Preview: UFC Vegas 106 ‘Burns vs. Morales’

The Ultimate Fighting Championship will return to the UFC Apex after a few weeks on the road with UFC Fight Night 256 this Saturday in Las Vegas. A welterweight main event that sees former title contender Gilbert Burns look to hold serve against undefeated prospect Michael Morales represents the clear standout bout, but there are other things to like about the card. Paul Craig makes his way back to light heavyweight in a co-headliner that should be a race to a finish against Brazilian brawler Rodolfo Bellato. The featherweight opener pairing Julian Erosa with Melquizael Costa figures to serve up some entertainment, and while a lightweight tilt slotting Sodiq Yusuff opposite Mairon Santos seems like some odd matchmaking, it at least features two talented competitors at 155 pounds. Finally, a confrontation between Nursulton Ruziboev and Dustin Stoltzfus should provide an interesting test for the two middleweights.

Now to the UFC Fight Night 256 “Burns vs. Morales” preview:

Welterweights

Gilbert Burns (22-8, 15-8 UFC) vs. Michael Morales (17-0, 5-0 UFC)

ODDS: Morales (-850), Burns (+575)

The UFC’s welterweight title picture is filling up with new faces, and Morales looks to add himself to that list here. Morales showed up on Dana White’s Contender Series as a 22-year-old and immediately impressed. Primarily a wilder knockout threat as he rose through the regional ranks, the Ecuadorian showed a much more patient approach and consistently outworked fellow eventual UFC signee Nikolay Veretennikov to earn a surprising decision victory. From there, it has been a surprisingly clean ascent, as Morales has continued to add to his undefeated record with five more victories. It’s hard to argue with the results, but it does seem like Morales is still leaning on his physical talent rather than any sort of strategy. After a few lower-level victories, Max Griffin and Jake Matthews were each content to lose to Morales in a slow-paced striking match, and his last win saw him losing a grind to Neil Magny until he suddenly uncorked a knockout. It’s a level of aimlessness that figures to catch up with Morales at some point, but it appears that point will come against the welterweight Top 10 at the very worst, as Burns is the next man to try and hand him his first loss.

Burns is clearly on a slide down from contender status, but the Brazilian has more left in the tank than his recent record would suggest on paper. Coming to the UFC as a lightweight prospect in 2014, “Durinho” had the growing pains you would expect from a grappling ace attempting to mix the martial arts. His wrestling could be spotty at times, and Burns’ worst performances saw him get stranded on the feet without finding much of a path to success. Burns eventually developed some knockout power but still didn’t look particularly comfortable on the feet, seemingly establishing himself as a gatekeeper until he took a late-notice fight up at welterweight that wound up changing his career. Freed from what was apparently a brutal weight cut, Burns now had the gas tank to consistently pressure his opponents and play the effective bully, racking up win after win. Add in Burns’ willingness to step in on late notice, and he became Kamaru Usman’s top contender in a matter of months, though COVID-19 did eventually delay his title shot nearly a year until 2021. Burns got off to a hot start against Usman before the then-champion took over the fight and scored a knockout, after which the Brazilian hung around the fringes of contention until a 2023 loss to Belal Muhammad seemingly closed that door for good. Burns looked flat in his third fight in four months, even before suffering a shoulder injury that would keep him out of action for nearly a year. Burns then went without a win in 2024, even if both of his performances were generally impressive for an athlete nearing 40 years old. He was beating Jack Della Maddalena until a late knockout, then hung tough in a decision loss to Sean Brady that has subsequently aged quite well. Given that Burns should apply some solid pressure and Morales isn’t always the most locked-in fighter, there’s a chance for the former title challenger to get off to a hot start, potentially even finding a submission if his counterpart’s ground game looks particularly poor. Since this is a five-round fight, it seems likelier that Morales will eventually pull a few fight-changing moments of offense out of the ether, particularly with Burns’ gas tank starting to betray him at this point in his career. The pick is Morales via third-round knockout.

Jump To »
Burns vs. Morales
Bellato vs. Craig
Santos vs. Yusuff
Ruziboev vs. Stoltzfus
Costa vs. Erosa
The Prelims