Twitter Mailbag: 'Rampage'-Ortiz pay-per-view, Ronda Rousey's middle finger

With Bellator 97 behind us and UFC 163 still to come, this edition of the Twitter Mailbag has no shortage of topics.

Will we touch on “The Korean Zombie’s” chances to run wild on Jose Aldo, as well as Bellator’s chances to score big with a Tito Ortiz vs. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson fight that seems like it would have been better off in the year 2003? Probably, yeah. OK, definitely. That and some other stuff.

If you’ve got questions of your own, you know what to do. I’m right there on Twitter @BenFowlkesMMA. Reading. Watching. Judging.

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@benfowlkesMMA Are people underestimating The Korean Zombie? I feel like he has a chance to be competitive/possibly maybe kinda win?

— Jon Lee (@Jonscrazylife) July 31, 2013

This should probably tell us something. Here you are, attempting to make a case for “The Korean Zombie” (known to his family and pretty much no one else as Chan Sung Jung), and the best you can do is “competitive/possibly maybe kinda win.” Yeah, that about sums it up. I’m not saying he can’t become the UFC’s new featherweight champ on Saturday night at HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro. All I’m saying is, if you haven’t fought in more than a year, and if you were originally planning to make your post-shoulder surgery comeback against Ricardo Lamas, and if that plan then changed to you fighting Jose Aldo in front of a bunch of Brazilians who will undoubtedly be screaming at you about your impending death, well, it doesn’t look good. It’s a tough assignment, is my point. So tough, in fact, that oddsmakers have Aldo as about an 8-1 favorite right now, and not without reason.

@benfowlkesMMA Tito vs Rampage? Really? Is this a fight MMA fans wants to see, or just Bellator grabing at straws?

— SmokeyChiver (@g_morris79) August 1, 2013

You ask if it’s a fight MMA fans want to see. If it is, they’ve kept remarkably quiet about it over the years. I already touched on this in my column earlier today, but the really baffling part of this for me is that this isn’t even one of those seemingly inevitable legend-against-legend fights that happened just a little too late, like Chuck Liddell vs. Wanderlei Silva. This is one that didn’t need to happen at all. Seriously, when Tito Ortiz retired, did you hear anyone say, “What a shame that the ‘Rampage’ Jackson fight never happened”? No you didn’t, because that fight wasn’t on anyone’s radar. Even very recently, after Jackson had signed with Bellator and Ortiz had begun hinting at a comeback, I still didn’t hear anyone say it. Jackson vs. “King” Mo Lawal? Sure. Jackson vs. Roy Jones Jr. in an ill-advised boxing match? Whatever. But Jackson vs. Ortiz? Nobody was asking for that. So why did Bellator do it? Well, once you sign “Rampage,” he has to fight someone, and he’s probably not eager to do the tournament thing. I think Bellator looked around for the most recognizable, still barely relevant names it could find, then figured it would take a shot and hope for the best.

The upcoming bellator ppv between Tito/rampage from 2006 is really to establish precedent for the Alverez case, right? #tmb @benfowlkesMMA

— Gavin (@HockeyandBeers) August 1, 2013

Honestly, that’s probably part of it. Bellator claims it can pull off a pay-per-view? It helps to have actually done so, or at least announced concrete plans to do so, by the time you show up in court. Trouble is, that could backfire. Eddie Alvarez‘s promised pay-per-view percentage from the UFC doesn’t kick in until 200,000 buys. What if Ortiz vs. Jackson comes in well south of that, which seems like a very real possibility? If Bellator has to show up in court and admit that it hardly sold any pay-per-views in its lone attempt, I don’t see how that helps its case.

@benfowlkesMMA are you a fan of the world tour that the UFC is doing? Would you like to see this be an annual thing?

— Kevin Thang (@Skip2MyJays) July 31, 2013

It’s certainly made for some interesting sound bites and feisty face-offs so far, which I’m sure the UFC loves. But me? All I can think when I see this much energy being pumped into pre-fight hype is, have we no fear of the MMA gods?!? Because you know they’re up on Mt. Xyience right now, looking down upon all these best-laid plans of puny mortal fight promoters, just waiting to smite someone with a blown ACL or a broken hand.

