We’re back, baby!!!
That’s right, the time has come (honestly, it’s long overdue) for the return of your favorite mailbag column. With the UFC taking a weekend off before a 13-week summer stretch and every other major MMA promotor also taking off Memorial Day weekend, it’s time to answer your questions about good old-fashioned fist-fighting. Let’s see what’s on the docket this week.
Villainy
In honour of the delightfully chaotic Jason Momoa in Fast X, who is the most entertaining villain in MMA history?
— Alexander K Lee (@AlexanderKLee) May 24, 2023
First off, let me just say that this is a great question. Not only because I had to actually think about it, but because it invokes Fast X, the most insane movie of the year thus far. Did any of it make sense? No. Not even a little bit. Was Jason Momoa hamming it up like Porky Pig? Absolutely. But Fast X was the most fun the franchise has been since before Paul Walker passed away, and that’s been sorely lacking from Fate and Nine. And so, along those lines, my answer is going to be Chael Sonnen.
I think we don’t give Sonnen enough credit for being a truly unique character in MMA history. We’re talking about a guy who literally no one cared about for the bulk of his career, until he finally found the recipe to get people invested: pro wrestling talk with a tinge of bigotry.
Sonnen rose to prominence by loudly and disrespectfully chasing Anderson Silva, the greatest fighter in the world at that time. He’s far from the first to borrow from pro-wrestling and certainly wasn’t the last. Years later, Conor McGregor would mimic the same playbook, and Colby Covington tried his best, but it didn’t quite work. The reason it didn’t is because Colby is missing the secret sauce of Chael’s Big Mac: it’s not just braggadocio and bloviation with nationalist statements peppered in – there also has to be a sense that the talker is in on the joke.
When Sonnen told his outlandish bus story about the Nogueira brothers, or suggested that he thought tapping out meant he lost the round – not the fight – he’s letting the crowd peek behind the curtain and see a guy who, yes, said some terrible things, but who ultimately doesn’t believe it. It’s a bit, and he’s playing a role. You don’t hate Christopher McDonald for playing Shooter McGavin. You just hate Shooter. And that’s what Colby’s always missed.
As for McGregor, plenty of people will answer him for this one, and that’s not exactly wrong. But for me, the sheer volume of genuinely dislikable things McGregor has done outside of the cage means I can’t ever really vibe with him as a villain. At some point, the number of arrests, allegations, and horrible comments makes Conor someone who is more disappointing than entertaining. So instead give me Sonnen, who at least says funny things about drug testing and hasn’t punched old dudes in bars lately.
Rosters
If PFL, Bellator & ONE’s roster combined, is the roster strong enough to compete with the UFC?
— Phillip Kadek (@phillynextdoor) May 24, 2023
That depends on what you mean when you say “compete.” Looking at the MMA Fighting Global Rankings, the UFC currently represents 135 of the 165 ranked fighters in the world. That’s roughly 82 percent. So if “compete” means, can they all join forces to create a rival entity that can regularly go head-to-head with the UFC? No. Hell no. They don’t have the horses in the barn to run that race. But if “compete” means “would they have enough quality fighters to incentivize more to join up?” I think the answer is yes.
Right now, each of Bellator, ONE, and the PFL offer free agents legitimate reasons to put the UFC in the rearview. ONE altogether offers a different competitive vibe, with the opportunity to compete in multiple disciplines, if so inclined. PFL has the $1 million carrot to dangle. And Bellator has the deepest roster outside of the UFC. Individually, those things have not proven to be a big enough incentive to get fighters to abandon the UFC in droves. But if you combine them all into one super organization, then we are starting to cook with something. Is it enough to outright compete with the UFC? Still no. But it closes the gap, and would give Dana White a reason to stay up a little later at night for the first time in a long time.
Speaking of competitors
Will the Ngannou deal put PFL out of business?
— marc chenier (@marcthesharkbc) May 26, 2023
No, but it’s not a ridiculous question.
Let’s put this out there from the start: the PFL overpaid for Francis Ngannou. Though we don’t know the exact financials, we know enough for me to confidently say that. Ngannou may be the baddest man on the planet, but he’s never been a massive PPV draw, and he hasn’t fought in over a year. I think it shouldn’t be controversial to say that Ngannou will never generate enough revenue to make his deal worthwhile for the PFL in a dollars and cents way. Fortunately, that’s not what the PFL is after.
For the PFL, Ngannou represents the rarest commodity in fight sports: legitimacy. The UFC is home to 80 percent of the world’s top fighters and practically every champion. Like it or not, that sort of dominance resonates with the MMA population. Just look at Bellator! Scott Coker has a legitimate argument that his company has the best fighter in the world across five weight classes, but no fan takes the promotion seriously – it’s only an argument, not something real. With Ngannou, the PFL has hired someone real.
