Twitter Mailbag: UFC 166's main card choices, Diaz-Bisping, Bellator PPV, more

UFC 166 is nearly upon us, fight fans, and you know what that means.

After some not-so stellar lineups, we finally have a pay-per-view worth getting legitimately, embarrassingly pumped about, and that enthusiasm is reflected in this week’s Twitter Mailbag. Won’t you jump around like an idiot and smash some beer bottles over your head with me?

Or, failing that, you can direct a question of your own to @BenFowlkesMMA on Twitter.

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@benfowlkesMMA Say Velasquez loses, does he move to 205? cant imagine a 4th fight with JDS anytime soon. title shot quicker at LHW for him?

— Troy Kalmus (@kalamity113) October 16, 2013

It’s interesting how many people I’ve heard from this week who can imagine a fourth fight (and a fifth and a sixth…) between Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos. It’s like we’ve already decided that these two are MMA’s “Sugar” Ray Robinson and Jake LaMotta, and know we’re just waiting to find out which is which. Personally, I find it way easier to imagine a lumped out JDS mumbling, “You never knocked me all the way out, Cain” at some point in the future, but whatever. I’m fine with thinking of this as a trilogy that will stay a trilogy, and not get Jar Jar Binks’d by sad attempts to recreate the magic later on.

So, with that in mind, what’s the become of the loser? Seems like it’d be awkward for Velasquez to drop to light heavyweight after his teammate, Daniel Cormier, already announced his intention to do exactly that in order to avoid a fight with Velasquez. That’s kind of like you and your buddy meeting two girls at a bar and he asks which one you like, then after you tell him he proceeds to spend the rest of the night hitting on her. Point is, that’s not how you stay buddies – or teammates. Velasquez would probably have to stay at heavyweight with a loss, at least as long as Cormier is trying to make a new life for himself at light heavyweight. Does that mean he’d have to give up on ever being champ again? I wouldn’t be so sure. If MMA history has taught us anything, it’s that he UFC heavyweight title doesn’t have owners so much as renters.

@benfowlkesMMA what’s the point of Daniel Cormier fighting Nelson if he’s just moving to 205 #TMB

— Matt Webb (@69Webb) October 16, 2013

From Cormier’s perspective, the point is that it’s as sweet a deal as he’s likely to get. He gets to drop some weight gradually while preparing to fight one of the smaller heavyweights on the roster, not to mention one he should have a significant skill and speed advantage against.

If all goes according to plan – meaning Cormier shows up lighter at weigh-ins, yet still has enough in him to smash Roy Nelson come fight night – he can charge right into the light heavyweight division with a full head of steam. What more could he ask for?

From the UFC’s perspective, what’s good for Cormier is good for the company this time around. Light heavyweight champ Jon Jones is running low on contenders, and we know Cormier is willing to accept that challenge. Besides, it’s not like this is such a terrible distraction in the meteoric rise of Nelson, who has lately solidified his standing as a guy who’ll give you a show, even if he has to take a beating to do it.

@benfowlkesMMA do you think the match up between Melendez and Sanchez is gettin overlooked on the card cos I believe it FOTY written over it

— Will Martin (@BIGBILBAR7MMA) October 16, 2013

Whoa there, cowboy. It looks like an interesting matchup, sure, but fight of the year? And in a year where we just saw Jon Jones and Alex Gustafsson go five hard rounds? Let’s not get carried away.

If anything, this one seems a little one-sided on paper. I don’t see a lot that the Diego Sanchez of today does that should give Gilbert Melendez too many problems. We know Sanchez is game, and we also know he’s not overly concerned with keeping his face free of scar tissue. If this turns out to be show-stealer of a fight, my guess it will be those two qualities that are responsible.

@benfowlkesMMA I believe Kaufman vs. Eye & Lombard vs. Marquardt should be on main card over Dodson vs. Montague & Jordan vs. Gonzaga. You?

— Karl Moon (@NokkonWud) October 16, 2013

I’m with you on Sarah Kaufman vs. Jessica Eye, at least. If the UFC is going to have a women’s division, and if it’s going to be something other than the Ronda Rousey Show, the women’s fights need to get a little time in the spotlight.

At the same time, it’s worth thinking about which fights make the main card and why. The top three fights at UFC 166 – Velasquez vs. JDS, Cormier vs. Nelson, and Melendez vs. Sanchez – are automatic for the main card. It’s the bottom two – John Dodson vs. Darrell Montague and Shawn Jordan vs. Gabriel Gonzaga – that feel more negotiable. But Dodson-Montague takes place at flyweight, another division that needs more main card love if it’s ever going to take hold and gain some momentum. Jordan and Gonzaga are heavyweights, which means somebody will probably hurt somebody else, and quickly.

