Twitter Mailbag: Fowlkes on Rousey's next fight, Diaz's request, ESPN on TRT

This week’s Twitter Mailbag seems to be suffering from a bit of a UFC 170 hangover, which is understandable.

No problem, though. We’re just going to pop a couple Advil, down a coffee and a Gatorade, and power through it with some questions about Ronda Rousey’s potential challengers, Daniel Cormier’s light heavyweight credentials, plus a little look to the future thanks to Nate Diaz and John Hathaway.

If you’ve got a question of your own, hit up @BenFowlkesMMA on Twitter.

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@benfowlkesMMA Is the lack of a clear contender for Rousey an issue for the division? #mailbag

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matt (@fell360) February 26, 2014

I think the lack of a really strong contender is a bigger issue. Ronda Rousey’s dominance is established at this point. It’s so established that it’s only going to get tougher to sell her pay-per-views, since who wants to watch a fight that probably won’t be all that competitive?

Against Sara McMann, we didn’t even get a satisfying ending. When there’s not a whole lot else to entice fans on the main card, it’s easy to understand why some people might opt to wait for the highlights rather than shell out 50 bucks for 66 seconds.

Right now there are four possible contenders: Cat Zingano, Alexis Davis, Cristiane Justino and Holly Holm. The first is still coming back from an injury and a personal tragedy, the second has a good record but probably not the necessary skills, and the last two aren’t in the UFC (one isn’t even in the division) yet. There’s work to be done before the UFC can push another Rousey title defense. I think it’s pretty clear that just throwing her on TV against whomever isn’t going to work anymore.

@benfowlkesMMA Following DC's latest win does he deserve the winner of Jones v Teixeria? Or will he have to wait until he beats a top 5 guy?

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Matt Richards (@healthyguy1981) February 26, 2014

If we say that Daniel Cormier deserves a title shot for beating Patrick Cummins – a guy with four pro fights who took the bout on slightly more than a week’s notice – what we’re really saying is that Cormier deserves a title shot at light heavyweight for what he did at heavyweight.

I’m not necessarily saying it’s wrong to think that way, but we should at least be honest with ourselves. Beating Cummins proved nothing. The weigh-in proved more than the fight. But Cormier was so impressive as a heavyweight, and seems to have such great potential at 205 pounds, that I can understand why people might not feel like they need to see any more from him before tossing him in there with Jon Jones (who, let’s be real, should absolutely smash Glover Teixeira). I’d agree – if it wasn’t for Alexander Gustafsson.

After Gustafsson’s incredible fight with Jones this past year, I think we need to see that rematch. If you want to say (as Jones has) that a win over Jimi Manuwa in London next weekend shouldn’t merit a shot at the title, then how could you turn around and argue that Cormier’s win over Cummins does?

In a perfect world, one where nobody got hurt or sick or wrapped up in contract weirdness, I’d put a victorious Gustafsson against a victorious Jones, while Cormier gets the chance to beat a real opponent at light heavyweight and make his case the old-fashioned way. But yeah, as you probably already know, this is far from a perfect world.

@benfowlkesMMA What do you make of @NateDiaz209's most recent tweet?

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Taylor Loyal (@taylorloyal) February 26, 2014

Honestly? It mostly just makes me glad that we still have one Diaz brother in this sport. Things would be so much less interesting without those guys around.

(Not sure what we’re talking? Diaz went to Twitter to ask for his UFC release.)

@benfowlkesMMA how do u feel about espn coming out with the trt story?if they r gonna cover the sport shouldn't it b all n or pick & choose?

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joe mosqueda (@joedaddy85) February 26, 2014

First of all, ESPN does cover MMA. It has for years, to varying degrees. Second, I thought ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” story on TRT was excellent. It was thoroughly researched and well written, and it presented the facts that show just how insane the use of synthetic testosterone in this sport has become. It also included an interesting story about the doctors at the center of this controversy, which is illuminating and also a little bit insane.

Frankly, I’m glad to see bigger, more mainstream media sources catching onto this story. I’m surprised it took this long. Plenty of us in the MMA media have been writing about this for years, but our voices don’t reach too far outside the MMA bubble. The more reporters willing to shine a light on this issue, the better it will be for the sport and its athletes in the end.

@benfowlkesMMA is there a clause in Rousey's contract that she gets a fight night bonus reguardless? Koch or Pyle deserved it more #tmb

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J (@__Jr_) February 26, 2014

Agreed. I won’t speculate on the details of a contract I’ve never seen, but there’s no way that same performance on the undercard wins one of the UFC’s new “Performance of the Night” bonuses. But that’s pretty much how it’s always been with the UFC’s bonuses. Main-event and main-card fighters have a much better chance of winning them. Guys on the prelims have to do their best and hope everyone else falls flat.

