Twitter Mailbag: Fowlkes on Sonnnen-Shogun, Bellator's PPV and steroids in MMA

Praise be unto the MMA gods upon Mt. Xyience, it looks like all the big cable operators will be showing UFC Fight Night 26 on FOX Sports 1, after all.

I’m not going to lie to you – I was a little worried there. So were many of you, judging by how many Twitter Mailbag questions I received this week that basically asked, “Which bridge should I jump off if I can’t watch the fights this weekend?”

Back away from the edge, friends. And while you’re here for at least a little while longer, why not waste a few minutes reading this week’s TMB?

Got a question for next week’s Twitter Mailbag? Tweet it to @BenFowlkesMMA.

@benfowlkesMMA what fight are you looking forward to the most on the FoxSports1 card, and why? #tmb

— TheKidd (@VineStreetLife) August 14, 2013

I have to admit that I am looking forward to the Chael Sonnen vs. Mauricio Rua headliner, in part because I’m interested to see how “Shogun” will deal with a fighter like Sonnen. When I spoke to Sonnen this past week, I mentioned that he seems to have a cardio edge over Rua, who is known to get up there on the Coleman Index (the CME podcast’s own highly unofficial metric for determining how tired a fighter looks) late in his fights.

“I see what you’re saying, and I see that too,” Sonnen said. “I see ‘Shogun’ get fatigued, but it doesn’t seem to affect him. There’s a few guys out there like that. They get real tired, but they don’t stop. They look like they want to. You start to see the signs, you see their body language change, but they push through it anyway. ‘Shogun’ is one of those guys. He never stops trying to win, he’s never not dangerous, and even when he’s breathing hard he doesn’t let off you.”

That’s actually a good point, when you think about it. Rua does get obviously, visibly tired, but his work rate hardly slows down. Just look at the end of his epic battle with Dan Henderson. Seems like there’s little chance Sonnen will put him away early, and Rua will probably get taken down once or twice along the way, so I’m curious to see what this one looks like in the later rounds. I’m also just glad that FOX Sports 1 and my cable provider, Dish Network, have come to some understanding, even if it means I now have to figure out where the SPEED network is on my TV dial.

@benfowlkesMMA Did Eddie Alvarez‘s mgmt team make a huge blunder? Should he have waited AT LEAST ONE PPv before reupping with Bellator? #tmb

— Christopher M. Karim (@cmkarim) August 13, 2013

As some of Eddie Alvarez’s recent explanations suggest, seems like he was starting to get worried that he might spend the prime of this fighting career in court, which is not an unfounded or uncommon fear. That’s what makes it so difficult for fighters to see a contract dispute through to its end. The promoter has time on his side. The more he delays a final decision, the better. The fighter is the one who can’t afford (often quite literally) to sit out for a year or two while this stuff gets decided. I can understand why Alvarez struck a deal, and he probably got a pretty good offer once Bellator realized that it was going to need something better than “Rampage” Jackson vs. Tito Ortiz if it was going to sell any pay-per-views at all. A part of me wishes he’d stuck to his guns and let a court decide, but that is, admittedly, the selfish part of me. I’m sure Alvarez’s family doesn’t mind him getting back to work.

@benfowlkesMMA Is there a point at which the whole “War Machine” publicity push really backfires on Bellator? #tmb

— Nicholas Jenkins (@ngjenkins) August 14, 2013

If there was, you’d think we’d have reached it by now. Take his most recent screwup, for instance. The fighter formerly known as Jon Koppenhaver jumps on his Twitter to let us all know that he “raped” his girlfriend because “real men rape,” then wants to act incredulous when people on Twitter want to know what his freaking problem is. Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney then responds with a statement essentially explaining why it’s not going to do anything about stuff like this, so … carry on? The most eloquent and accurate explanation came from his girlfriend, Christy Mack, who was the supposed victim of this “rape.” In a tweet that made rare proper use of a semi-colon, she explained that a) she was not raped, and b) War Machine “says stupid things at times; we all know this.” That last point might be the best thing Mr. Machine has going for him right now. People who know anything at all about him just expect this stuff from him now. Bellator sure does, which is why it tries to use his past crimes and shockingly poor life choices as a promotional tool. Only now it’s gotten itself in a situation where it’s hard to discipline the guy. Once you’ve let him get away with all this, how do you expect him to know any better?

