Routing MPC VST channels as mono to Ableton Track?

Hello MPC Heads

Curious if anyone knows the answer to this, I am using my MPC in Controller mode and like to route each drum pad to its own track in Ableton. In the MPC software, it lets you choose stereo or mono but on the live track, it only recognizes the MPC tracks as stereo ie: 3/4, 5/6, 7/8, etc. Is there a way for Ableton to just pull from 3 for instance, instead of 3/4 so i get a mono recording?

EDIT: I just discovered I can put a "mono utility" on each track and convert each to mono and it works. However still would be interested to know if I can bypass that step and see the individual mono tracks when I make my selection

To „separate“ 2 mono sources on a stereo bus, you pan one fully left and the other one fully right.
That‘s probably what the utility is doing.