MMA Fighting - Reaction: Alex Pereira vs. Israel Adesanya 2, Jorge Masvidal vs. Gilbert Burns Set For UFC 287

Episode Date: January 27, 2023

UFC president Dana White made a slew of big fight announcements on Friday — some that were already confirmed, and others that were not — including a massive pair of fights for the UFC's April pay-per-view event, UFC 287. Following White's special announcement stream, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Shaun Al-Shatti react to the Alex Pereira vs. Israel Adesanya rematch for the UFC middleweight title headlining the April 8 event, Gilbert Burns vs. Jorge Masvidal for the co-main event, Kevin Holland's next bout being booked, will a second title fight still be added with the Burns vs. Masvidal bout coming together as quick as it did, and much more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Shaun Al-Shatti: @ShaunAlShatti 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

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UFC President Dana White, around 4.45 p.m. Eastern, took to social media, made a bit of a tease, said at 5 p.m. Eastern, 2 p.m. Pacific, they were jumping on all the social channels to make a big announcement. And rumors began to speculate. People were wondering what this could be. Was it Connor McGregor related? Would it be related to the tough rumors? We didn't know.

And then the fact that Dana White was 30 minutes late, I thought he was paying homage to Connor McGregor before making a Connor McGregor-type announcement. Turns out it had nothing to do with Connor McGregor. Dana White screaming into his lapel mic, for about 15 minutes straight, revealed a bunch of fights we already knew about. He confirmed Valentina Shofchenko

versus Alexa Grasso for the women's flyway title is the co-main event for UFC 285 on March 4th. No new additions to UFC 286 in London. But a lot of questions regarding UFC 287, and the crazy thing is, we didn't even get the major answer to the question that we all wanted to know. More on that in a moment,

but we found out that the main event for UFC 287 is the rematch between new middleweight champion Alex Pereira and his longtime foe Israel Adasanya. Co-main event for that card is the returning. Jorge Mazadol. He will take on Gilbert Burns. We also found that Kevin Holland will be taking on Santiago Ponzanibio on that card. Adrian Yannes versus Rob Font, which we had already previously reported.

Anyhow, a lot to digest here. There are other little bits and pieces of news that Dana announced that we will get to in a moment. But joining me in this venture is Sean Al Shadi and Sean, after what we just heard from Dana White, I don't feel like I'm talking loud enough. How are you? I don't feel like you're red enough. Like we got the baldness down, bald brothers, you and I. We're right there with Dana on that. But yeah, I don't think we're red enough yet.

Let's go scream into some pillows real quick and dial it up a notch. Come on. What are we doing? Alex Pereira versus Israel-Aisana, the main event, April 8th. I had heard rumblings that that's where we were going here, but there are also a bunch of rumblings going around that maybe Izzy wouldn't be maybe Robert Wooderker would slide in and get a title shot against Alex Pereira. But in the end, this is the fight to make all along.

And it's happening in April. Your reaction to this big middleweight title fight? I mean, I found it interesting that this was the route that we used to announce a fight that I think a lot of us already knew more or less was coming, right? Like, this is a little bit unique and particular for the UFC to do something like this. It does feel you mentioned at the top, you know, there was some whispers about Connor McGregor. It feels like maybe they pivoted last second. Something changed, who knows.

But Izzy is always the guy who's saying, you know, make my announcements for my fights. Big announcements, right? Do something special. This felt like they actually maybe listened to him for once. And, you know, this was the fight to mate ultimately. Ultimately, I know we've had a lot of fun over the last week bantering back and forth about whether, you know, Alex Pereira, Jamal Hill, that could be fun, the Glover to share a revenge story, all of that.

That all can wait. Like, this is the fight that needed to be. made is Radhasaunya is the second greatest UFC middleweight champion of all time and was very much about to win that fight until he didn't in the fifth round when those two gentlemen fought last year so this was the fight to make it feels like this is going to be one of the biggest fights on the schedule i see everyone's in love with alex perera right now that's one of the most intimidating men i've ever come across my entire life uh so this is a good one and ultimately i mean this looks like a stretch of pretty killer cards and killer main events if we're being honest right like you look at

the next four between Jones, Leon, and Islam and Vulcan. Now this, like, that's a pretty hefty stretch four in a row, I have to say. And then the co-man event, Jorge Mazadol versus Gilbert's, Gilberts, Gilberts, doing Gilbert Burns type things. He just fought. Like, the man literally just fought like six days ago. And now he's got his next fight against Jorge Mazadol. Massive fight. When he called out Colby after beating Neil Magny, I thought it was a bit of a whiff because... Big miss. Yeah, this whole build

was from Mazadol, and then Fight Week was all about Bilal Muhammad. I thought these are the only two directions we could go here. And it didn't matter at the end of the day because Gilbert is fighting Jorge Mazadol.

