Howdy all and welcome to our second ever MMA Mania Mailbag response post. I don’t know about you, but I’m enjoying collecting your questions and bugging asking the rest of the staff to help me answer them.
We got some great questions this week, including a lot that deal directly with UFC Freedom 250. Out of fear of those questions and answers going stale, I prioritized those this week. Don’t worry, though, every question asked gets logged and we’ll probably get to them at some point.
Scroll down to
see what we answered this week.
What happens if Gaethje walks?
Question: If Gaethje retires and vacates the title, what do you think happens next at 155 to crown a champion? Also, if you were in control, how would you book it? (Lurker2006)
Jesse Holland: I’m definitely having Arman Tsarukyan rematch Charles Oliveira for the vacant lightweight title. They had a very close fight at UFC 300 and both are ranked at the top of the division. Winner gets the returning Ilia Topuria in early 2027.
Alex Behunin: There is no other answer other than Tsarukyan vs. Oliveira 2.
Tim Edwards: I really hope Gaethje does walk away. It would be the greatest UFC/MMA retirement ever, if he did that (so long as he doesn’t spoil it by coming back). The obvious fight is Tsarukyan vs. Oliveira 2 and that will probably happen. But how about Alex Volkanovski moving up to fight Tsarukyan or how about Islam Makhachev moving back down to fight that man Tsarukyan (again)? Both of those fights would cause a lot of chaos at Featherweight, Lightweight and Welterweight, but chaos can be fun.
Where does Gaethje’s upset rank all time?
Q: Where do you rank JG’s title win in title fights (making the huge favorite champ quit on the stool is a heck of a statement IMO) history both as a win and as an upset. (LoneCowboy)
Jesse Holland: I’m not sure anything will top Holly Holm’s destruction of Ronda Rousey. It wasn’t a lucky shot and Rousey didn’t “get caught.” She was dominated from start to finish. You can argue that Topuria was just too damn small to be fighting a brute like Gaethje, so I think it was more surprise than shock. Definitely best of the year (so far).
Andrew Richardson: I think it’s up there with the likes of Garbrandt vs. Cruz, Dillashaw vs. Barao but a step shy of GSP vs. Serra and Holm vs. Rousey.
Tim Edwards: The most shocking upset was Matt Serra dethroning Georges St-Pierre. I was stunned into silence when GSP got wobbled and then pounded out. I had a similar feeling when Conor McGregor starched Jose Aldo. In both those situations I was totally confident that the champs would win. A big reason for that was because I was such a big fan of them. I never liked Ronda Rousey, so the upset so I didn’t have the same visceral reaction to it.
I don’t think this was that big of an upset, only because I think a lot of folks were sleeping on Gaethje in this fight against a smaller fighter who was coming off a pretty long lay-off. That’s all with hindsight being 20-20. This situation reminds me a lot of the T.J. Dillashaw vs. Renan Barao fight, though, where we might have gotten too high on the favorite and not paid enough respect to the underdog.
No matter where it ranks, it was an amazing performance from Gaethje and — as a fight — it’s up there with Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson and Robbie Lawler vs. Rory MacDonald in my best fight ever conversation.
Chandler is Tuivasa 2.0?
Q: Is Mike Chandler just a smaller Tai Tuivasa? (everyone seems to want to see him, doesn’t win fights) (LoneCowboy)
Jesse Holland: Regardless of how he ended up, there was a time when Michael Chandler was a very special fighter. His wars against Eddie Alvarez and Benson Henderson in Bellator MMA are two of the best fights you’ll ever see. Sadly, those wars have caught up to him. I don’t think anyone wants to see him at this point but then again, I don’t want to see Tai Tuivasa, either. Dude has zero skills.
Andrew Richardson: Guys, Michael Chandler was in his prime when I was in high school, and I’m 30 now. He was at his best when he strangled Rick Hawn in like six minutes — that’s when he could’ve beaten the likes of Anthony Pettis or Ben Henderson and been UFC champion. That was a long, long time ago … whereas Tuivasa is just bad and always has been.
Tim Bissell: I don’t know if everyone wants to see Michael Chandler. I think just one man wants to see him, Dana White. Chandler seemed to have really charmed White when he came over from Bellator during the pandemic. I think White really wanted to put him in this spot. I would be surprised if he keeps putting him in these positions, though. I’m expecting we see Chandler matched with prospects now until he decides to quit. Also, he would need to do a protein shake shoey to sell this comparison to Tuivasa.
The band stole the show
Q: Was the live band completely awesome or totally awesome and when is UFC implementing a live band for all events? (LoneCowboy)
Jesse Holland: I love live music so I’ll always vote for the band; however, from a production standpoint, it can be a very challenging addition to a live broadcast so don’t expect it to become a permanent feature. We’ll have to settle for those YouTube replays of Megadeth rocking Affliction MMA.
Andrew Richardson: The Apex needs a house band!
Thomas Myers: Just Gaethje’s acoustic guitar walkout was epic – totally awesome. Goosebumps.
Tim Edwards: I was awestruck by the music, to the point that it might have been my favorite part of the whole show. I wish the broadcast featured the band a lot more than they ended up doing. I agree with Andrew, let’s get a band in the APEX. You know STEMM are available.