@benfowlkesMMA What do the UFC do with Overeem if he loses in devastating fashion to Browne? #tmb

— You Suck (@Ash_Amey) August 14, 2013

First, get him to a neurologist. If Alistair Overeem gets knocked out by Travis Browne on Saturday, that’ll be two brain-rattling KOs in a row for him, at which point it might be time to take a break and see if the circuitry is all still connected. After that, man, I don’t know. I’ll admit that I’m interested in first seeing what Overeem looks like on the scales. Last time we saw him, dude looked a little softer around the edges. You know, following his long layoff after testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance. If he shows up looking jacked for this one, it’s going to make people wonder. If he looks more like the before picture on an ad for diet pills, that only lends credence to the belief that he was getting a little extra help back when he looked like an action figure for every fight. In that sense, it’s kind of a no-win for Overeem. The best he can do is show up looking like a guy who is definitely not on steroids, then win anyway. Even that won’t convince us that he was clean, but it might start to build the case that he is now – and that he can still win that way.

@benfowlkesMMA Can you really see the winner of Brown vs Pyle getting pushed for title contention? Great guys to watch, but maybe not at top

— Scott Cumming (@tummidge) August 14, 2013

Fighters like Matt Brown and Mike Pyle suffer from a perception problem. They’ve been pigeonholed as gritty, tough guys who put on a show, which is accurate. The problem is, it’s hard for people to make the jump from thinking of them that way to thinking of them as potential title challengers. If two tough guys beat each other up, with one of them emerging as the toughest of the tough guys, what does that mean? Probably that he has another tough fight against another tough guy to look forward to, so stitch him up and send him back out there.

@benfowlkesMMA #TMB What are your thoughts on Sonnen’s claim that he never trains more than 3 hrs/day?

— Clayton Cox (@cdcgratefl) August 14, 2013

I’ve seen Chael Sonnen in the gym, and he is one of those guys who shows up, does his work, then gets out. That sounds simple enough, but you’d be amazed at how many MMA fighters are incapable of it. Some of them think they do it, but really they spend all day hanging around the gym before and after practice, even if they aren’t doing much. Some, like Nick Diaz, show up whenever, then work literally all day, as if they’re getting paid by the hour. One thing I will say for Sonnen is, he’s a legitimately busy man. You see him on the road at events, doing his TV analyst thing. You see him, as in this excellent story by Jeff Wagenheim at Sports Illustrated, hopping a red-eye to Boston to do media. He’s all over the place, seemingly all the time, and he doesn’t even really mind. Most fighters would hate that. They want to be at home, in their gyms, sleeping in their beds, eating their favorite foods. The fact that Sonnen can balance these two aspects of his life probably gives us a hint as to why the UFC continues to give him the big jobs, even when he keeps losing.

@benfowlkesMMA What do you think of the idea of a ‘Super-Middleweight’ class, with Lyoto vs Vitor fighting for the inaugural title belt?

— AutoConception.com (@AutoConception) August 14, 2013

No. I think no. The last thing we need right now is another new weight class. If both those guys can make middleweight or light heavyweight, then let them decide which division they’d rather compete in. There’s no reason to split the difference and siphon off talent from two divisions that are just starting to get interesting again.

@benfowlkesMMA if Conor McGregor wins in devastating fashion, who would you like to see him fight next? Someone to challenge the hype train?

— Irish Magpie (@irish_magpie) August 14, 2013

First, let’s take a moment and appreciate the fact that the Conor McGregor vs. Max Holloway fight is actually a better, more compelling matchup than the original, which pitted McGregor against Andy Ogle. McGregor is still favored to win here, but Holloway is no joke, even if McGregor insists that the replacement means nothing to him. If the “King of Dublin” runs through Holloway as easily as he dispatched Marcus Brimage, I’d say it’s time for a big jump up in competition, preferably against someone in the top 15. All I know is that whoever he gets matched up with next (again, assuming he wins on Saturday), he probably won’t feel like it’s enough of a step up. As he told me recently when I asked him how far he thought he was from a title shot:

“Honestly, I feel like I already have the title. I feel like it’s mine. You could put me in there tomorrow. You could have put me in there for my last one. It wouldn’t have made a difference. I’m ready for it whenever the UFC wants.”

