Twitter Mailbag: McGregor vs. wrestlers, and why is weight-cutting really so important?

Conor McGregor

This week’s Twitter Mailbag comes to you a day later than usual, owing to the Thanksgiving holiday, but it’s no less packed with MMA goodness of all types, from weight-cutting woes to Conor McGregor’s title shot hopes, with just a dash of sappy gratitude thrown in for good measure.

Got a question of your own? Hit me up at @BenFowlkesMMA on Twitter.

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That’s a fair point, but I don’t think the people who want to see Conor McGregor get his sprawl on are motivated by concerns that he’ll need those wrestling skills against Jose Aldo. Instead, they suspect that stopping the takedown and/or getting back to his feet in a timely fashion might be the vital skills missing from McGregor’s game, and they want an answer to that question in order to determine whether he’s even worthy of fighting the champ.

On one hand, I get it. We have yet to see McGregor tested by one of the many strong wrestlers in the division. The longer that continues, the more people suspect that the UFC is purposely keeping the Irish moneymaker away from the Nik Lentzes of the world. And while a fight against Dennis Siver does seem like it’ll be fun to watch, it doesn’t seem like a significant step up after a first-round TKO of Dustin Poirier. It’s reasonable for people to want to see him face a different sort of challenge, if only to learn more about what McGregor is truly capable of.

On the other hand, I’m not too worried about it. Especially in a division like featherweight, no one can avoid the wrestlers for very long. Eventually McGregor is going to come up against someone with a mean double-leg or a grinding clinch game, and one way or another our questions will be answered. That’s still one of the essential beauties of MMA. The truth will find you sooner or later. Inside a cage, there’s just not enough room to run from it forever.

It would be nuts, though maybe not in a good way. Still, if you’re looking for ways to get me to watch another season of the UFC’s interminable reality show, that’s not such a terrible idea. Which is to say, it is a terrible idea, but that’s why I’d be more likely to watch it. I just wouldn’t want to be the person who has to clean up the house after that crew is done with it.

That’s a tough one. For a while people used to argue for a follow-up, same-day weigh-in, thinking that limiting the amount a fighter could bulk up after the initial weigh-in might motivate them to fight in a division closer to their natural weight. Knowing what we know about fighters, though, it seems more likely that it would just limit their ability to fully rehydrate after a weight cut, which only increases the danger of the fight itself. Other plans have suggested the use of body measurements to determine the lowest possible weight that a fighter would be allowed to compete at, but then it becomes a question of a) whether we can fairly and accurately determine that for all fighters, and b) whether we can enforce it in a practical, consistent manner.

Ideally, fighters would just stop with the extreme weight-cutting. As I argued in this column, it would probably be in their collective best interest. Then again, fighters aren’t known for their ability to take decisive collective action. This might have to be a problem for fighters to solve individually, and on their own. Maybe once they learn from their own experiences and the examples of others who have tried and failed to cut their way to success, they’ll figure out that severe drops in weight aren’t always the answer.

When you say that Anthony Johnson “used to make” welterweight, what you mean is he used to make it … sometimes. Except for when he didn’t. And even when he did, it didn’t always sound like the healthiest thing in the world for him.

I was there in Seattle for his decision win over Dan Hardy in 2011. At the post-fight press conference, “Rumble” told what he seemed to think was a funny story about being barricaded inside the sauna by his coaches, whom he swore at and threatened in a half-delirious plea to be let out. They kept him in there, and he ended up making the weight and winning the fight, but he didn’t exactly shine in that fight. You think baking his brain and body the day before the contest might have diminished his capabilities on fight night? Seems possible, if not likely.

If Johnson’s career trajectory tells us anything, it might be that killing yourself to get a little bit of a size advantage at a lower weight class isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. You’ll probably have a better time of it, not to mention a longer career, if you focus on a sustainable lifestyle and fight closer to your natural weight. Probably also helps if you don’t pig out between fights, but that’s another topic altogether.

