Twitter Mailbag: Fowlkes on Weidman, Jones-Silva, Edgar, reading recommendations

It might have been a relatively slow news week in MMA, but with a UFC middleweight title fight looming and a mind-blowingly rad video of the behind-the-scenes madness from Nick Diaz‘s WAR MMA making the Internet rounds, there’s still plenty to talk about in this week’s Twitter Mailbag.

You can direct your own question to @BenFowlkesMMA on Twitter, or you can go old school and jot it down in a message in a bottle instead. Just saying though, I live in a land-locked state.

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@benfowlkesMMA if Weidman loses to Silva will the story be more about Silva's greatness or Weidman's "inexperience"

— Jerrod Gensman (@Jerrod_Gensman) June 26, 2013

Depends how he loses. If, say, Chris Weidman falls down on a spinning backfist attempt and gets finished seconds later, sure, maybe we’ll write that one off as a valuable learning experience. But if Anderson Silva goes into full Jedi mode and knocks him out while the two of them are standing toe-to-toe, that will probably become Exhibit Y in Silva’s ongoing argument for greatest of all time. What I’m more interested in is what the story will be if Weidman wins. Will MMA fans jump on his bandwagon and tow it all the way back to Long Island? Or will we collectively decide that this was age catching up with Silva, and not Weidman outshining him? With that question, I think a lot would depend not only on how the fight ends, but also what Silva does in the months and years afterward.

@benfowlkesMMA has bellator dropped "toughest tournament in sports" tag yet?Instead of 8 we had 4 participants, and 2 guys retired last week

— joe mosqueda (@joedaddy85) June 26, 2013

First of all, I think we all know that the real toughest tournament in sports was the original “American Gladiators” series. You try playing powerball against Nitro and Gemini in front of a live studio audience, then see if this cagefighting stuff still seems so hard. But you make a good point about the start of Bellator MMA’s “Summer Series” light heavyweight tournament. It began with four men – Muhammed Lawal, Seth Petruzelli, Jacob Noe and Renato Sobral. Then Petruzelli and “Babalu” both lost and almost immediately retired. That might be just unfortunate timing for Bellator, but it does create a perception problem. Either this tournament is so tough that it literally drives people out of the sport, or it’s not exactly pulling from the cream of the 205-pound crop to begin with. My money’s on the latter.

@benfowlkesMMA So did you watch the Ekc video following the WAR/Diaz event, and would you want Tweedale as your main guy running shit? #tmb

— Brian (@LiqMiquchi) June 26, 2013

Of course I watched it, in part because I’ll watch any video E. Casey Leydon puts together, but also because I’ll watch any video that purports to show me what the inside of Nick Diaz’s house looks like (spoiler alert: yeah, there’s a heavy bag hanging in the living room and a bong in the kitchen, so it’s pretty much exactly how you pictured it). If you haven’t seen Leydon’s behind-the-scenes video from WAR MMA yet, please, do yourself a favor and open a new tab right now. Then, while the ad for adult diapers plays, you can finish reading the TMB.

When I got to the part in the video where Jonathan Tweedale of Nick Diaz Promotions locks his keys in his car, I knew this was worth watching. When I got to the part where they break into said car using a sai that looks like it’s straight out of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” I knew it was something special. By the time we see Tweedale swearing into his phone while behind him a dude bench presses on a weight set that’s inside the house, I was convinced that this was the best MMA video I’d ever seen. And that’s all before we even get to the fights, which are weirdly, beautifully shot in a way that perfectly captures the feel of a local MMA show.

As for your question about Tweedale, no, that’s not the man I would put in charge of my MMA promotion, which I wouldn’t start in the first place because it seems like a guaranteed money-loser. The only way I can see Diaz doing it is if someone convinced him that he could slap his name on some posters and make a little easy money, all without even bothering to show up for the weigh-ins at a nearby Buffalo Wild Wings. My guess is Tweedale is that someone, and WAR MMA is the end result. But honestly? After seeing this video I’m mostly just amazed that the show turned out as well as it did. You watch Tweedale flipping out about the live stream while a delightfully truculent fellow does bong rips beside him, and suddenly it seems like a minor miracle that the thing happened at all.

@benfowlkesMMA do you think it's a bit ominous that Mike Pierce, a high-level vet who has only lost to the best in the division is on Fbook?

— Dan Gutter (@DanGutter1) June 26, 2013

I don’t know if I’d use the word ominous, exactly, but it is strange to see Mike Pierce jerking the curtain in his 12th UFC fight. Pierce is riding a three-fight win streak, and the most recent dude he beat? Yeah, he’s one spot above Pierce on this card (though, OK, still on the Facebook prelims). To make matters worse, this is a Las Vegas event. It’s not like it is in Rio, where they’re packed to the rafters a half-hour before the first fight. When Pierce walks out into the MGM Grand Garden Arena at roughly 3:30 pm local time next Saturday afternoon, there will probably only be a smattering of fans there to greet him. Some of them might be paying attention. A scattered few might even be sober. That does seem a bit unfair to a guy who’s been in the UFC going on four years now, and whose only losses in the octagon came against Jon Fitch (unanimous decision), Johny Hendricks (split decision), and Josh Koscheck (split decision). Then again, if you’ve ever seen a Pierce fight you can probably guess why the UFC isn’t using him to lead off the pay-per-view. It might feel a bit unjust, but it doesn’t seem completely random.