@benfowlkesMMA FA in other sports is a chance to see what ur worth & pick the best deal.what did the EA deal teach us about mma Free Agency?

— joe mosqueda (@joedaddy85) August 14, 2013

Maybe it taught us that free agency isn’t really free agency when a) there are only two viable options, and b) you have to go through a lengthy court battle just to get free in the first place. It’s another situation that reminds us not to get too caught up in comparing MMA to other sports, even though we all know we’re going to keep doing it.

@benfowlkesMMA since Alvarez vs Chandler II has been announced, how much are you NOW willing to pay for the Bellator PPV?

— Kevin Thang (@Skip2MyJays) August 14, 2013

So far we’ve got Tito Ortiz vs. “Rampage” Jackson, Michael Chandler vs. Eddie Alvarez, and “King” Mo Lawal vs. Emmanuel Newton. My guess is Bellator will add a couple more of its big guns before it’s all over, but right now I’d put my ideal price at $35. Definitely no higher than $40. And, let it be known, I say that as someone who gets to expense his pay-per-views. It’s not even coming out of my pocket, but I still wouldn’t feel right about paying much more than that for any event that’s going to act like Ortiz-Jackson is a big deal. One of the ways I measure pay-per-view quality is by looking at how many of my friends (all of whom know I get to expense pay-per-views) want to come over and watch. A UFC event with Jon Jones, Georges St-Pierre or even Chael Sonnen? I’ve got people sitting on my living room floor by the time it’s over. For UFC 163, on the other hand, it was just me alone on the couch. This feels like two, maybe three of my more hardcore fight fan friends might want to swing by. The rest probably won’t even know there’s an event that night. Charge more than $40 for that, and you’re in trouble.

@benfowlkesMMA Several months on, is Matt Hughes doing even less than Chuck Liddell

— Chris C (@christopher_kit) August 14, 2013

I’m not sure it would be possible to do less than Chuck Liddell, but it sure looks like Matt Hughes is giving it a shot. The difference is, Liddell’s job as the UFC’s Executive VP of Global Corporate Strategy Marketing Branding Initiatives Paradigm Business Mumbo Jumbo is obviously not a real job. No one actually expects him to do anything aside from show up and bro-down, shake hands, and sign autographs when and where the UFC tells him to. It’s not like any of us actually thinks that Liddell is in the Zuffa offices bright and early on a Tuesday, wearing a tie, hanging around the coffee machine so he can recruit people for his after-work kickball league. Not happening.

Hughes, on the other hand, was given a job that at least sounded like something he might actually do. The title still sounds a little like meaningless corporate-speak –UFC VP of Athlete Development – but at least initially the UFC talked about it like it actually expected Hughes to, you know do stuff. Dana White said he would “create relationships” with fighters on the roster, reach out to the ones who got themselves in trouble, maybe even perform some kind of vague counseling duties. Thing is, every time you hear Hughes talk about the job, he goes out of his way to essentially say that he wants no part of that stuff. I saw him at a Q&A/autograph signing at the Venetian in Las Vegas in July. Somebody asked him about his new role with the UFC and he quickly shot back, “As far as figuring out what’s right and what’s wrong, I don’t have a lot of say, nor do I want to.” In other words, give me my check and leave me alone.

@benfowlkesMMA Too late for twitter mailbag? Need your thoughts on a potential Nick Diaz vs Lyoto Machida fight. #TMB

— Aman (@Sidhu6_) August 15, 2013

It kind of seems like an offer meant to make Nick Diaz’s head explode. Not only does he not get to come straight out of retirement, go up to middleweight and fight Anderson Silva (or Chris Weidman), which I’m sure he thinks is a terrible injustice, but now you’re telling him he has to fight a light heavyweight instead, and one known for refusing to engage on anyone’s terms but his own? Seems like exactly the kind of thing he’d hate. Or love. Who knows with him?

Ben Fowlkes is MMAjunkie.com and USA TODAY’s MMA columnist. Follow him on Twitter at @BenFowlkesMMA. Twitter Mailbag appears every Thursday on MMAjunkie.com.