MMA Fighting - UFC Announces Multiple Title Fights, 'Fight Island' Reaction

Episode Date: June 9, 2020

MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Jose Youngs react to the big news of Dana White announcing multiple title fights for the summer, three of which will take place on "Fight Island" at UFC 251. The UFC president also announced the location of the island, along with four fight cards in an eight day span, and the date for the trilogy fight for the heavyweight title between Stipe Miocic and Daniel Cormier.  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 with some big news on this Tuesday afternoon. UFC President Dana White appeared on ESPN's first take this morning and announced that UFC 251 will take place July 11th on Fight Island, featuring not one, not two, but three world title fights, confirming a report from ESPN's Ariel Hawani on Monday night. Now, headlining UFC 251 will be a Walterweight title fight between Kamara Usman and his teammates, the surging, GILA. Gilbert Burns, in addition, a featherweight title rematch will go down on July 11th as well, as Alexander Volcanovsky makes his first title defense against the man he'd thrown to become the champion. Max Holloway and the Bannamweight Division will hopefully crown a new champion as Piotr Yan will take on the long-time former featherweight champion, Jose Aldo. Dana White also provided information on this mystical fight island that we've been hearing about for the last two months or so,

and confirmed a report from Brazilian outlet Kambache on Saturday that it will happen in Abu Dhabi, Yaz Island, to be exact. And with that, it's going to be a very busy July on Fight Island. Not only will the UFC be in action with UFC 251 on the 11th, but there will be events on the 15th, the 18th, and the 25th. As if that wasn't enough, Dana White also announced a fourth title fight during his brief appearance on first take, announcing that Steve Amiochik will defend his heavyweight title against Daniel Cormier. The trilogy is set. D.C.'s final fight of his story career is signed, sealed, and delivered.

A big news day on this Tuesday. And joining me to react to all this news, M.M.A. fighting's Jose Young's. Jose, good to see you, sir. This is one of those days where I wish we were recorded between the links a day later. But there was a lot of news dropped by Dana White this morning. UFC 251 is going to take place on Fight Island, Yaz Island and Abu Dhabi, three title fights, headlined by Kamar Usman defending his Walterweight title against Gilbert Burns. Let's start there.

We have teammate versus teammate. Kamar Usman has looked unbeatable throughout most of his UFC career since coming off the ultimate fighter. He got tested for the first time against Kobe Covington, overcame some adversity for the first time in a long time, taking on Gilbert Burns. And I just want to throw this out there because I looked at this this morning for those, who aren't aware. In August of 2019, less than a year ago, Gilbert Burns was fighting Alexi Kunchenko at UFC Uruguay. So he goes from Kinchenko to a title shot in less than a year. What a story this has become. Your thoughts on this main event for UFC 251.

I mean, I feel like it's been a narrative that we've seen a lot lately, especially with like, like Anthony Smith and Tiago Santos come to mind. Like in one year, like Tiago Santos like, or Anthony Smith loses a middleweight and like I can't remember the exact date and then he jumps up to light heavyweight and then like one year later he's fighting John Jones same as like Tiago Santos like he jumps up at light heavyweight

as like a replacement and then just keeps winning and then gets a title fight with John Jones so you don't really see it a lot in the lighter weight classes I think Cody Garberant had a pretty fast rise but it's not like he was like he wasn't in the UFC for so like Gilbert Burns and these guys were for so long

he was like this hot process that comes in and gets all this steam and then works as we have to a title fight. So, yeah, it's the, the precedent has been there the last few weeks, but not in lighter weight, it's in these lighter weight classes. So, yeah, it's, it's, uh, I'm not surprised. It's Gilbert Burns. I've said this a few times because Gilbert Burns is one of those guys that'll fight anyone anytime anywhere.

And the UFC, uh, tends to do those kind of guys' favors or, uh, looks, looks fondly on them when it comes to matchmaking. So I'm not, I'm not surprised that the one that, that pulls this off is Gilbert. Burns. There's two other title fights in this card, but in terms of what fight is the headliner, just to throw this up there, Aaron Hawani did tweet out earlier today that the UFC tried one last time on Monday to book Usman versus Jorge Mazadol, but they couldn't come to terms with Mazadol. So Byrne gets this fight, gets a huge opportunity. He's also pissed off a lot of fighters, probably Mazadol. Nate Diaz had some things to say about it. With that said, did the UFC

get this correct in terms of what title fight is going to headline that? this card. I mean, yeah, I don't mean, I mean, they're not going to have a vacant title headline, which would be Aldo Jan. They're not going to have, like, the rematch between Volcanovsky and Holloway is, is great. That's an awesome fight, but it's a rematch with Holloway losing. And Gilbert Burns has been on fire lately. He's, oozman's is the higher weight class because, like, historically, outside of Connor McGregor fights, the heavier weight class usually always headlines, even like you saw Ronda Rousey