A lot depends on what we think it means to be placed on the main card of a major UFC pay-per-view event. Is it an endorsement of those particular fighters, or their division? Is it just about providing violence worth paying for? You could make an argument that it’s a pretty good deal for Kaufman and Eye to be on the FOX Sports 1 prelims since it gives fans a chance to see women’s bouts for free. Ultimately, I think it’s a sign that this PPV is exactly what many of us have been asking for from the UFC. Some recent events have been top-heavy affairs, with little worth paying attention to aside from the top two or three bouts on the card. This is the opposite. It has so much talent, there just isn’t room for all of it on the main card. That means some very good fighters are bound to end up on the prelims. At least in this case, you won’t catch me complaining.

@benfowlkesMMA Personally, I think it’s highly unlikely…But what if Big Country shoots a hole-in-one in devastating fashion? What then??

— Ruben Farias Jr. (@RubenFarias) October 16, 2013

I also think it’s highly unlikely, but fine, I’ll play along.

If Nelson lands one of his overhand rights of death and Cormier wakes up wondering what happened (which is, I should add, just about the only way I can envision Nelson winning this), that will translate into an instant career revival for Rapidly Slimming Country, but probably not a disaster for Cormier. He’s headed to light heavyweight anyway. If he loses this, he can hold it up as proof that he should have been at 205 pounds to begin with. That’s the good part about announcing a weight class move before the fight. You can still carry on as planned, and it doesn’t look like you’re running away. It’s just that, in this scenario, he wouldn’t be able to carry on right into an immediate light heavyweight title shot.

@benfowlkesMMA excited for 166, but have 167 on the mind, 4 weeks out only 11 fights? What happened to “stacked top to bottom”??

— brocky balboa (@brock_mh) October 16, 2013

Only 11 fights? Only? I don’t know where you came from, Brocky Balboa, or how many fights per card people expect there, but in this universe, an 11-fight card is fine, just fine. God forbid we watch some fights, have some fun, and still get to bed at a decent hour.

@benfowlkesMMA Diaz v Bisping? Reality? Who wins?

— You Suck (@Ash_Amey) October 16, 2013

Would I pay money to watch Nick Diaz and Michael Bisping fight? Yes I would. I might even pay money just to hear them talk about each other, mostly because I think it would be hilarious to see them try to fail to comprehend that they have much more in common than they realize.

Will the fight become reality? Man, who knows. It seems like another one of those situations where everyone but Diaz realizes what a great opportunity it is for him. If he truly doesn’t want to fight anymore, that’s fine. But we all know he will end up fighting someone, somewhere, right? So why not Bisping? I like Diaz’s chances in that fight almost as much as I like Bisping’s chances to confound and infuriate him in the weeks leading up to it.

@benfowlkesMMA @MMAjunkie why in gods name would Bellator build a ppv with all it’s best fighters when no one will pay leaving tv with nada?

— John Ontiveros (@johnnyonto) October 16, 2013

You’re not the first to ask this question, John. I guess the question I’d ask in return is, if Bellator is going to do a pay-per-view at all, why wouldn’t it throw everything it has on it in order to increase its odds of success? Why hold back? That’d be like admitting defeat in advance just so you can focus on planning your retreat.

If you want to make the argument that Bellator shouldn’t be doing a PPV event at all, or at least not now, that’s one thing. But if you accept that, for whatever reason, the time is now for Bellator to find out whether anyone will pay for its product, then why wouldn’t you support an all-hands-on-deck approach?

Judging by the current lineup, Bellator’s plan is to take every fighter you may have heard of and stick them on this thing, hoping that somehow it translates to buys. I’m not sure I see that happening, but I also don’t see any other option. Sure, it’ll leave the next few Spike TV events pretty thin, but so what? If the PPV is a success, it’s worth it. And if the PPV isn’t a success, wouldn’t you rather know that you failed with your best stuff, as depressing as that sounds?

tuf is redundant if the losers end up getting UFC fights, the show would be more exciting if they didnt. Thoughts? #tmb @benfowlkesMMA

— josh (@hsoj182) October 16, 2013

In theory, I agree. The whole “Ultimate Fighter” thing was supposed to be about finding the best fighter in the bunch and awarding him with that coveted “six-figure contract,” not to mention the cut-glass trophy and the motorcycle he’s not allowed to ride. Instead, it’s become a mass audition, with some earning starring roles and many more ending up in the chorus line.

If the UFC could convince us that it would only take the winners, it would up the stakes of the competition. It would also leave the UFC without the use of the other fighters it helped to build up along the way, who also happen to come pretty cheap once he show is over. Plus, that show is an artificial environment. Just because you do well in it doesn’t mean you’ll do well in the UFC, as we’ve seen. And just because you don’t excel while living with your competitors and training with strangers and fighting in a mostly empty storage space on a Tuesday afternoon, that doesn’t necessarily mean you suck.

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.