Last week was a down fight week and, unsurprisingly, people didn’t care to talk about UFC Perth. This week, however, is better, as UFC 320 is upon us, featuring two high-quality title fights.
So, of course,
let’s talk about the still only theoretical UFC White House card and why Conor McGregor vs. Michael Chandler makes sense for it.
Conor McGregor vs. Michael Chandler at UFC White House
“Why would the UFC want to book Chandler versus Conor for the White House? If they want Connor, because of the star power, why not have Max Holloway represent the US and have him fight Connor? Give Conor a proper sendoff into retirement. At least it would be a more compelling fight. Chandler is meh.”
Sir. Conor vs. Max is a SUBSTANTIALLY less compelling fight than Conor vs. Chandler. If Conor fought Max, it would be one of the most egregious ass-kickings we’ve seen in years. Personally, I think Max is now definitively on the downslope of his career, and he would TROUNCE McGregor in brutal fashion. If the MMA Gods ever saw fit to book that matchup, I would take out three mortgages on my house to bet it on Max, regardless of the price.
Chandler, meanwhile, is actually kind of interesting. In concept, Chandler should beat McGregor by tackling him a bunch. But Chandler is one of the most no-defense-having fighters in the UFC right now, and that makes him extremely susceptible to McGregor, who is a one-trick pony at this point, but it’s a good trick.
But more than the matchup itself, it’s a matter of who Conor will deign to fight. If the UFC wants him on this card — and I think they do, or, more to the point, I think President Trump will want the biggest star in the sport to headline the event that will be synonymous with him — then they’ll have to agree to whoever he wants to fight, basically. And McGregor seems to want to fight Chandler. Which, frankly, works out. Chandler actually makes a ton of sense to fight on this card as the most classic American fighter of this generation. The dude is basically an American Gladiator.
And while I don’t give Chandler much credit, he would absolutely bring the right energy to this spectacle of a fight card. Can’t you just see him walking out, dripping in Apollo Creed regalia, with a bald eagle on his shoulder? Of all the fighters who are going to lean into UFC White House, Chandler is the guy most likely to take it all the way. I honestly hope it happens.
UFC Commentary
“What do you think about the UFC commentary teams? And how would you improve their broadcasts, if you feel improvements are necessary?“
I think most UFC commentary teams are bad, but it’s not their fault.
Sports commentary is a difficult job, much more so than it seems. That goes doubly so for UFC commentary, which is outrageously long. Think about it, an NFL game lasts around 4 hours, with around 150 plays in a game. First off, four hours is HALF the time of a UFC broadcast, and second off, an NFL broadcaster has their talking points neatly broken down into 150 increments. Here’s a play, and we react, then maybe fill some air until the next. There’s none of that in the UFC. It’s five minutes of action, followed by a short break, and then right back to it. For EIGHT hours! That is asking a lot for anyone to stay that locked in for that long.
The other primary issue facing UFC commentators is that they aren’t broadcasters. The true broadcasters are all very good at their jobs, and while the fighters can be good, they always have an expiration date. After a few years in the booth, fighters become caricatures of themselves, like an old band playing the hits. (Though, for what it’s worth, Mike Goldberg was an actual broadcaster, and he was the worst about this.) People love Brian Stann for his work in the booth, and I agree, but I also think we love him because he left. Had he stuck around for another five years, he, too, would’ve turned into Joe Rogan.
If I could suggest anything to the UFC about their commentary teams, it would be to 1) split up duties between a prelims and main card team, and 2) rotate in fighters much more frequently. There is no shortage of UFC fighters who could bring new or different insight to the booth, and the UFC shouldn’t just run the same four people out there every week.
Merab Dvalishvili, All-Time Great
“I may be alone on an island here but I think Merab could be a Top Ten all time fighter by the end of his career. In your esteemed opinion could you lay out a reasonable path to get him to at least get to #10?”
He definitely can, and it’s not a big stretch to suggest it. He’s closer than most people think already.
The measure of greatness in MMA (all sports, really) is championships, and in MMA, that means title defenses. It’s not the only thing that matters, but it is, by far, the most important, and if you don’t agree, well, continue to fly in the face of logic, reason, and established standards.
So with that as background, there are six male fighters in the GOAT conversation. Pick any one of these six, and I may not agree, but I won’t argue. Jon Jones, Anderson Silva, Demetrious Johnson, Jose Aldo, Georges St-Pierre, Fedor Emelianenko. So from that six, you have four spots to play with for the remainder of the top 10.
Dominick Cruz and Khabib Nurmagomedov miss the cut as they had weird, truncated careers — Khabib because his father passed away, and Cruz because he missed most of his prime due to injury — but I believe they both slot comfortably into the Top 10. And then I round out the last two slots with Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway. Volk, I think, is unquestionably a top 10 guy, and Holloway has a good case for it. But so do others like Islam Makhachev, Daniel Cormier, Israel Adesanya, and Kamaru Usman. There are a lot of good choices, and it’s hard to feel too strongly about any of them.
If Merab retired tomorrow, he’d have a great resume, a UFC belt, and two title defenses. That’s a good run, but it’s not all-time. However, he’s creeping up on that fast. While people (wrongly) are already calling him the bantamweight GOAT, Merab is making a run at the title held by Dominick Cruz. Cruz has five title defenses to his name that should really be six since he never lost the belt in the cage. If Merab beats Cory Sandhagen, he’ll have three. If he adds another one in and gets to within two of Cruz, it becomes a real conversation, and if he gets to five or six, the debate is over.
So that’s the path for Merab. Keep racking up title defenses and claim the mantle of bantamweight GOAT, and he will de facto be a top 10 all-time fighter.
Thanks for reading, and thank you to everyone who sent in tweets (Xs?)! 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 tweets to me, @JedKMeshew, and I will answer my favorite ones! Doesn’t matter if they’re topical or insane, just so long as they are good. Thanks again, and see y’all next week.
