Today's UFC Twitter mailbag features a healthy dose of questions stemming from UFC President Dana White's conference call Friday, including the new UFC 103 main event of Vitor Belfort vs. Rich Franklin, the inability of Fedor Emelianenko and the UFC to reach an agreement, and more.Your questions and my answers for our UFC Twitter mailbag are below.
hellogreenstar: I hope Vitor doesn't trade his speed for size when moving up. Should be an awesome fight though, for sure.
There's still some confusion about the contracted weight of the Belfort-Franklin fight. White said Friday they'd be fighting at 205 pounds, but he had previously said Belfort is a future opponent for Anderson Silva at 185 pounds, and Belfort had previously refused to fight Gegard Mousasi at 205. Then Franklin tweeted that the fight will be at 195 -- Franklin's second in a row at that catchweight. I don't like catchweight fights, but I agree with you that the Belfort-Franklin fight should be awesome. And I don't think Belfort will be sacrificing much speed as he adds a little size.
dakeja24: Fedor isn't the best pound-for-pound, Brock Lesnar would mop the floor with him.
We disagree on that; I think Fedor is the best pound-for-pound fighter in MMA, and I'd pick him to beat Lesnar. I also think it's important to remember that Fedor is about 50 pounds lighter than Lesnar, so the mere fact that there's an intense debate about who would win if they fought speaks well for what a great fighter Fedor is.
Having said that, Fedor's refusal to fight Lesnar -- or any of the other heavyweights in the UFC -- could cause him to drop on the pound-for-pound lists. To demonstrate that he's the best, Fedor needs to fight the best.
SwamiG8R: Fedor has NO WHERE to go, and is quickly becoming irrelevant. Why bow to his demands, why not the other way around?
Fedor still has places he can go: Strikeforce is still interested, as is Dream in Japan. And the heavyweight champion of the world is always relevant. But you're right about this: The UFC isn't going to bow to to his co-promotion demands, and if he's ever going to end up in the world's No. 1 MMA promotion, Fedor is going to have to compromise.
GrowHuge: You could tell Dana to get Nick Diaz back in the UFC. I love watching that guy fight.
Dana loves watching Diaz fight, too, and he has said that he'd love to get Diaz back into the Octagon. All indications are that Diaz and Strikeforce are very happy together, though.
PJHarrison: Listening to you on WQAM right now. Good stuff. Glad you were able to cover Amir Sadollah as well. I agree with you on that.
Thanks. You can still listen to my appearance on WQAM here, and I have to say that one of the reasons I'm optimistic about the future of MMA is that I keep hearing from people in the mainstream -- radio, TV, newspapers -- who want to talk about the sport. WQAM is one of a growing number of sports radio stations that routinely features MMA talk. That's a good thing.
As for Sadollah, I'm excited about his fight at UFC 101. He's had more than a year off since winning The Ultimate Fighter, and that has made him something of a forgotten man, but I think he's going to impress people when he finally steps into the Octagon.
Aaron_Nagler: Michael, I hope you take this in the spirit it is meant - I'm so sorry you're off the football beat. Please come back soon
SigmundBloom: Seconded.
I'll be writing plenty about football as the season approaches. And, of course, you can always post questions or comments to the NFL Twitter mailbag.
Want to be part of our next UFC Twitter mailbag? Post a question or comment on Twitter.com, and be sure to start it with @MichaelDavSmith.
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