@benfowlkesMMA Y do so many MMA fans feel that the onus is on a fighter who’s winning handily to make a fight “not boring”? See MacD-EllenB

— Matthew Thomas (@mthomf1) August 1, 2013

Probably because the winning fighter is the one who seems to be in control. The guy who’s losing by a wide margin? If he had his way, the fight would look very different. That’s not a guarantee that it wouldn’t still be boring. For all we know, Jake Ellenberger‘s plan at UFC on FOX 8 was to win via jabs and front kicks, and Rory MacDonald just beat him to it. But by the time that fight neared the end of the second round, it was pretty clear that it was mostly up to MacDonald to decide where things went from there. He saw that he was winning without putting himself at risk, and he opted to stick with that until the clock ran out. That’s smart, in the same way that planning for retirement is smart. But there’s a reason high-stakes poker games make for better TV than watching some dude read about mutual funds. MacDonald successfully cultivated the air of a man who could do just about anything he wanted to against Ellenberger. Is it really any surprise that people were disappointed when it became clear that all he wanted to do was not lose?

@benfowlkesMMA Are the rankings to blame for a boring fight like we saw between McDonald and Ellenberger? Usually those two are fun to watch

— B. Riley (@IrishVodkaParty) July 31, 2013

I’m not sure we can blame a couple numbers next to two people’s names for the way the fight unfolded, but I do see your point. Sometimes it seems like the closer fighters get to a title shot, the more conservative they become in the cage. I think there’s a very good, well-documented reason for that, and it’s not limited only to MMA.

You ever read “For Whom the Bell Tolls” by my man Ernest Hemingway? You seem like you have. I mean, your Twitter handle includes the phrase “VodkaParty,” for crying out loud, so if you don’t like Hemingway, you probably should. Anyway, there’s a scene early on in the book where we meet Pablo, the once fearsome guerilla fighter who now just wants to hang out, drink wine in a cave, stare at the awesome horses he’s stolen and wait for the war to be over. He used to be a bad-ass, but that’s because he was crazy and reckless and didn’t much care what happened to him. Then he gets these horses and now suddenly he has something worth living for, something he doesn’t want to lose. He feels rich for the first time in his life, and rich people don’t want to go running around with packs of dynamite through the hills of Spain. I think it’s a similar deal for a lot of UFC contenders and champions. When they were coming up, just trying to get noticed, they were willing to try just about anything. But once they feel like they’ve got something they can’t stand to lose – a title, a promised shot at a title, a top ranking, whatever – they want to protect that. It’s hard to protect and attack at the same time. Trying to do both might prevent you from being successful at either.

@benfowlkesMMA #TMB With B.Askren having his last fight on contract, do u think good possibility of UFC bound? Or blocked like Alvarez?

— Jordan Clarke (@laungtoonlad06) July 31, 2013

When I talked to Ben Askren for this story before his latest defense of his Bellator welterweight title, he mentioned that he’s a) been under one contract for the entirety of his stay in Bellator, and b) eager to fight for whoever pays him the most money. He did not mention an overwhelming feeling of loyalty to his current employers. Thing is though, if you’re the UFC right now, how much would you really be willing to spend to get a welterweight who’s known for dominating opponents while simultaneously boring fans? I don’t mean that as a knock on Askren, who is masterful on the ground (in that grind-’em-out wrestler sort of way), and who would probably do very well in the UFC. It’s just that, from a practical standpoint, what do you get out of acquiring him via a costly bidding war? It seems like the best outcome for the UFC would be to drive up the price on Askren so that Bellator has to spend more than it wants to just to retain the services of a champion it can’t really sell as a major draw. As for Askren himself, while he might not like being thought of in those terms (he’d probably accuse us all of being communists), at least that scenario ends with him getting paid.

@benfowlkesMMA Cat Z will probably get the next one but does Carmouche need to win another fight or is she ready for rematch vs Ronda? #tmb

— Cecilia (@ceciliasr13) July 31, 2013

Liz Carmouche definitely needs another win, preferably against a true 135-pounder who’s already proven herself in the UFC, before she can make a case for another shot at the title. Fortunately, with the Ronda Rousey vs. Miesha Tate fight on the horizon, and with Cat Zingano already in line to meet the winner, there’s plenty of time to sort it out.

@benfowlkesMMA With Michael Chandler becoming one of MMA’s highest paid LWs, do you think Bellator is afraid to lose him?

— Joel Americana (@KnowItAllSmark) July 31, 2013

I think Bellator was afraid that if it didn’t sign Chandler to a new contract now, it would end up in another Eddie Alvarez-esque battle down the road. Now that it’s got him locked down for the foreseeable future, the only real concern is that he’ll go on a losing streak or get sidelined with a debilitating injury. Considering the current state of Bellator’s lightweight class, the latter is more of a threat than the former. As we saw last night, Chandler is the best thing Bellator has going for it right now. I don’t blame Bjorn Rebney and the Viacom crew for putting a lot of eggs in the Chandler basket.