Is this a surprising matchup considering what happened after Gilaburn's defeated Neil Magny? I thought they were going to go the Bilal Muhammad route after everything and the back and forth on social media between those two guys.

But in the end, Gilbert Burns gets something he's wanted for about nine months now. I mean, good for Gilbert, man, because you're right. This is a fight we've been hearing banter back and forth about Gilbert's been calling for quite some time now, really. I just didn't ever think he was actually going to get this fight, right? Like, it felt like Jorge Masvedal was maybe, he's certainly not higher ranked than Gilbert. He's not more of a contender than Gilbert in that division, but he is someone who is at least on a different level of star power, and he's lost three

in a row. None of those have been very competitive fights for the most part. It felt like they were going to try to feed Jorge some sort of win or some sort of big fight with a big name. Instead, they're just throwing the wolves to Gilbert. I mean, if you lose four in a row in this division, it feels like Jorge Masbadoll's star is definitely already reached the highest that it will and it is on the downslide. But if he loses a very one-sided fight to Gilbert, like I don't think a lot of us probably would predict, I don't know what you do with Mazmato at that point. You kind of used up all of his fame stock, right?

Like, that's kind of the end of the road for that. So the big question that we have been having about this UFC 287 card is Where the hell is it going to happen, Shaheen? Like, where in God's, where on God's green earth is this fight going to happen? Because personally, I have heard many, many rumblings about where this can actually happen. Hey, you know what? Here's some breaking news. I know. I'm talking about it. Yes. Yes. So we, we have been, I've been reporting on a heck of a morning, three locations. And one of them just happens to be the correct answer, according to the U.S.

UFC Australia Twitter page, which is the only one, by the way, of all the UFC Twitter pages that is saying this. This is what I was told. It was either going to be Brooklyn. Miami was the other option. And then there were rumblings that maybe MSG would be in play. But according to the UFC Australia Twitter account, it is happening in Miami, which I was told earlier today was probably going to happen. And I was told there could be some hurdles that may need to be jumped over, one of which is the success. of the Miami Heat. If they make the playoffs, that could cause a wrinkle here. But apparently

that's all been worked out. But we're going to the 305 Shaheen Al Shadi, apparently. Look at this. Look at this. This is total UFC, right? Because Colby versus Jorge should have been the fight in Miami. Like that was the fight to put in Miami. But whatever, if you're going to put Jorge in it now, that's fine. He's going to get a hell of a pop going out there. I love that. I love that in our stupid sport. It's UFC's Australia, New Zealand Twitter account. That is breaking this kind of news. This is just so typical of what this is. I mean, that should be fun, though, right?

Like, the UFC in Miami, you get Jorge Mazved all in there, Israel and Alex Pereira. That feels like it has a Florida type of vibe to it somehow, too. Like, I don't mind it. I will have to say, of all the announcements we heard today, and really, actually, I guess it was only one or two real announcements. The rest were just sort of confirmation of things we already knew. It does leave you with one question, right? It leaves you with one big division that did not get mentioned.

one division that is sort of still lingering out there. And that is 135, right? And we have been waiting to hear what's going to happen with Al Jermaine Sterling. What's going to happen with Henry Suhudo. Is that still the plan as an interim title was the state of Al Jemaine's health? It felt like it was coming up pretty soon to a deadline for Aljo to try to figure out whether he's going to be able make that or not. And we still are left without an answer there. And that to me is one of the biggest questions now we have moving forward on this schedule. So it is, for what I understand, because you obviously reported that it's being targeted for April 8th. And again, there's been a lot of moving parts when it comes to what's going to be on the card, who's healthy, who's not healthy,

where is this fight card actually going to happen? Because this Miami thing has been in the works, but nothing was set. Like literally nothing was set. I talked to managers earlier today and they said they still weren't told anything. And I was told Miami was probably the frontrunner by one person with knowledge of what's going on here who would let me know that Mazadol Burns and the Adasanya Pereira fight was likely going to headline. But again, there were wrinkles in place. I'm told that Sterling Suhudo could still happen on this card. It's still being targeted. All this is still kind of up in the air right now.

But right now with these two big fights, we don't know what's going to happen. And of course, we got the Rob fought Adrian Yontas fight. Now Kevin Holland, Santiago Ponziabio. Gerald Mearshardt. I mean, if you want to see if you're the middleweightiest middleweight of all time, you got to get in there and you got to get through GM3 fighting Joe Pfe. Very good start to this card.

And as Dana said, just going back to the Sterling Suhudo stuff, He said, we're still working on this card. I'd love to announce more, but none of the fights are done just yet. And neither was Sterling's Tehudo. It was never done. This is the date they were looking at. This is the date they were targeting. And things change all the time, especially with this year.

And especially with all the crazy stuff that is going on right now. So, but I want to say. 23, baby. Yeah, 2020. Is Kevin Holland a human being? Because that handbrake in December, Sean, a month ago is apparently all healed and he's going to come back and fight in April. This is insane.