Tough times for Topuria
Q: Do you think Ilya is mentally broken? (like Cody Garbrandt was never the same guy after TJ beat him)(and no way was that IG statement congratulatory towards JG written by him, his manager wrote that) (LoneCowboy)
Jesse Holland: I don’t think so. When your ego is that large, you don’t accept defeat, you find a way to offload it to some other happenstance. I also think Topuria knows he had the fight won in the second stanza and blew it. He’ll return ready to make a statement.
Andrew Richardson: If anything, I think ego was the downfall here. Topuria tried to rush this fight and paid the price (not to discredit Gaethje’s great game plan). I think Topuria is a smart and aware enough athlete to come back better from this provided his eyes don’t become a long-term problem.
Tim Edwards: It’s going to be really interesting to see what happens next. I don’t think we’ve ever seen a fighter have a storied career patch after taking such a beating. However, Topuria had a special career leading up to this point, so if anyone can have a special career afterwards maybe it’s him? We never see tune-up fights in MMA, but it would be great to see Topuria take some time off and then take a fight with someone outside the top five (Maetusz Gamrot, Renato Moicano, etc.) to see where he’s at.
Did UFC want Topuria to lose?
Q: Not a huge conspiracy guy but do any of you think there was any background motivation given to Ilia to lose that fight?? (Chucs)
JESSE HOLLAND: Definitely not. UFC is still trying to land that stadium in Spain and having Ilia go 18-0 only makes their hand stronger. Also, if you’re going to lose a fight, you get dropped early and don’t get up. You don’t go four rounds half-blind and let your orbital bones get smashed to pieces.
Andrew Richardson: You don’t sacrifice a major star for a guy that could retire next week.
Alex Behunin: Absolutely not. I got told that if Topuria had won, he would have fought Islam early next year for the WW title
Tim Edwards: I don’t think the UFC cares that much about what comes next. I think they want the biggest moment, regardless of what it means for the future. And an all-time great fight fit that purpose. Whether it was Topuria or Gaethje who came out on top, the UFC can work with it. And we know they don’t really care about selling us on fighters. They sell us on Dana White now and whatever partnership the UFC has with places, people and things that aren’t in the cage.
Our toughest question yet
Q: Let’s get stupid, not all questions need to be MMA related. MFK. Brad Pitt, James Franco, Shia LaBeouf (gadgetsCA)
Jesse Holland: WTF does this even mean?
Alex Behunin: Are we talking about ranking them as actors? In that case – Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, James Franco
Tim Edwards: Jesse and Alex are seemingly too innocent for this world. I would marry Brad Pitt for the money, f**k Shia LaBeouf because if I’m not afraid of a little rough stuff and kill James Franco because he’s too skinny for me and he’s not banking many cheques right now.
Quick hits
Q: Can we get the waiting period for new accounts to post around here? I know some NFL teams had it. Although that was maybe 1 or versions ago so not even sure if that’s still an option. Way too many “fresh” accounts trolling recently. Nothing sadder than internet randos afraid to argue with other internet randos on their main account. (MildoggyMan)
JESSE HOLLAND: I’ll run it up the flagpole and see if he who guards the almighty toggle can flip a switch or whatever the hell they do behind the scenes.
Q: Do we know how many people actually attended the Ellipse? (Adam Wagner)
JESSE HOLLAND: Dana White says 120,000, mainstream media outlets say 80,000. Probably somewhere in the middle.
Q: Most exciting prospect in each division. (ChaelsBusStory)
Alex Behunin:
Heavyweight – Josh Hokit (used to be Mario Pinto)
Light Heavyweight – Abdul-Rakhman Yakhyaev
Middleweight – Ateba Gautier or Damian Pinas
Welterweight – Islam Dulatov
Lightweight – Manoel Sousa
Featherweight – Lerryan Douglas or Marwan Rahiki
Bantamweight – Ethyn Ewing or Cody Haddon
Flyweight – Imanol Rodríguez
W Bantamweight – Bia Mesquita
W Flyweight – Carli Judice
W Strawweight – Shanelle Dyer
Q: Tim, what happened to the UFC code of conduct policy? Is it Dana’s convenient observation of free speech? That’s where my money is. (Whipcreamfajita)
Jesse Holland: Once you get caught slapping the s–t out of your wife in public, it’s kinda hard to enforce a code of conduct on your fighters.
Andrew Richardson: The overall culture has changed quite a bit, and UFC is now so established it isn’t worried about slipping like back in the FOX days.
Tim: I think the code of conduct is somewhere in the land of Reebok kits and Submission of the Night bonuses. The UFC has never wanted to enforce that, since it puts them close to being defined as an employer. They are just now reaping the benefit of a cultural/political landscape that is so afraid of looking ‘woke’ for ‘cancelling’ that they can let anything slide and survive whatever backlash that brings.
Q: How are the Scottish football fans being received in Boston? I saw Fenway Park and it was like a Scottish international. (DreadPirate)
JESSE HOLLAND: My feed post may answer that one: https://www.mmamania.com/post/i7T927FM8yjP
