MMA Fighting - Reaction: Kamaru Usman vs. Jorge Masvidal 2 Headlines UFC 261 In Jacksonville

Episode Date: March 16, 2021

Moments after UFC president Dana White made the announcement, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck and Steven Marrocco react to the welterweight title rematch between Kamaru Usman and Jorge Masvidal headlining a championship triple header at UFC 261 in Jacksonville, Fla. on April 24, the event taking place in front of a full house at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena, and more.  Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Steven Marrocco: @MMAFightingSM 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. Wouldn't you know it? It's Monday evening. We're relaxing, hanging out, looking forward to a fun rest of the month in the UFC. Of course, Derek Brunson versus Kevin Holland is this Saturday. We get two title fights next Saturday, including the heavyweight championship bout

between Stepe Mietzich and Francis Angano at UFC 260. And then my big brother, Dana White, comes out on Twitter and makes a big announcement that on April 24th, UFC 261 will take place at the Vistar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida, and it will be with fans at full capacity. That is massive news, right? But wait, there is more, ladies and gentlemen.

Not only will we get Valentina Shavchenko versus Jessica Androge for the women's flyway title. Not only are we getting Zhang Wei v. Rose Namibunis for the Straway title, the main event for U.S. UFC 261 on April 24th will be Kamara Usman back two months after his TKO win over Gilbert Burns. He gets his wish. He gets his call out. He will defend his title against Jorge Mazadol in a rematch from their first fight in July at UFC 251. Absolutely wild news. The move to Florida, not surprising our own Damon Martin confirmed with sources that discussions were underway to possibly move UFC 260 to Jacksonville.

It didn't seem like there is enough time to get all that squared away, but in the same building that the UFC began their pandemic era is the same building, they will welcome back a more than likely sold out capacity crowd with a trio of title fights. Dana White said the UFC would be the first to do it. They won't be the first, but they will be one of the first for sure. So with that, with this big news, I am being joined by the deputy editor for MMAFighting.com, Mr. Stephen, pretty interesting news on this Monday night, eh? don't think the announcements individually are that surprising, but seeing the move to Florida,

full capacity, Usman Mosvidal, two in the headline spot less than six weeks away and one big piece of mega news, that sort of took me by surprise. What is your reaction to all this Monday night mayhem? Well, they rarely get it all in one, right? I mean, usually it sort of trickles out in bits and pieces. And like you said, we were working on this. One had some substantiation behind it moving to Florida and now that's the case. So now I can all move on to the next part of the equation, which is the rest of the card and how they plan to actually oversee this thing. One of the immediate questions that I had when I saw the video was,

you know, how, if at all, they're going to change any of their protocols. I'm going to assume they're not. But, yeah, I just have some questions about how the crowd is going to be managed, if at all. if there's any sort of, you know, steps in place to make sure that everything is as safe as it can possibly be. So it's an interesting announcement for sure. Definitely kind of what you'd expect after, you know, so so many states are opening up and lifting restrictions. it kind of felt like the floodgates were kind of opening up.

So I think this was just the logical next step for the UFC. I feel like this is deja vu in a way, Stephen, because it was a little under a year ago pretty much at this very moment. When we're doing a video like this, talking about UFC 249 going down in Jacksonville with no fans, and we're asking the same sorts of questions, are there concerns about opening back up so quickly with the pandemic?

Now we're talking not 500 people, not 1,000 people, not even 5,000 people. We're talking 15,000 people, maybe more in that arena. Now, I will say my parents have been in Florida for months. They've been partaking in St. Patty's Day festivities for the last several days. Lots of people, no mask. Everyone is just enjoying life down there. Florida, very different place, has been throughout this entire thing.

But kind of going back to that conversation and then kind of going to where we're at now, seeing how the UFC handled everything since May of 2020 to fight Ireland, to having fans in January to where they're heading next month. Are you more confident now with the addition of fans than you were last year with no fans? It's hard to say. I mean, it's, yes, I mean, in general, I'm more confident about how they themselves handled. They've clearly proven that they can run shows, even though they haven't, you know, stamped out people testing positive for coronavirus.

You remember that a year ago, they were running this show, and even up to the day, the days leading up to that event, that first event, 249, they had a COVID positive in Jacaray Sousa. So they were still kind of working it out, some of the kinks out, and some of the enforcement. And that's, you know, they wrote up this protocol, this 20-page protocol or whatever. they improved it as they continued on and went back to Vegas, and then they improved it some more as recently as I think a month or two ago when they started having this rash of people testing positive on the day up. So it's, it should illustrate the point pretty clearly that there's no way you can fully control this thing. And I think that's where the concern comes in. Am I more confident that they can handle it, yes, but you're introducing a lot more variables into the

equation by allowing 15,000 people into the building. And again, we don't know what sort of steps, if any, they're taking to mitigate some of the risks that are obviously well known to everybody who's been following this thing for the last year. So, you know, they're aggressive. They've always been aggressive. They've always wanted to go first. As you said, they're not the first to do it, but this is kind of an experiment. We're going to see how it works out. I think the real question is what happens after this event, and that takes significant reporting resources. If you look at some of the coverage of the COVID virus in the past six months, tracing those super spreader events is a very, very difficult and labor-intensive thing. And the question that is going to be on us,

the media and other observers is to really keep an eye out and see what was the net effect of this, you know, of 15,000 people getting in one building at the same time. And we just don't know. We won't know that until at least a week or two after the event. Hopefully we find out sooner rather than later, like those steps I know heading into the first card, Dana White wasn't willing to give us anything. Hopefully that changes. We get a little more information on how this is going to work, getting people in.