@benfowlkesMMA Is the UFC hitching itself to a dying horse with its expanded network TV presence? Cable subscriptions are trending down #tmb

— Matt Murray (@mbmurray) June 26, 2013

Right. I mean, who watches TV anymore? Except for, you know, basically everyone. Even your hipster friends who can’t wait to mention that they don’t own a TV are still watching the same shows, just on a MacBook Air instead of a Vizio. In that sense, the UFC is pretty well-positioned. It’s on your TV through FOX, and soon FOX Sports 1, whatever that will look like. It’s on your computer through stuff like Facebook prelims and the new “UFC Select” YouTube subscription channel. It’s probably even on your cell phone if you’re part of the group known as “everybody,” which I’m told is moving to Metro. Unless you get your media exclusively from flip-books and cave paintings, I don’t think you’ll have too much trouble watching UFC fights in the digital age.

@benfowlkesMMA #tmb True or false: If not for Jon Jones, Anderson Silva LHW Champ by now.

— Julio (@Exxon_Valdez) June 26, 2013

True-ish? If not for Jon Jones and his long-limbed reign of terror atop the 205-pound division, maybe Anderson Silva could have moved up in weight and claimed that title already. But how do we know if he would have wanted to? So many things might be different if Jones had decided to be a wandering slam poet (we already know he can grow the beard) instead of a fighter. For all we know, Lyoto Machida would have recaptured the belt by now and kicked off Machida Era, part deux. Maybe Daniel Cormier would have come down in weight, or Vitor Belfort would have gone up. Maybe Silva would have stopped in an L.A. coffee shop one night and heard a wandering slam poet by the name of J. Dwight Jones, who inspired him to give up fighting and finally take that hot-air balloon journey around the world that he and Sensei Seagal have been talking about for years. Such is the unpredictable nature of the universe, Julio. A butterfly flaps its wings and the next thing you know we’re arguing over whether anyone will ever dethrone UFC light heavyweight champ Ilir Latifi.

@benfowlkesMMA How much will @MattSerraUFC not being in @ChrisWeidmanUFC corner effect the his chances at defeating Silva? #ufc162 #ufc

— guiltymexican (@guiltymexican) June 26, 2013

Not at all, would be my guess. No offense to Matt Serra, who is a good coach and cornerman, not to mention an all-around awesome dude, but I don’t think the difference between beating the greatest middleweight of all time and losing to him is some guy in your corner shouting “remembah to breathe!”

@benfowlkesMMA any mma or boxing books you can rec? Not interested in fighter bios, btw. thanks

— bo lloyd (@dashamas3000) June 26, 2013

I hear you on the fighter bios. I don’t pick up a book because I want to read what some fighter told his ghostwriter about himself in a series of late-night phone calls. Sadly, that genre seems to account for the majority of MMA book titles, at least for now, which is why I’d recommend some boxing literature instead. The two best boxing novels I’ve ever read are, in order, “The Professional” by W.C. Heinz, and “Fat City” by Leonard Gardner. Heinz also wrote what might be the single best piece of combat sports non-fiction, “Brownsville Bum,” which can be found in the “At the Fights” anthology, which I also strongly recommend for any fight fan. If you absolutely have to read a fighter’s autobiography, read Jack Dempsey’s. It’s helpfully titled: “Dempsey.” He might not tell stories about having sex during phone interviews, as Chuck Liddell does in “Iceman,” but it’s still worth a read just for the tales of mining camp prize fights and professional bouts against dudes named “Gunboat.”

@benfowlkesMMA If, Jebus forbid, Edgar loses for the fourth time in a row on Saturday, what should be his next step?

— Pat Samson (@samsonmma) June 26, 2013

I don’t want to say retirement, so instead I’ll suggest a really long vacation – at least a year, maybe more. Time enough to figure out what’s happening and why, plus some more time to decide if this is really something he wants to keep doing. Frankie Edgar can’t afford to lose this fight. Not against Charles Oliveira, and not after he’s lost three straight (some of which were, in fairness, pretty freaking debatable, but still). I think Edgar wins this fight, and I think he wins it rather easily. If he doesn’t, the one thing I definitely don’t want to see him do is change weight classes again. For many fighters that’s an illusory fix that allows them to ignore the real problems. And if the real problem is that you’ve taken too much damage in too short a time, starving yourself for a clean slate won’t help.

@benfowlkesMMA A statement! As 4 a question: Don't you think Bader vs Texeiro is a pointless fight? Texeira needs to fight a top 5 opponent

— Koko Dionis (@iamKokoD) June 26, 2013

Fine, but who? Take a look at the 205-pound top five – according to the Glover Teixeira against some tougher competition, but the higher up the ranks he climbs the fewer options there are. What’s the UFC supposed to do, keep him out of action for months, just waiting for someone’s dance card to open up? I don’t think Teixeira or fans would appreciate that.

@benfowlkesMMA Is this put up or shut up time for Chris Leben? Will he be cut if he loses against some guy named Andrew Craig?

— J. Pitts (@jdotpitts) June 27, 2013

We know that the UFC has a soft spot for Chris Leben, as it does for many of the guys from that first season of “The Ultimate Fighter.” Maybe that’s why he’s gotten more chances to screw up and start fresh than basically any other active fighter. But the big threat for Leben is not that he’ll lose to “some guy named Andrew Craig” (who’s got a pretty decent 8-1 record, BTW), but rather that he’ll look bad doing it. Leben’s appeal is not that he wins ‘em all, and it never has been. Leben’s the guy who puts his head down and swings. There’s a market for that. The fans like it, when it’s done well, and in turn the UFC likes it. The problem is when it goes from sloppy fun to ugly embarrassment, as it did in Leben’s last fight with Derek Brunson. That’s what he has to avoid here. That and another failed drug test.

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.