3 things we learned from UFC Vegas 97 media day

An exciting card will occur at the UFC APEX on Sept. 7 with No. 6 ranked Gilbert Burns and No. 8 ranked Sean Brady fighting in a welterweight main event. This battle will determine who will get opportunities to compete with the top five fighters in pursuit of a possible title shot. The co-main event has similar stakes, as No. 6 ranked Jessica Andrade will take on No. 8 ranked Natália Silva in a flyweight fight. A fight between two featherweights who love to bang will occur in Kyle Nelson vs. Steve Garcia. Nelson was initially supposed to fight No. 9 ranked Calvin Kattar before Kattar pulled out and Garcia, coming off a first-round knockout victory on July 20, stepped in. Before the fights happened, the fighters had opportunities to answer questions on media day, and interesting facts were revealed.

1. Jessica Andrade once cut 60 pounds in 32 days

Despite being 32, Andrade is a veteran as she has been competing in MMA for 13 years against many top names across three different weight classes. She started as a bantamweight where she did pretty well competing against fighters such as Jennifer Maia, Raquel Pennington, and Larissa Pacheco. She later transitioned to strawweight, her most famous weight class with the biggest names she faced including Angela Hill, Joanna Jędrzejczyk, Karolina Kowalkiewicz, and Zhang Weili. That was also the weight class where she became the champion when she slammed Rose Namajunas on her head to win by TKO at UFC 237 in Brazil. Flyweight was where Andrade had fights with Kaitlyn Cerminara, Valentina Shevchenko, and Erin Blanchfield.

During media day, Andrade was asked how weight cutting was going compared to other weight cuts. She said it was going well, as 30 pounds was not hard. One reporter asked about past weight cuts being much more work since Andrade likely cuts more to get strawweight, her most famous weight class. Andrade answered by revealing she once had to cut 60 pounds in 32 days when she faced Cláudia Gadelha in September 2017, where Andrade won a unanimous decision in a Fight of the Night winner. Since 60 pounds is more than Alex Pereira cut to make middleweight, that may be the biggest weight class anyone has ever heard of. It is also a major example of how many fight fans do not know the extent of what many fighters go through to perform to their best.

2. The death of Natália Silva's sister prevented a much earlier return

Silva is a 27-year-old up-and-coming prospect in the flyweight division with an 11-fight winning streak, including six wins by submission and two by knockout. She has been competing in MMA since 2015 and has had a great career beginning in different organizations in Brazil over her early years. Silva has only five career losses with the last loss occurring in December 2017, outside the UFC, to Marina Rodriguez winning a unanimous decision. Rodriguez is now the No. 6 ranked contender in the strawweight division. Silva has not lost since and went on to become flyweight champion at the Jungle Fight Organization in October 2019. After winning that title, Silva won in her first title defense, which led to signing with the UFC and having five straight wins in the organization.

Media day began with Silva being asked why she had not been back in action since beating Viviane Araújo on February 3. It was not an injury-related break but rather a break due to the personal tragedy of Silva's sister dying. Silva's voice broke when answering, but, she fought back well against any major tears. Silva was then asked if anything helped her naturally get through that tragedy, whether it was her normal MMA training or something else. She credited her Christian faith in Jesus with getting through that tragedy and being able to resume her normal career. It will be interesting to see how that little bit of sadness of missing her sister will impact her upcoming performance, whether it will motivate her or get her unmotivated.

3. Steve Garcia was eating pizza when he got his short notice call

Garcia has been a solid fighter competing in MMA since 2013 as he started in organizations such as Bellator and JacksonWink. Though inconsistent in winning and losing at times, he is always entertaining as he prefers not to leave fights to the judges. 13 of his 16 career wins come by knockout, and he is currently on a four-fight winning streak with four knockouts. Garcia fought in Dana White's Contender Series in August 2019, and won by first-round knockout, but did not get a contract, likely due to missing weight. After a failed contract offer, Garcia won by second-round knockout in LFA against Jose Mariscal in January 2020 and finally was able to make his UFC debut in a short-notice opportunity against Luis Peña, at lightweight, a month later. Despite losing by decision, Garcia has been competing in the UFC ever since then as an entertaining talent.

Garcia's media day questions were opened with questioning about the story of getting a short-notice call. He said he was eating pizza for dinner when he got the call in early August. It can be enjoyable to hear the backstories of short-notice fights as fighters are doing different activities when getting short-notice opportunities. Dan Ige was getting a massage when he got the call to fight Diego Lopes in the UFC 303 co-main event after Brian Ortega pulled out with a sickness. Bobby Green was smoking weed on his coach when he got the call to fight Islam Makhachev in a UFC APEX main event, in February 2022, after Beneil Dariush got hurt. Steve Erceg was eating KFC when he got the call to fight Alexandre Pantoja in Brazil for the title at UFC 301.

Regardless, these stories make these fighters holding their own in short-notice opportunities all that impressive. These fighters get out of their comfort zones and risk their records to save major events while daring to be great.