Will there be temp checks? Will there be like instant tests for COVID? Who knows? But hoping for the best, obviously. But in terms of the encage action that we're going to see on April 24th, scheduled, we already knew about the title fights at 115 and 125, but Kamar Usman versus Jorge Mazdal, 2, is going to headline this one.

And originally, this was being discussed for September because there was talks of both of these guys coaching the ultimate fighter. I said many times, I had no issue with this fight being made. I had no issue with Usman calling out Mazadol after 258 because there's no clear-cut number one contender 170 pounds right now, especially after this past Saturday night where Leon Edwards and Blah Muhammad fought to a no contest. That's my opinion. Let's get the rest of these guys fighting, let these guys get after it and figure this thing out.

Are you with me or are you kind of like the other half of the equation, not really a fan of this rematch since we saw it already? It's Look, it makes money. Madsbadal is a big draw And Usman is the kind of guy That Usman is a kind of matchup And that clash of personality is the history

And the clash of styles Is the thing that makes it Something that's, that's You know, you can take to the bank And especially now that like you said, there's no concrete next contender, it makes even more sense. I mean, I don't think it's really going to be any significantly different, you know, given the matchup of styles, given Mazvedal's history, you know, I don't see the bout going

any differently. But it's one of those, you know, it's one of those things you can promote it on the idea that, you know, Jorge's got a full camp now and he's ready for the challenge. He knows what he did wrong. Luzman is going to be, you know, presumably healthy after healthy this time around. Metsvedal's not going to have a broken nose. So these are probably the angles that they're going to run with, you know, in the lead up to it. And, you know, with Edwards kind of in a limbo, I think this was probably the play that

they were going for all along. And I think if Leon Edwards is smart, he's going to try to get himself on this card in some way, shape, or form for multiple reasons. One, just to get him in there and try to make sense of where he stands in this division. And two, if something were to happen to one of these guys, there he is. He can slide right in there. But that's the welterweight title fight. From a competitive standpoint, Stephen, which of these three title fights interests you the most? Is it Usman Mazadal, too?

Is it Ballantina Shepchenko versus Jessica Andraj? Andrade's trying to score herself a title at 125, or is it Zhang Wei her return for the first time since the Yuanian Jacek fight defending against Rose Namibunas? I think it's the Zhang Wei Li because we've seen her obviously tested in a major way against Yuana. But in Rose, we get a former champion who was considered the best in the world for quite some time. beat you on twice. Obviously lost to Andrage in a pretty violent way. But I like that matchup because I think it's a good barometer for, you know, how dominant

Weyley is going to be, you know, is she like really the, you know, the pound for pound grade potentially. Is she the best at, 115 pounds, the best way to prove that is to by beating a once dominant 115 pound champ. And, you know, given the way that that division is, I mean, you know, Rose was probably the closest thing to like the breakout star. Joanna and Rose were probably the big stars of that division. And if Whaley, Whaley's already put away Joanna, so if she's going to be that next big star,

she has to put away Rose, and I think that's where that fits in. So we got the three title fights, and we also get Chris Wyatman versus Uriah Hall. We get Anthony Smith versus Jimmy Crude, and this is just the beginning. There's more, some really fun prelim fights. We've reported a couple of those, but this card is absolutely ridiculous. Able 24th, full crowd, Jacksonville, Florida, three title fights, Usman versus Mazadol. Buckle up because think about this, we get Whitaker Costa and Ben Asker versus Jake Paul in a boxing match the week before, and then this card the week after.

This is crazy. What a time to be a combat sports fan, Stephen Morocco. Unbelievable. Yeah, I'm sure we'll all watch the Ascran Paul fight, you know, over the Whitaker Till fight. Didn't we have that conversation about, like, who you were going to watch, like, and what that meant about you? If not, we should definitely have that.

Because, you know, it is a time unlike any other. It feels like a time unlike any other in so many different ways. And, you know, just the fact that there's, getting back to business, going back to full crowds, like pretty much one year from when, uh, when they stopped. Yeah, it's what a time to be alive. Well, there you go. Reaction to this big news for this Monday, March 15th, 2021, UFC 261 going down April 24th, full crowd, three title fights, Usman Mossadal, too. Like we just said, what a time to be alive for Steve Morocco. I am Mike Heck.

Good night, everybody. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. You know,