Farid Basharat may be perfect as a professional, but it doesn’t seem like what the UFC was looking for. Is this a sign of confusion, or a reminder that fighting games are not like other games?
Plus, how do we judge Sean Strickland’s complaints about fighter pay? And what will become of Alex Pereira? All that and more in this week’s mailbag. To ask a question of your own, ask up @BenFowlkesMMA on X or @Ben_Fowlkes in the thread.
@Beastin364: First MVP gets papers walking on a win streak and now Farid Basharat is going undefeated and the UFC isn’t trying to keep him. Does being muay thai only aim for the small gloves?
Behold, we ourselves must be here. The UFC is more focused on an entertainment product than a sports product. And do you want a part that is difficult to accept? It’s because we, the fans, need to want it that way. It’s just that and it’s great. We don’t want to see the best mixed martial arts artists prevail in all ways. We want action and excitement and it ends.
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Consider the case of Farid Basharat, who confirmed Thursday that the UFC will finish his contract without trying to sign a new one, despite a perfect professional record of 16-0. He had seven UFC fights and won them all. But all of them ended in judgment. No one has won any kind of good. None stand out even now as particularly memorable.
Could he become the best bantamweight in the world? Maybe I don’t know. Not even before. But we also know, as the crowd roars in the arena, what the fans are there. All this talk about seeing the best fight sounds nice, but what the fans want is the show. It’s like a crowd at a bullfight. It is not only that the myrmillon looks like a bull, while it keeps itself safe and unfulfilled. It’s a serious move from the road and it roars to get there.
MMA is a sport only between the time the cage closes and when it opens. The rest of the season is that of the Saturnalia, so that whatever they want to offer, they can get the audience into the tabernacle. The material we see once inside that tent is, in one way or another, a reflection of what we have tried to use – not what we want to affirm that we enjoy.
@ewillcock: Which fight is the most interesting right now, and which one will talk about more than one?
Joshua us rage or White vs. Hearn
I know the Dana White vs. Eddie Hearn angle is sucking up all the oxygen in the room right now, but that feels like it can’t go on forever. You can already feel people getting sick. There’s something childish about seeing two grown men like each other like this, but it’s going to get annoying in the end.
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I think the biggest thing that the fight itself will have for what it eventually gets here (if you don’t screw up these arguments about production and promotion) is the sheer size and spectacle. Two heavyweights with big names, on a big stage, streaming on Netflix, for everyone to see.
Fighting games don’t tend to have too many events where it feels like the world stops seeing what we’re up to. Some of the Jake Paul fights on Netflix that he had. The UFC also did a White House event. This, too, can get there, which is its own kind of party.
@shadore66: Kayla coming from a neck to hand fight is one of the most badass female fighters ever… best idea? Worst idea?
I’ve known a few fighters who had the same surgery and said they felt better than they had years later. Obviously, it’s still a process to get yourself back in shape and ready to fight, but neck problems can be totally debilitating, not to mention very frustrating, so it’s possible to see a better version of Kayla Harrison now that she’s got surgical help.
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They also have their absence from the game Amanda Nunes. He did not fight for three years. It’s a long shot that could come with some serious rust for a fighter approaching his 40th birthday.
@JeanLeBaptist: And in the 30-year history of mixed martial arts, have you ever heard any fighter say they are overcompensated?
I’m struck that out of the 100s of fighters that have ever been on the roster, no one has said out loud that they are well compensated for the UFC.
Well, no, but I also haven’t heard many NFL players say they are overpaid. UFC President Dana White is richer than any fighter and still seems to need more and more. Some of that is how our mind works when it comes to money.
There is only one piece of information you need to know when it comes to paying a fighter: What is the split? How is the entire revenue pie carved out? That used to be a bit of a mystery in the UFC, but thanks to sales and monopoly suits and the whole TKO thing going public, we now know. UFC fighters get less than 20% of the total revenue. In most other major sports, 50/50 is more like it. Just purely from a sports perspective, UFC fighters are underpaid. End of conversation.
The sneaky part is asking what he can do. Sean Strickland talks about beating one man as the UFC middleweight champ. I think the UFC is just going to strip him of the title and move on, and I don’t think it’s going to affect the bottom line in any significant way. Absent any collective action by the fighters in the group or a successful case against the monopoly (which is how the NFL players got to the split as well), it is difficult to force any real change.
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What I wonder about Strickland is what he thought was going to happen. He was in a position where he felt like he had to sign a new contract as a title shot, so it was signed. Did he think he could turn around after a few months and renegotiate after one fight? Or because he has the title again?
If so, he didn’t care. At this time it is better to know. If you want more from the UFC, you need leverage. And the UFC has deliberately chosen a place where there is hardly any pressure on the team.
@NeedXtoseePosts: No one has suffered the loss of “aura” more than Alex Periera
Or they will all be saved if they win the line of the show
In this game the winds are known to save the victory. If Alex Pereira can nail Sergei Pavlovich and then hit a sweet bow and arrow, I’m guessing there will be plenty of people ready to jump on the bandwagon.
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But if he had lost—and this was a completely disastrous battle for him—then he would have cast a new favor upon himself. Especially if this one deals damage as badly as the last one.
@AlumPalum: Did Peetsy ever finish a conversation with you and say that he’s all caught up?
never My esteemed colleague Petesy Carroll has the kind and sharp wit to reach for that low-hanging fruit.
@LaManchaMMA: As someone who just started writing serious articles in the MMA space, what advice can you give me not to give lol? Outside of the inconsistency, there isn’t much of a way to make this more than a hobby.
Maybe it’s love first before it can be a job. I’d give you the same advice another writer once gave me: If there’s something else you’d rather be doing with your time, do that instead. Anyone writing these days and trying to make it work is going to be difficult, but I find that you don’t have to be so smart if you want to do the writing thing anyway.
The good news is that the modern technological age offers many ways to publish your writing for others, so that reading does not need the approval of any company or other media gatekeeper. Just start with a substack or a website – that’s what we used to call email back in the day – and you’ll be writing your way.
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Maybe someone will see this and offer you some work. Or you shoot someone and show that body of work to prove that you are capable. Worst-case scenario, you put your brain to work and write some stuff just for the hell of it. However, the wall stands rough.