Las Vegas, NV — UFC reporter/on-air talent Megan Olivi, for one, is not buying into the “teammate vs. teammate” angle of UFC 258’s main event.
Welterweight champ Kamaru Usman and challenger Gilbert Burns once shared a home at Sanford MMA. At least until Usman up and left the team. Still, the driving storyline of the UFC 258 main event has been the duo’s shared history.
“How much does it really matter?” Olivi questioned Friday in a media scrum with reporters following the event’s official weigh-in. As Olivi pointed out, there are times you can walk into a gym, only to see “people who haven’t even had a pro fight yet putting it on somebody who’s ranked in the UFC.”
“Yes there’s a lot we can take away from [Burns and Usman being teammates], especially certain tricks that each one may have. But I don’t think it necessarily matters,” Olivi stated. “And it’s been a long time since they have really trained together. So I think that while it’s fun to talk about, I don’t know how much it necessarily comes into play once that cage door closes behind them.”
It’s a different take on the match-up, in contrast to what another UFC broadcaster, Daniel Cormier, suggested Friday.
Catch the full media scrum with Megan Olivi above.