was the co-main event for two middleweight title fights for Anderson's of the Wydman 2 and then Wydenman Machita. So the precedent is there again. So no, I mean, so yeah, I think it's not that it's right or wrong. It's just that's how it's always been outside of Connor McGregor fights. Good point. And Alexander Volcanowski versus Max Holloway, too, like you mentioned, is set for this card for the featherweight title. Volcanovsky won the title UFC 245 against Holloway via animus decision. Holloway, at least in my opinion, because there are some people who still say that they thought Holloway won that fight, and I thought he was just a step behind throughout most of that fight. It happens to fighters all the time. There's a fight you just, you just aren't mentally there

for. Maybe this is the one, but this was definitely the fight to make, in my opinion. I don't think anybody else in that great division has jumped past Max Holloway at this point. So I guess my question is, can this fight go any differently than the first one? I mean, definitely. Max Holloway is one of the greatest fighters who's not just one of the greatest feather weights every one of the greatest fighters of all time it's him and aldo are the two greatest feather weights i mean i personally still kind of put aldo number one uh for for for it's it's hard to say i go back and forth in my mind a lot but uh yeah this was the right move to make uh max holloway is proving he's one has one of the highest fight iqs ever i mean he he was one of these guys that like you see the gilbert burns

fight like we talked about gilbert burns will just fight everyone max holloway did that and he did all the way to beating Aldo twice in a row. So yes, if anyone can pull, like, make adjustments and reclaim this title, it's Max Holloway. So I favor Volcanowski in the rematch, but Holloway, it's, it's, you don't, you can't count off out of fighter or a former champion like Holloway. Absolutely. That was not meant to disparage Max Holloway at all, but that's just kind of what everyone's talking about right now. And then we got Pieterian versus Jose Aldo for the vacant band-of-way title. And I think you guys all know my thoughts on this piece of business at this Al Jermaine Sterling should 1,000% be in the spot or even be the damn champion after Saturday

nights win over Corey Sanhagen. But to quote the great Max Holloway, it is what it is. Jan versus Aldo, we will have a new champion, hopefully for the love of God on July 11th. It is a fun fight on paper, Jose. You've said this many times. Great martial arts fight. I just don't feel this should be a title fight with Jose Aldo involved, especially coming off of two losses, one of which was at 135 and losing five out of his last eight.

Yeah, if we're talking about who deserves the fight, the fight, it's Al Jermaine Sterling. He should be fighting Peter Yon anyway. But at the end of the day, we know, MMA doesn't make sense. And we've talked about this a lot. They are prize fighters after all. Like, do you think Al Jolzumain Sterling, after his performance against Corey Sanhagen, he's, the winner of Yon Aldo is going to, like, Alo's already a megastar. He has a whole country behind him.

Peor-Tor-Yon, if he beats Jose Alo, the greatest band featherweight of all time and gets that notch on his belt is a megastar, especially in Russia, where Habib is looked at as a national hero, especially because Russia can't go to a little cup, they can't go to the because of the doping band. So if Al Jermannes-Stirling gets to fight the winner of Aldo Yon, which we all agree he's going to, that is a bigger deal than if Al-Zo just fought Yon. I feel like Aldo and Yon getting a win over each other makes that fight against Al-Germain that much more important.

So yes, devil's advocate, Sterling should not even be in this position. He should be fighting for the title anyway. There's an argument that he deserved the title shot over Yon. If someone goes Yon or Aljo right before Corey Sanagan, there's an argument that Al Jermaine deserved the shot against Aldo over Yon because he's put together such. He beat Jim Rivera first and he's beat Pedro Munoz. He's beat all these guys impressively. But Al Jolmaine's throne is going to make a lot more money.

if he fights the winner, not more money, but he's going to get more shine off of fighting someone who beat between Aldo and Yan after they beat one, whoever wins that fight. So I'll play devil's advocate. Again, I just really like that fight. I don't even care that as for a title. I just want to see Peoria and Jose Al to throw down. So for two months now, we've been talking about Fight Island, we're building this vision in our heads of what it could be. And it seems like it was like a roller coaster ride, like Dana White, three. threw out all these things. We all sort of ran with it. And then

it seemed like in the last couple weeks, he was like, ah, you guys are picturing me sitting up on a beach in a Hawaiian shirt watching all these fights. That's not what it's going to look like. And then it was revealed. It was Yah's Island, Abu Dhabi, and we got to see some graphics. We got to see some photos of the island on social media. What do you grade the look

in execution after seeing what you've seen so far? I should have been expected. Remember when Habib flew to Abu Dhabi and then he got stuck. And And then there was no fight and then he flew back to Russia. It got stuck. Like that should have been clue number one that they were already keying in on Abu Dhabi to begin with.

So I haven't really looked. I want to see what it looks like. But like, we've seen fights on Abu Dhabi before. We know what it's going to look like. So the UFC is putting it on a beach with no fans like, neat. I want to see it first. Not surprised and I'm not disappointed because as soon as they announced it, I was like, oh, yeah, duh. Why wouldn't they?

