Twitter Mailbag: Is there such thing as a 'code' inside the cage?

In this week’s Twitter Mailbag, is Quinton Jackson right to complain about Jon Jones “injuring” opponents? Should fighters really be endorsing presidential candidates? What does it matter what Ronda Rousey's mom thinks about her coach? And what would the author of this column tell his own daughter if she wanted to become an MMA fighter?

Got a question of your own? Tweet it to @BenFowlkesMMA whenever you feel the urge (but mostly on Wednesday).

I was about to answer this question on my own and then I realized, wait a minute, I’m not an MMA fighter. How should I know if they think there’s a code of some sort that they are expected to follow? Then I realized, oh right, the way I should know is by asking them. So I did.

Last night and this morning I conducted a mini-poll on the issue to see what fighters thought about Quinton Jackson’s criticism of Jon Jones. I expected it to be fairly unanimous one way or the other, but actually, there was a lot of disagreement. So much disagreement, in fact, that when I made the mistake of including two retired fighters on the same email thread, they fell to bickering with one another about it. (I won’t say who those two fighters were, but one of them does a weekly column with me, and the other’s name rhymes with Jewelry Medzie.)

Some said they thought there was a code. Others said that while some fighters are known for being particularly dirty, you can’t complain about anything that’s within the rules. A few pointed to Jones’ techniques in particular as being more innovative than dirty, suggesting that people get hurt by them and/or complain about them mostly because they weren’t prepared for them.

Actually, now that I think about it, there was one consensus among pretty much everyone I asked. Whether they thought there was a code or not, everyone agreed that this was just “Rampage” complaining about stuff. So at least we can all find common ground somewhere.

If that same parole officer had given birth to Mike Tyson, reared him through a difficult childhood, then taught him the martial art that would form the basis for the rest of his life, then yeah, it might matter what that parole officer thought of Cus D’Amato.

On principle, I mostly agree with you. And in most cases it wouldn’t matter what a fighter’s parent thought or said about that fighter’s coach. But Rousey’s situation is clearly different. Her mother was the judo champion who helped mold her into the person and fighter she is today. Her mother is also a go-to source for Rousey news, since Rousey herself is a lot less accessible than most fighters, due to her celebrity. If she says Rousey’s coach is terrible, there’s ample reason to wonder if she’ll eventually succeed in convincing Rousey to relocate – or if she’ll only succeed in providing a distraction in the weeks before a fight.

It’s only happening fast if you assume that Paige VanZant is nothing more than a pretty girl with a sponsor-friendly smile who will eventually get exposed by someone who can really fight. And if you think that, why is she in the main event – even a Fight Pass main event – to begin with?

In a way, I think there’s just as much, if not more upside to matching VanZant up against Rose Namajunas now that Joanne Calderwood is out. Let’s not forget that coming off the all-female season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” the UFC was pretty excited about “Thug” Rose. But she, like PVZ, is still a fairly raw talent. You can’t know for sure who will prove to be the better fighter over time, so why not throw them in the cage together and work with whoever’s left standing?

Either way it turns out, the UFC has a 115-pound female fighter who people will want to see. That’s much better than trying to make fights where it can only go one way without totally ruining your plans.

For that matter, how about Chris Weidman endorsing Donald Trump? With election season ramping up, now is a great time to find out that your favorite fighters might hold political beliefs that you find baffling. I would urge us all, however, to resist doing the thing where we tell pro athletes that they don’t get to express an opinion on politics, but instead should stick to doing the one thing we know them for.

That’s a crappy thing to do, and we should all stop doing it. It basically amounts to us saying, “Hey sports person, what makes you think you get the same right to an opinion on non-sports stuff as I do?”

It’s fine if you think someone’s political beliefs or candidate of choice flat-out suck. It’s also fine to tell them that, if you must. (Just remember that an angry tweet has about as much chance of changing someone’s vote as a bumper sticker does.) But just because you identify fighters with their job and nothing else, that doesn’t mean they have to think of themselves the same way. Fighters are people, dammit. And people have the right to be attacked on the merit of their views, and not simply for having any.

So Bellator. Possibly too Bellator. Even Bellator might look at it on a poster and go, “Man, this is very Bellator, to the point of being perhaps overly Bellator.” What I’m saying is, never go full Bellator.

Seems to me you might have cherry-picked your examples, especially stacking the deck by throwing a Diaz brother in there, but let’s say for the sake of argument that you’re onto something. Say former Strikeforce fighters really are more likely to show a stubbornly independent streak. Is that because they learned this attitude from their experience with Scott Coker’s Bay Area promotion, or is it because the fighters with that mindset were more likely to end up there in the first place?

There’s also another factor that you’re forgetting, and that’s experience. One thing I’ve noticed covering this sport over the years is that the longer someone has been in it, the more likely they are to stand up for themselves, even when it invites trouble. Maybe that’s because experience in the fight game teaches you that no one here will look out for your interests if you don’t. Or maybe it just teaches you not to give a damn.

That could very well be part of it. It’s not just fans and celebrities putting pressure on the Nevada State Athletic Commission, either. Members of the infamous Culinary Workers Union reportedly showed up at today’s NSAC commission hearing to criticize commissioners over the Nick Diaz situation. That, combined with talk of a fighter boycott and a White House petition, has to have some psychological effect on the powers that be in Nevada.

But if the NSAC really is considering a settlement with Diaz, it’s just as likely that fears of impending court action are the real motivating force. The NSAC already had the Wanderlei Silva thing tossed back in its lap after a judge decided, yeah, no you can’t do that. It might find itself thoroughly embarrassed if it has to defend its treatment of Diaz in the kind of court where NSAC commissioners don’t get to make up the rules as they go.

If you know you’re going to court and you think you might lose, a settlement could be your best option. If that settlement also convinces people to stop yelling at you, even better.

Let’s see, by 2030 my oldest daughter will be 17, and will have presumably figured out a way to leverage her love of acting out detailed dramas with stuffed animals into a full college scholarship. Why would she want to give that up just to get punched in the face by some lady in cornrows?

If that argument somehow failed to dissuade her, I guess I would ask why, exactly, she wants to do it. Because if it’s for money, HAHAHAHAHA no.

But if it’s for the experience, or because she wants to test herself and find out what she’s made of, or just because she wants to learn to defend herself and hone those skills in live competition, then OK, I can’t argue with that. I would just encourage her to think of it as a passion and not a livelihood. Then I would remember that you can’t tell a teenager a damn thing anyway, so she’ll probably do what she wants no matter what I say.

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