Welterweight Michael Morales was supposed to take on Gilbert Burns at UFC 315 in Montreal this past weekend, but with this Saturday’s UFC Vegas 106 in need of a main event, the bout was pushed back a week.
It’s a week of firsts now for Ecuador’s Morales (17-0), who is both in his first UFC main event, and will have his family cageside for the first time since joining the world’s largest MMA promotion. It’s also his first five-round fight, should it last that long.
The undefeated welterweight looked ahead to his fight with Burns during Wednesday’s UFC Vegas 106 media day, saying that “I think it’s going to be an explosive fight, there’s going to be a lot of exchanges as well. I think there will be many opportunities for me, it’s my kind of fight, and it’s going to give me an opportunity to go into the top 10.”
Morales currently sits at #12 in the 170 pound division, so a win over the #8-ranked UFC welterweight Burns will almost certainly land him in that top 10. The spectre of fighting five rounds for the first time looms, but Morlaes believes he is well prepared for the prospect of going 25 minutes if need be.
“I think we prepared really well for this, and we’ve been working on the cardio. The preparation’s been going on, when you think about it, ever since January. Then obviously if something happens with an opponent that has injuries, it just delays the process. But we continued to train and work on cardio,” Morales told media outlets in Las Vegas. “At the end of the day, you never know what’s going to happen in a fight. You never know if what you trained for is indeed what’s going to happen. Last time, we prepared for a very long fight and at the end of the day, it ended in the first round. But we are prepared, we prepared for the best version of the fighter we’re going to face, and cardio’s not going to be a problem.”
Last week, headlines swirled when it came to the UFC 315 main event, with the focus seemingly on anyone but the fighters involved themselves. Islam Makhachev and talk of his next move (spoiler alert: he’ll be getting a welterweight title shot after vacating his lightweight title) and back-up fighter Ian Machado Garry stole the show.
When it comes to Garry, that’s a name Morales would enjoy facing moving forward.
“Listen, he’s a great fighter and somebody that I’ve always looked into as an opponent. My understanding is he’s no longer an undefeated fighter, that loss is there, but still a fighter that everybody puts up on top,” stated Morales. “And I think somebody that would be next; obviously we don’t know who we’ll be fighting. I’d love to wipe that smile off that face, but it would be somebody that yeah, we’d consider for next fight.”
Watch the full UFC Vegas 106 media day appearance by Michael Morales above.
