Mailbag: At what point should a fading former champ (or top contender) admit that there's more pain than promise in sticking around?
Once a fighter sees that he’ll never be a UFC champ, does that necessarily mean he’d be better off hanging up the gloves? Or could there be a sweet spot for those crowd favorites who don’t win them all but still deliver a good time every fight?
All that and more in this week’s mailbag. To ask a question of your own, hit up @BenFowlkesMMA on X or @Ben_Fowlkes on Threads.
@Beastin364: Saw Kamaru saying he’s thinking about whether it’s worth it to keep fighting. Dustin P is telling Chandler he should give it up. Is it really only worth it to do this if you can still become champ? Some of my favorite fighters never won a title or even got close
It’s absolutely true that there are many fan favorites who were never the gotta-win-em-all types. But did those fighters think of themselves that way? Were they in the gym thinking they’d never achieve their championship dreams but it was fine as long as the fans still cheered? I doubt it. I don’t think that’s enough to get yourself to push through the kinds of things fighters have to endure just to make it to fight night.
Winning is still where the money is in this sport. That’s why the typical UFC contract pays twice as much for winning as it does for losing. There’s no more promise of big pay-per-view points for fighters who grab a UFC title, but there’s still more money and glory and fame (which brings more money in other ways) in being a championship fighter rather than a crowd-pleasing brawler stuck in the middle of the pack.
I get what Dustin Poirier is saying with regard to Michael Chandler. Chandler’s not just losing — he’s taking some beatings, and in fights he’s not been particularly competitive in. There’s a cost to that. At his age, with a family to think about, is it still worth it to take those beatings and endure that physical toll just for the loser’s share of the paycheck? At some point the answer has to be no.
@AaronWHoward: As a fellow Montanan, are you excited that Tommy McMillen might be the state’s next big MMA export after Sugar Sean? Luke Thomas called him something along the lines of “King of the Juggalos” lol. How far do you think he can go?
Look, any time you tell me there’s a fighter out of Great Falls, Montana, (home of the Sip N’ Dip Lounge) now building upon an undefeated record in the UFC, you have my attention. At 28, he’s still a young fella. We need to see him against some tougher competition to get a sense of how far he can go. But he does have a memorable aura to him, and in the fight game that’s half the challenge.
You know that feeling you get when you look at a fight card or see some fighter coming through the curtain and you go, “Oh yeah, I remember this dude?” That’s the feeling fighters should be trying to inspire, one way or another. Right now the UFC is stocked with people we do not really remember and definitely don’t ever think about between fights. McMillen is ahead of them, so it’s a start.
@ChrisKirk_ASP: It won’t happen, but if the UFC want to give a coming star an extremely easy win whilst using up whatever’s left of a hasbeen with a name, why not Pimblett v McGregor? Huh? Huh?
We’re going to be able to tell a lot about Conor McGregor’s future based on whom the UFC gives him for what is currently the last fight on his contract. And his willingness to sign an extension (or not) will probably heavily influence what kind of fight the UFC tries to put him in.
If he wants out for a taste of free agency, expect the UFC to try to use him to build up one of the young bucks who still has a future here. I think a Paddy Pimblett fight would do major numbers, even if they have to do it at welterweight. McGregor is saying he’ll insist on Max Holloway again, but I can’t imagine who could possibly want to see that now.
Of course, there is also the very real possibility that he never fights again, regardless of what he’s saying now. The last two times he’s tried he’s ended up with something going snap, crackle and pop inside one of his legs. Does he really want to tempt fate a third time?
@StaleSonnen: Im a loooong time combat sports fan and UFC has felt kinda meh for years. Im currently all in on sumo. Is the UFC too big to fail now regardless of the average fight quality?
The short answer is yes. Even if viewership suddenly fell off a cliff, the UFC has a seven-year deal with Paramount and we’re barely more than halfway into Year 1. TKO is stacking that paper whether people watch these events or not. But because the barrier to entry on Paramount+ is so low, this should be a period of growth for the UFC.
I know it doesn’t feel like it right now. We’re on the other side of the White House event, and the Conor McGregor comeback was a big, fat nothing. We also don’t have a ton on the rest of the summer lineup to really get people buzzing with attention. But if the UFC can just get some of these big names back in there while clearing the lane for some new faces to emerge organically (see above, regarding Tommy “Gun” McMillen), a brighter future is totally possible.
@NoahSas23: I saw Kayla Harrison said she’s getting close to coming back to training. And a while ago she said she may retire if the UFC doesn’t bring back 145 for the women. What sort of ripple effect would her beating Nunes (assuming it’s rebooked) and retiring lead to 135 and WMMA?
If Kayla Harrison were to leave us for good it might establish a new low point for women’s MMA in the UFC. Already the vibe isn’t super encouraging. There are relatively few women’s fights getting booked. There’s hardly any excitement about the young up-and-comers. Harrison and Amanda Nunes is just about the only conceivable matchup in all of women’s MMA that would really qualify as something special. Take her out of the equation and we’re in a major lull. And you know she can’t fight forever — especially with neck issues.
@welcometothe559: Are you a fan of the sopranos Ben and if so favorite character/line?
Would you believe that I didn’t get into “The Sopranos” until the pandemic? I missed it when it first aired and my first few attempts to go back and watch stalled. Something about it didn’t quite work for me at first. I had never seen a prestige drama that loved dream sequences that much.
But once I finally appreciated what it was doing — and how quietly, hysterically funny it actually is — I binged right through it. A friend and I will sometimes still say to each other, in our best Furio voice, “You got a bee on you hat.” Never fails to crack us up.
@JedKMeshew: What’s your favorite episode of The Wire?
Man, it must be a quiet time in MMA if we’re talking about old TV shows this much. But fine, if I have to pick just one I’ll go with “The Hunt” in Season 1. After Detective Griggs gets shot (spoilers!), we see the whole department spring into action collectively for the first time. It’s the first moment when we’re shown there are some things to make them put aside their differences or petty political maneuvering to move in the same direction.
Plus there’s some great writing, as when Rawls explains to McNulty how he can be sure that it wasn’t his fault. And this is the episode that gave us an all-time great reaction gif.
@RyanHarkness: Why is the UFC incapable of booking Michael Venom Page properly?
OK, first of all? It’s not as easy as it seems. As entertaining as he can be in some fights, Michael Page has proven many times that he’s entirely capable of making sure that nothing interesting happens in a fight. Some nights he won’t let loose and he won’t let anyone else let loose either. He simply negates and waits. Suddenly three rounds seem to take three hours. It’s awful.
But I do understand what you’re saying. There are some fights that we know won’t be interesting for him, and isn’t his whole reason for being here to provide some unorthodox fun? Let’s get weird out there!
The question becomes, what lengths should matchmakers go to in order to accommodate one particular fighter’s style? Especially if that fighter isn’t a superstar or even realistically a contender anymore? The UFC wants interesting, exciting fighters. Not guys who can only have a fun fight if you serve it up specifically for them.