@benfowlkesMMA Are we going to see Silva/Weidman III? Isn't that redundant? Is profit a sound enough reason to put together a fight? #TMB

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Michael Tse (@dafunk1184) February 26, 2014

As of right now, that fight makes no sense to me. Then again, the constant stream of Anderson Silva recovery updates – he’s walking down stairs! he’s doing stuff in the gym! he’s riding a unicycle like a bear in a circus! – also seem pretty ridiculous to me, yet it seems like the MMA world at large can’t get enough of them.

If the greatest fighter of all time can come back from one of the gruesomest injuries of all time and fight again at or around 40 years of age, that would be remarkable. It also wouldn’t be surprising if he couldn’t do that, or if he simply chose not to. Either way, there’s no reason to throw him straight into a fight with Chris Weidman, who already beat him twice. Instead of footage of him walking, show me footage of him beating a top middleweight. Then we’ll talk.

@benfowlkesMMA I'm no HW Fanboy,but where the HWs at? Dec 7 to Apr 19 only has a half dozen HW fights, and 9 cards with no HW at all. #tmb

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Thin Gypsy Thief (@tgtStudios) February 26, 2014

Let’s go down the list and see what the top five heavyweights are up to, shall we?

Up top there’s champ Cain Velasquez, who’s injured. Then there’s Junior dos Santos, whom the UFC wanted to match against Alistair Overeem (also injured, even if Dana White isn’t buying it), but who said he’d prefer to fight Stipe Miocic, who’s still healing from his last fight. Then you’ve got Antonio Silva, who’s suspended for misuse of testosterone. Then Travis Browne, who’s got a fight booked with Fabricio Werdum in April.

After that you’ve got guys like Josh Barnett and Mark Hunt, who are waiting for fights, and guys like Frank Mir and Stefan Struve, who are waiting to see how their futures will pan out. So there’s plenty of drama among the big men, is my point. Just not much action, in part because they get hurt a lot, and also in part because there just aren’t as many of them. That’s why there’s essentially so such thing as a heavyweight fight on the prelims.

But if it’s heavyweights you want, there’s a fight in Macau (MACAU!!) this weekend. Matt Mitrione and Shawn Jordan are set to go at it on UFC Fight Pass at some ungodly hour back here in North America. If you want to see big guys thrown down, set the alarm clock. You won’t get another chance until April.

@benfowlkesMMA Ben, can you clear up how MacDonald is being hyped for the next WW shot with so many intriguing WW matchups remaining?

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Dominic Whittall™ (@DWhittall89) February 26, 2014

I think a lot of it is Georges St-Pierre nostalgia.GSP just left, but we already miss him so. Rory MacDonald is a teammate and something of a protege of his, so some people want to see him pick up that torch. But MacDonald isn’t GSP, and as you point out, there are plenty of other interesting options at welterweight.

At the moment, I’m particularly interested in the fight between Carlos Condit and Tyron Woodley. Let MacDonald beat someone higher up the ranks – who knows, maybe even finish them – and he’ll have a stronger case.

@benfowlkesMMA What's John Hathaway got to do to get some "hespect"? 17-1 record (7-1 in UFC) and his only loss is to Mike Pyle. #tmb

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Jay Bradley (@jmichaelbrad) February 26, 2014

I included this question because a) it makes a decent point, which I’ll address shortly, and b) it’s the only question I saw on my Twitter feed that even mentioned what’s going on in the TUF China Finale this weekend. That tells us something.

This will be the first event on the non-free-trial version of UFC Fight Pass, and it’s practically invisible to fans. The fight card has a couple recognizable names, but none that seem worth the money all by themselves. The limited appeal of yet another “Ultimate Fighter” finale is even more diminished by the fact that one of the tournament final bouts was scratched by injury. Clearly, this is not an event that the UFC expects North American fans to care about. If it was, it probably wouldn’t start at 6:15 a.m. ET on Saturday morning. The fact that so few fight fans are talking about suggests that people are picking up on the UFC’s cues and deciding to ignore it altogether.

That’s probably bad news for John Hathaway, who’s coming off a long layoff to fight halfway around the world. He hasn’t fought since September 2012. His lone loss came against Mike Pyle, as you point out, and that ain’t so bad. It’s just that, the three wins he’s picked up since then ain’t so impressive, coming as they did against lesser competition than what he faced before that loss to Pyle. So what’s he got to do to get some respect? Beating a tough guy like Dong Hyun Kim would be a start, even if it might also be a tree falling in an empty forest.

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