What does Ariel Helwani think of UFC 303 with Conor McGregor out of the main event?

It may not be the card we initially thought it was going to be, but UFC 303 goes down on Saturday from UFC Apex in Las Vegas!

MMA and combat sports expert Ariel Helwani joined Mike Golic Sr. to preview the major card and the long and winding road that led us here on Friday’s edition of GoJo and Golic.

Of course this card was supposed to be the grand return to the octagon for Conor McGregor, who has not fought since 2021. However, McGregor sustained a toe injury earlier this month forcing UFC to pull a whole new main event — Alex Pereira vs. Jiří Procházka — out of thin air. Pereira is currently a -142 moneyline favorite on DraftKings Sportsbook.

“Oh my gosh, this has been quite the saga and we are finally here, although to your point not with the original plan in tact,” Ariel said of one of the great 10-day sagas in recent MMA history. All things considered, Helwani says UFC hit a home run with the main event replacement, with the fact that Pereira was willing to take on this title fight on such notice being one of the reasons fans love him.

Senior needed Ariel to explain something to him. Procházka is accusing Pereira of … checks notes … using black magic?!?!? Senior has no other way to put it — what the hell is Procházka talking about? Ariel says these are two of the most wonderfully weird fighters in the sport, with all due respect and love, and that’s why people adore them. Procházka is just a different kind of cat and as pure of a martial artist as possible. So he believes that Pereira is using some type of external forces to win, which Pereira is laughing off. And the fans are eating it up. The wild thing is that neither of these fighters has detractors like say a McGregor has. Ariel goes so far as to say it’s a shame that one of them actually has to lose.

So does Ariel think Pereira is using black magic? No. In fact, there is a hypothesis that Procházka is confusing Pereira repeatedly saying his Portuguese catchphrase for him being a shaman calling on some outside spiritual force. Maybe we’re all digging deep here, but Ariel says he actually prefers a world in which we take it at surface level, where Procházka believes external forces are at play and Pereira kind of pokes him and let’s just figure it out in the cage.

Closing out on McGregor, Senior says McGregor was a great fighter, but also a great personality. And that is one of the things people loved about him and the sport. Who does Ariel think could fill that personality void? Ariel acknowledges that Conor is a once-in-a-generation personality, but he actually doesn’t think the UFC needs that right now. In fact, he says the organization itself is the biggest star at the moment.

Watch or listen to the full show below and make sure to tune into GoJo and Golic weekday mornings from 8-10 a.m. ET on DraftKings Network! See more about how to watch DraftKings Network here.

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Watch GoJo and Golic every weekday on Samsung TV Plus, Roku, Xumo Play, Google TV and DraftKingsNetwork.com from 8 to 10 a.m. ET. The show is also available via audio on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also follow Mike Golic Sr. on X at @golic and Mike Golic Jr. on X at @mikegolicjr.

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