For the PFL, signing Ngannou is not some move on a P&L sheet, it’s a declaration, a statement to the MMA community at large that the promotion is here to do something real, something big. It’s a way to let other fighters know what is out there, outside of the UFC, and that not only are they willing to pay big dollars, they’re also willing to work with fighters in a way the UFC never has been, by brining them into the fold. Will it work? No idea. But credit to them for trying. Otherwise, you are destined to wallow meekly on the edges of relevancy until you shrivel into dust *cough* Bellator *cough*.
Ultimately, I wouldn’t be too worried about the PFL, at least not right now. From what I can tell, the PFL appears to be running the tech startup playbook where the goal isn’t profitability, it’s the promise of innovation at some non-specific time in the future, of “disrupting” a stagnant industry that’s worth billions of dollars. Who needs to make money when instead you can sell the idea of SO MUCH MONEY at some point in the future. Who needs a bird in the hand when instead I can talk a trillion-dollar conglomerate into giving me two birds in exchange for this bush that could have thousands of birds in it. And when the bush turns out to be barren, the conglomerate will just use it for kindling and write it off as a tax deduction. So really, everyone wins here, especially Ngannou.
Favorite fighter
Who’s your favorite current fighter besides volk?
— coop (@sugacoop) May 24, 2023
Like everyone who follows this sport, when I first started watching, I had plenty of favorites. B.J. Penn, Fedor Emelianenko, Carlos Condit, and Jose Aldo just to name a few. But as the sport has grown, as I’ve gotten older, and as my relationship to fighting has changed, I’ve started to lose “favorite” fighters. Robbie Lawler is still on that list, but his career has become one that’s carried on a touch too long. And so when he fights, it doesn’t hit the same way it used to. Khabib Nurmagomedov was probably the last fighter who I was genuinely emotionally invested in when he fought, and since he retired, I haven’t really felt that way about anyone.
I guess the closest person right now for me is Justin Gaethje. He’s provided so many incredible fights, so routinely delivered the most that anyone could ever hope for as a fan, that it’s impossible not to feel some type of way when he steps in the cage. When he rematches Dustin Poirier at UFC 291, that’s going to be one hell of a show, so I guess I’m going with “The Highlight.”
Robberies
What is the biggest, actual robbery you think has occurred in the UFC?
— Leo (@leolevy123) May 24, 2023
Great question! I’ve got two answers, for two very different circumstances.
Tank Abbott got legitimately, criminally robbed back at Ultimate Ultimate 96. After running through Cal Worsham and Steve Nelmark in a combined 3 minutes and 54 seconds, Abbott was in the tournament finals with a good shot at winning the whole damn thing. Frye, meanwhile, had already fought Gary Goodridge for 11 minutes and was about to face Mark Hall, a man he had beaten twice before, but done so in protracted battles. It looked for all the world Abbot was about to get to face a severely depleted Frye in the finals. And then, Frye “tapped” Mark Hall with an Achilles lock in 20 seconds, in a bout that is now understood to have been fixed. Hall and Frye were managed by the same guy, Robert DePersia, and gifting Frye an easy win allowed him to conserve energy and then beat Abbott in the finals. That’s about the clearest robbery you will ever find, anywhere.
But, not taking into consideration the basest forms of skullduggery, and just talking about good, old-fashioned incompetent judging, I’m going to go B.J. Penn vs. Frankie Edgar 1. Maybe it’s just because that fight is fresh on my mind, but Penn vs. Edgar is one of the greater sliding doors moments in MMA history that never gets talked about, partly because how dominant Edgar was in the rematch. But Penn pretty clearly should have won the first fight, and if he had, the next few years at lightweight play out very differently.
Instead of an Edgar-Penn rematch, Penn probably goes on to defend against Gray Maynard, a fight he most likely wins given his penchant for beating wrestle-boxers. Then, it’s either Jim Miller or Anthony Pettis. Pettis probably beats Penn, Miller almost certainly doesn’t, but then we have Pretty Tony as UFC champion two full years before he actually wins the title. In that world, Benson Henderson might never have become champion. Same for Edgar, who may have moved down to 145 sooner, if he wasn’t lightweight champ. And now instead of three title defenses, B.J. has four or five, and a much better argument for lightweight GOAT status. All because Doug Crosby, Sal D’Amato, and Andy Roberts lost their minds one night in 2010.
Oh, and for reference, the biggest robbery in MMA history is Mike Easton “beating” Chase Beebe at UWC 7. I mean this quite seriously when I say it’s the most inexplicable bit of judging ever seen in a cage fight.
Thanks for reading, and thank you for everyone who sent in Tweets! Do you have any burning questions about things at least somewhat related to combat sports? Then you’re in luck, because you can send your Hot Tweets to me, @JedKMeshew, and I will answer them! Doesn’t matter if they’re topical or insane. Send them to me and I’ll answer the ones I like the most. Let’s have fun.
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