@benfowlkesMMA Year’s half over. If 2012 was the Year of the Injury, what would you call 2013?

— Michael Peterson (@MikeCPeterson) July 31, 2013

Just like you said, it’s half-over. The UFC has a big schedule planned for the second half, and with football season comes better exposure on FOX, not to mention the launch of the new FOX Sports 1, which may or may not end up being an important development. Plus, there’s that Bellator pay-per-view coming up in November. That should be … something. I vote for waiting until the year is done, or at least close to it, before we try to decide what it all means.

@benfowlkesMMA Is Vitor putting himself further away from a title shot by not taking the fights that the @ufc is offering him?

— Alex Bruyere (@auggie85) July 31, 2013

I can’t say he’s doing himself any favors. One thing the UFC doesn’t love is fighters who try to call their own shots. It’s like showing up at work and telling your boss exactly what you aren’t willing to do today. Nobody comes away from that conversation going, “You know what? I really want to make that guy happy.” I can understand why Belfort thinks he’s done enough to earn a title shot. I might be more inclined to agree if the best arguments in his favor hadn’t come under the cloud of TRT doubt that presently hovers over the nation of Brazil. What I don’t understand is his offer to fight a catchweight bout while he waits for his title shot. It’s all fighting, Vitor. It’s not like the losses don’t count if you show up five pounds heavier. His best chance is to hope that Chris Weidman beats Anderson Silva in the rematch, since Belfort has yet to be on the wrong end of a highlight-reel knockout to Weidman. Even then, he’s going to have to get his TRT situation straightened out. If the UFC makes the new champ travel to Brazil to defend his title, we’ll all know why.

@benfowlkesMMA #tmb with all these title fights coming up, which potential upset would be most beneficial for the respective weight class?

— Irish Magpie (@irish_magpie) July 31, 2013

I would go with Anthony Pettis over Benson Henderson for the UFC lightweight title, only that might not be so much of an upset. Last I checked, the odds on that fight were mostly even, with Henderson as a small favorite in some places. Instead I’ll take Johny Hendricks over Georges St-Pierre. Hendricks has been a more exciting fighter than GSP of late, plus the welterweight class could use a little shake up after all these years. At the very least, it would relieve us of the will-they-won’t-they waltz that we’ve been going through with St-Pierre and MacDonald.

@benfowlkesmma What is most likely to happen first? Melvin Guillard gets a title shot or Paul Daley gets back in the UFC. #CME

— Derek G. (@Derekrva) July 31, 2013

I’ll put my money on Melvin Guillard. He’s an exciting fighter who knocks people out, and if Henderson maintains his current pace, eventually the UFC will run short on fresh lightweight contenders. As long as he doesn’t try to punch anybody after the horn, his odds might be slightly better than Paul Daley’s.

@benfowlkesMMA @MMAjunkie has Tate got inside Rouseys head do you think?and did she overreact to tate at press conference?

— Annemarie O Meara (@omeara18) July 31, 2013

My guess is that it does not take a whole lot to convince Ronda Rousey to give you the finger. She has been hanging out with the Diaz brothers, after all. Plus she just sort of carries it that way to begin with, like her middle finger is already extended inside her coat pocket, and she’s just waiting for a reason to bring it out. I think Miesha Tate would like to believe she’s in Rousey’s head. I think she probably tells herself that she was doing well against Rousey in the first fight, right up until she got a little too fired up and tried to land the knockout blow rather than jabbing and keeping her distance early on. Maybe she’s onto something. Even if she’s not, what’s the worst that happens? What, she makes Rousey so mad she wants to throw Tate on her head and break her arm? Tate’s been there before.

@benfowlkesMMA what’s next for Machida if he beats Davis? Does anything but a title shot make sense?

— josh martin (@hashdrag) July 31, 2013

At this point, I feel like Lyoto Machida is cursed to wander the earth for all eternity as a permanent top contender. He’ll become a legend we’ll tell our grandchildren about. On quiet nights, we’ll say, if you listen very carefully you can hear him shuffling (elusively) down the street in search of his next fight. If he can win just one more, or so the story goes, he’ll get a title shot. And that’s why, on those nights when the wind howls through the trees, it seems to call out to us: “One mooooore! Just one mooooooore!”

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.