Why didn't I think it would be? Why wasn't Abu Dhabi higher up on my list of possibilities, given the Habib situation where he was literally flying there already to fight Tony Ferguson? So, indifferent. Just in, I mean, that's been my answer for so many of these UFC shows. It's hard to have an emotion over the UFC because in a month, all of these title fights could just be off. That's where we're at in the world right now. So you're giving it an incomplete right now. Yeah, TBD, to be determined.

And then on top of all this news, Stepe versus DC3 is a done deal for August 15th at UFC 252. Last fight of Daniel Cormier's career, Steep A returns the favor to give him the trilogy fight. I'm really looking forward to this one because I'm the storyline guy, Jose, and this one checks every single box for me. Yeah, I think it's, it's, it's, we've, I remember when the first JDS Kane trilogy was happening,

It's like, this is for the greatest heavyweight of all time. And then Kane just, like, just battered him for two fights. And, like, that's the greatest heavyweight of all time. Those second two fights weren't competitive at all. It was Kane just destroyed him. The first fight between D.C. and Stipei was quick. So it wasn't really a fight. It was a first no knockout.

The second fight, D.C. was winning. And then Stipe adjusted and started going to the bodies. And once D.C. stopped relying on his wrestling. So that was pretty competitive. I think this third fight is going to be one of the most competitive is going to be the most competitive heavyweight title fight we've seen in a very long time because if you even look back at the last few like pre trilogy, pre-DC. Stipe, it's like Stipei just four, like had a not, didn't cruise because no one cruises against Francineano, but I think it's, we can all agree. Stipe, there's no question he won that fight. It wasn't like there was a close fight after that first round.

And then he chaos JDS. He chaos over him. He chaos Verdome. So it's like Stepe is having all these quick performances and dominant wins. And then he gets in this trilogy with D.C. And every fight gets more and more competitive. So just going off of history, I think DC steep or Stepe Miochitz versus Daniel Cormier, Part 3 is going to be one of the most, if not the most competitive heavyweight title fights. We have ever seen as fight fans.

And it is 100% the right fight to make. I'm glad it's one year after in August because they fought in July and then they fought in August and then they're fighting again. August again. So yeah, I can't wait for this fight. And there's an argument that this could be the greatest heavy rate of all time. Whoever wins this fight is the greatest UFC heavyweight of all time. And then, of course, if Daniel Corby retired, Steepa can surpass him if he keeps racking up wins. But it's, there's a lot of stories going into this fight. Yeah, I'm just glad they didn't strip Stepe or anything like that. Because that was being discussed and that would have been a terrible mistake. I've said this before. If they were going to strip Stepe,

just simply to keep the division rolling. And because he couldn't train and he had his all. It would be the worst decision. It would be optically the worst decision to strip Stepe as a first responder during a pandemic. But if you're going to strip him and then he gets the immediate title fight right away, pay him the same amount as if he was, pay him as if he was champion still. Like, don't take, don't strip him and then take money away from him. Because at the end of the day, I'm pretty sure Steepay would like, like now that he has a family.

If he doesn't have the belt due to a pandemic, but he gets to get paid the same amount on his return, I think Steve, that would be a little less of a salt in the wound for Stepe. But you, yeah, but Dana White cannot come out. Oh, he can't. He can't come out and be like, listen, if these guys don't want to fight during a pandemic, they don't have to. Like, we support them 100%. And then strip Steepay the title, that would have been terrible.

It would have been the, optically, it would have been one of the worst things. Like, I know Dana White doesn't care, but after we're going on that, ran about they don't have to fight and then stripping a first responder for not fighting, that would be the worst. But again, you know what, I wouldn't be surprised. Would you be surprised? I wouldn't. No, not surprised me anymore.

This is crazy. This whole day doesn't surprise me. And bananas, Jose, B-A-N-A-N-A-S. There's this. Now there's reports out there that Habib and Justin Gaghi is in the works for September 19th, the UFC 253. I mean, with that said, the A-Side Live chat tomorrow is got to be out of control, is it not? Honestly, if they decided that every single fight card was canceled in July, just to save Habib and American made up

and Justin Gehji, I'd be like, yeah, all right, I can get behind that. Like, just give me that fight. I want that fight so badly. That is,

I was thinking about it. I'm like, I know I really want Korean zombie, Brian Ortega. Gachi and Habib might pass it for like my most wanted fight.

God, I want that fight so bad. You could have booked that a year in advance and like they did with the Rock and John Cena. I would have been fine with that. Like,

just bubble wrap them for a year. Let him. and then bubble wrap them back up. That's too many. That's too much. We saw that when they announced Tony and Habib and Tony in November. It was November. And they announced it for April.

We're all like, it's a lot of time for something to happen. And then none of us expected it to be a pandemic. But look what happened. Yeah, unbelievable. So I take back that last thing I said. But make sure you check out the A-Side tomorrow. Make sure you go back and listen to Between the Links as well. We recorded that yesterday.

That dropped this morning. and stay locked to MMAfighting.com is this news cycle just continues to burst over these last 12 hours or so. I don't think it's going to stop anytime soon. So for Jose Young's, I am Mike Heck, have a great rest of the day, everybody.