I love it. It's old school. It's true old school. I mean, I just got done taping like a four-hour pod with Jed Mishu, Eki K. Leighton and Alexander Kay Lee about Fador Emilianenko's career. And as you go through a lot of these old school guys, the pride guys, you look at the schedules. They were fighting every other month, basically. Like Fador beat Bignong for the title, and he was fighting again like a month later, two months later.

Kevin Hollis from that world, man. Like he's really one of the last guys who's out here just trying to fight every single month, every other week. You got to love it. You absolutely got to love it. And I have to say, if that card ends up looking like what it potentially could look like, right? With Izzy, Alex at the top, the big, big rematch, that's, to me, still one of the biggest fights of the year coming up. And then you got the star power of Masmedo versus Gilbert Burns.

And then you throw in a Henry Sehudo, whether it's against the Shano Mouthey or whether it's against Al Jamein Sterling, plus all the accoutrements that we just got sprinkled on top of that, like you just said, Rafon, Adrienne Yanez, and Kevin Holland, Ponsadibio, and just all these others. you're looking at card of the year potential, my man. The other name that stood out to me that we didn't get any additional confirmation. I looked at the UFC website as well. Ian Gary, a very exciting prospect at 170, is going to be fighting March 4th at UFC 285, and we just don't know who his opponent is yet.

So excited to see what he has in store for all of us. So, yeah, some big news from Dana White was not Connor McGregor-related, so I guess we'll have to stay tuned for that. but I guess what Dana laid the groundwork for is we're going to be having a lot of yelling and screaming a fight announcements on these social media pages throughout 2023, which is just not what I want, but... Well, so let me ask real quick, before we sign off,

let me ask you, what do you think about how this was presented? Like, this is different for the UFC. We often ask for different. Do you like this? Is this better than just throwing it out as a one-liner in some press conference or just getting a press release sent to your inbox? Like, I know the expectation, were for a different announcement so that may be soured this, but would you like this as a regular

thing? Here's what I'll say. And this is the first thing I thought of. We all can't be all things, Sean. Like, I would love to be like a fireman and all these other things that I've like always dreamed of. I would love to host the price is right. I can't do that right now.

You'd be a good host of the prices right. I would love to do that. And Dana White can do a lot of things well, but running his own show and being the lone dude is not one of them. Dana is not a, Dana is not the conductor of the train in broadcast, but he's a tremendous co-pilot. Like, if you just feed him stuff and let him do what his thing is

and just answer questions, he'd be great. Now, if you do John Anik in there with him, or Lorisanko in there with him, or Megan Olivy in there with him, to have a little bounce, a little back and forth, a little bouncy bounce, then it's, I think it has a little more impact, but just chuck and Dana out there,

maybe with a pivot to just yell and scream for 20 minutes. I think they're on to something. like that they're mixing things up, but we got to add another, we got to add another talking head in there. That's what I think. What did you think of it? So just make it a duo, make it a duo and Mike Hex in then? Uh, yes. That's what I'm thinking right now. So I can get along with that. I mean, I, I don't mind it. I mean, I think again, the expectations for what this was going to be, maybe soured how it was received. But if this ultimately became a regular occurrence, like it does feel bigger. We're doing a show a little quick pod here right now to

react to the idea of these fights, right? Like it does make it just feel a little bit more. more important than just a regular press release or hey, we're going to do Glover versus, you know, here, whoever in January for the title, just throwing stuff out there willy-nilly. I agree. I appreciate what they're trying to do. You know, we can just bid on this. When we did this for the first time, we're like, oh, how can we make this better? And I think the UFC might be able to do some stuff better.

Dana needs to be there making these announcements, but someone needs to feed him with a little bit of energy. They just need to be halfway on the energy levels and the microphone levels. So you can't go pure red. You can't start it, Red. What's up, UFC fans? Oh, man. Well, I mean, look, great starts in the year. These next several pay-per-views are going to be absolutely on fire.

I'm glad we kick things off with a 90-second promo for the February 4th card that starts at 1 a.m. Eastern. So I get excited for that. But obviously, we're going to be going to UFC 284, which is a massive card. And then it's on to John Jones, Cyril Gone. and it's on to Edwards versus Usman, and then Gaichi versus Fizzi, which is going to be insane, and then we go to April 8 to Miami, apparently.

And we're going to get the rematch between Alex Pereira and Israel Adisania. We're going to get the return of Jorge Gainbrin-Mazadeau against Gilbert Burns. We might get some more add to this. So much happening right now, Shaheen. What a run. Exactly. And as more continues to pile on our plates, we will let you know what is happening in the wonderful world

of mixed martial arts here at M.AFutting.com. So for Shaheen, I am Mike Heck. Thank you for listening to our quick reaction pod. Good night, everybody. Love you guys. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.