you know, on its own. But still, you would have liked to see it given a proper push. So, yes, all credit in the world to Mazuadol for going through with this. And I'm sure, though, of course, he is happy to have. that title of defense stay in place. Yeah, because the way it was left on Friday night, it was like they're just going to rebook this thing for a month, two months down the road.

And it would have been completely understandable for Usman to just kind of stick to his guns, be like, listen, I was preparing a fight Gilbert Burns. I moved to Colorado to do so to train with the different team and different coaches and different training partners that I've been used to for the past several years. So it would have been completely understandable. Yeah, he would have taken some heat if this news got out that Mazadol was off for the fight and Usman said no. But at the end of the day, it would have been totally understandable.

And we alluded to this earlier, but kind of lost in the shuffle in all of this is Gilbert Burns, who is the number one contender for the title. The guy absolutely busted his ass, jumped on every opportunity possible and earned a title shot. Now he's going to have to sit at home and watch Jorge Mazadol get that title shot instead of him. And in the end, I want to ask you this out, if Dana White doesn't come out in front of the media before this event and say, 100% Gilbert Burns is fighting the winner of this fight, this is a travesty of epic proportions, right? I mean, he's going to, he could say it.

He doesn't have to mean it. So I could definitely see him on Saturday night saying that, yep, Gilbert Burns is next for sure. But we don't know. There's so many things, always so many complications. Of course, and Danaeak will always say, oh, we'll wait until Tuesday before we're making decisions. But I don't know if he can, if anyone can guarantee Gilbert Burns anything, which is a shame. Because while Mazvedal versus Usman is the fight we wanted, Burns versus Usman is the fight we kind of got. didn't realize that we wanted.

It was such a cool matchup, you know, when it finally came out, we're like, yeah, why not? We saw him dominate Woodley, and we said, yes, why not him? Why not now? Yes, their teammates, but they said they would fight. So let's go for it. That is, like you said, the thing that's lost because potentially we could have just postponed the fight, depending, of course, on Gilburn's condition. We could have just postponed the fight three weeks, a month maybe, and still had this fight

with only a little bit of a delay. Now Burns, again, gets lost to the shovel. Will he become one of those fighters who loses? that title shot and never gets it back, hopefully not, but it has happened many, many times in the past. And again, you've definitely got a feel for Burns. He's more than deserving of a title shot. And let's hope that he does get rebooked against the winner. Honestly, I think he has to be the biggest Kamara businessman fan in the world right now because if Mazdaal wins, good Lord, there's a lot more different option, 170. We'll talk about that later on between the links. But this is obviously a big

fight at 170. And we talked about how MMA is just, it's just so crazy. It just really is. It just really So if Jorge Mazadol can show up with all of these hurdles he had overcome to get to Abu Dhabi and beat Kamara Usman to become the Welterweight champion of the world, where is that going to rank on the all-time list of like crazy stories in the history of the sport? I think the first comparison that comes to mind is Michael Bisping, of course, just based on the longevity, how long a tip to get that first UFC title shot. However, you know, Bisping going to that second fight with Rockhold didn't have quite as much heat as Mazvedal has now. Masvedal, by the end of 2019, arguably the hottest, most hyped fighter in MMA. So that scenario isn't similar. But as far as longevity, you might even say he's as much of an underdog. I think Bisping was a bigger underdog against Rockhold and the rematch because Rockhold already

beaten him. But there's a lot of people saying that stylistic Usman just has Masvidal beat, you know, he's a good wrestler, that five, you know, they both can go a hard five rounds. But I think he can match him there, which a lot of Mazvedal's opponents can't. So in that sense, I would, again, I would lean towards the Bispin comparison, but it might even surpass that because, you know, it's such an insult when someone the Covington calls Masvedal, a journeyman George or whatever he wants to say about it. But it is true that Mazvado has been around for so long.

And if you had asked anyone two years ago, if he would be at this level and getting a U.C. title shot, no one would have predicted it. It's one of those, like you said, it's one of these things we've been saying about MMA. You just don't see it coming. So I'm not saying it would be the biggest, like most surprising. UFC champion, but, you know, it might be in the top five when you take everything into account. Yeah, I'm not questioning Mazdao's skill set whatsoever. I mean, we're in a global pandemic.

We've got to pass all these tests. We've got to fly all the way to Abu Dhabi. And we've got to pass more tests that we're going to be sequestered in our hotel rooms for 48 hours at a time. Like, it's just such a wild time in the world to get a short-notice fight like this. And I know, Alex, you are the MMA fighting prediction guy. You write the prediction pieces for all of these cards. And this could change by Saturday. Maybe something happens in the media days. Maybe you see how these guys are handling themselves,

what that look in their eyes throughout Fight Week. But right now on this Monday, what's your prediction? And if you don't have a prediction, where are you leaning towards at least? Mike, I do have a prediction. I'm leaning towards the champ, as I often do. It's definitely worth noting that I've had a pretty bad run of predicting main events this year.

as the commentators in our website have not been afraid to point that out. But I am leaning towards a champ. I do think the preparation matters. I know a guy like Mazdaal has probably been studying Uzman for a long time. There's a lot of fight footage out there. He's also the kind of fighter that he doesn't,

you know, he doesn't need to have a specific game plan. He's going to figure it out in there. But I do think Usman is just kind of on another level. And I think he's improving so much with every fight. I love what he showed in the Covington fight. I know there's questions about his effectiveness of his stand. But man, that was a good five-round stand-up war. Not saying it was a technical masterpiece, but that's the kind of grit you have to show if you're going to go five rounds with someone like Mazvedal.

And I do think that this fight is going to go the distance. And I do think it's going to go. So I do think it'll be Uzman by decision. So yeah, I'm leaning towards champ. I think he'll mix in wrestling smartly. I think he's going to show off that speed, show off that improving, those improving hands. He won't want to play around on the feet too much with Mazvedal. But I think he'll do better than people think.

I think if people think it's going to be just strictly, you know, wrestler versus grappler. No, not at all. Not at all. I think Uthman's definitely learned how to mix things up well, and he'll do that and take care of business on Saturday. But, yeah, a very good fight. This is why MMA is the greatest sport in the world, ladies and gentlemen. You don't get this kind of drama anywhere else, AK, and there's going to be a lot more on this story on UFC 21, Fight Island, everything. Right here on MAAfighting.com, we got between the links. We got the A-Side Live chat.

We got what the heck. I do have an interview that's going to drop later on tonight that you will all be very interested in, I would say. So look for that on the site as well. appreciate the time, A.K. for Alex Kaylee, I am Mike Heck. Thank you for watching. It's Fight Week, everybody.