My dog is fine, and I thank all the people on Twitter who reassured me that the large lump on his chest was probably a benign mass of fatty tissue. That was the vet’s diagnosis, which was a relief. Apparently labrador retrievers are especially prone to developing those, and it doesn’t seem to have dampened my dog’s enthusiasm for life one bit. Right now he’s anxiously awaiting the start of cross-country ski season, when he will get to run alongside me as we zip through the winter wonderland of Montana together. Hopefully he has many more in his future.

From the sound of it, Johny Hendricks had Mike Dolce babysitting him at the dinner table, which is even better. While we’re on the topic though, spare a thought for the poor fighters of UFC 181 who had to worry about their weight while everyone else was throwing down on a Thanksgiving feast. Fighters make a lot of sacrifices that most of us never think about it. Watching everyone else chow down is just one of them.

I’m thankful that MMA continues to be an evolving sport, one that feels like it changes every single year. I’m thankful its fan base continues to be populated by passionate martial arts nerds who never get tired of discussing and arguing over it. I’m thankful for people like Jack Slack and BJJ Scout and all the other technique experts who continue with the often thankless task of educating the masses. I’m thankful that MMA’s masses actually want to be educated, at least some of the time.

Most of all, I’m thankful for the periodic reminders that, as frustrating and ridiculous and weird and absurd as this sport can be at times, when the lights go down and the promoters stop yelling we still get to see some amazing stuff happen in those cages from time to time. When MMA is good, there’s no sport that’s better. I’m thankful for the people who continue to prove that, each in their own way.

Well, it wouldn’t be pretty, and I wouldn’t want to be the poor turkey caught in the middle of that, but ultimately I think it’d come down to UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones and UFC heavyweight champ Cain Velasquez as the last two left standing. Then, to settle it once and for all, they’d each get down on one knee and call to the turkey. Whoever it goes to is its rightful owner, now and forever.

It’s tough out there for a flyweight champ. Demetrious Johnson has already beaten most of the top-ranked fighters at 125 pounds, and he had a hard time getting people interested in those matchups the first time around. More rematches doesn’t sound like the fix he needs, but what else are you supposed to do with the guy? At the moment, I’d say his best course of action is to wait it out. No one is going to care about another just-for-the-hell-of-it title defense against another Chris Cariaso-type challenger. He might as well bide his time until there’s a clear – not to mention healthy – contender to deal with. In the meantime, he might want to get out there and speak up every now and then. If he’s not careful, fans might just forget he exists.

I don’t think you’d have to go too far to become a bigger draw than the men’s flyweight division right now, but I am pretty excited about the prospects for the women’s 115-pound class. We’ve already seen some exciting fights in that division (looking at you, Paige VanZant), and this season of “The Ultimate Fighter” promises to inject a lot of talent and a lot of names. What I can’t help but wonder though, is whether women’s fighting is still a niche within a niche? I mean, yes, Ronda Rousey is a big star, but is she big enough to get the casual fight fan to sit down and watch other women fight in another division? I hope so, but I have my doubts. I think there’s plenty of great stuff going on in women’s MMA these days. I also think that there’s a certain segment of the population that will never be into it, no matter what happens.

Haven’t we learned by now that title shots in the UFC are a lot like life and death in the Clint Eastwood classic “Unforgiven”? Deserve’s got nothing to do with it, my friend. On paper, Frankie Edgar has done more to earn the shot. A dominant win over Cub Swanson? Show me anything McGregor has done that’s as meaningful as that. At the same time, we’ve seen Edgar and Aldo go at it. As impressive as Edgar’s latest victory was, nothing about it gave me any reason to think that a rematch with the champ would turn out any better for him than the first fight did.

Assuming McGregor smashes Siver, which he most likely will, I wouldn’t mind seeing him get the title shot. It feels almost inevitable at this point, doesn’t it? He’s the UFC’s guy right now. The UFC brass make shockingly little effort to hide that, which makes you think that they’re going to find a way to put him up against the champ eventually. Why not go ahead and get it over with so we can find out whether he’s really as good as he says he is? Whether the answer turns out to be yes or no, you know you’re going to watch just to find out for yourself.

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