Mailbag: Dana White’s rankings grievances, UFC lawsuit testimonies, plus the conundrum of explaining Nick Diaz

What’s the right “fix” for the fighter rankings system currently vexing UFC CEO Dana White? What are we supposed to think when we read statements submitted to the court in the UFC’s antitrust case by fighters dealing with the heavy cost extracted by combat sports? And how do you explain the appeal of Nick Diaz to the people who weren’t there for his prime?

This and more awaits you in the Twitter Mailbag. Follow @BenFowlkesMMA over on the social media website now allegedly known as X for your chance to get in on the next edition.

Seems to me that Dana White wants to have it both ways. He wants the UFC’s rankings to look how he thinks they should look, but also doesn’t want the responsibility of having the UFC be in total control of them. He also seems to enjoy having the “media” as an easy scapegoat, even if we all know that the UFC rankings panel isn’t exactly comprised of many well-known figures in MMA media.

By the way, do you know why that is? It’s because when the UFC started the rankings panel most media members declined to participate. I think most of us saw this conflict coming. We didn’t want to submit rankings that the UFC would ultimately control and then use for everything from matchmaking to contract negotiations to fight promotion. The problems with that system became apparent pretty quickly, when the UFC removed Nate Diaz from the rankings during prolonged contract negotiations. The few media members I knew who did participate withdrew after that. Which is how you end up with people from websites and radio stations you never heard of doing the rankings.

The thing about rankings is, they’re mostly just engagement bait. That’s why sports websites like them. They are made to be argued about. If it’s so important to White that the rankings look a certain way, he should make his own. I don’t think he’ll do that, because then people would argue endlessly with him about it and there wouldn’t be the boogeyman of The Media to blame it on. Much easier and probably more fun to just complain and yell about it. Meanwhile, it doesn’t seem like those numbers next to fighters’ names have ever stopped the UFC from making whatever fights it wants.

I scored it for Raquel Pennington. I thought she owned most of the meaningful action in the fight. Julianna Pena took her down and controlled her, but what’s that really worth? At the same time, if you don’t want to risk losing close decisions, you need to be better at either stopping takedowns or getting back up. I’m not saying it’s right, but it is often the reality.

I always tell people that the single best work of fiction about fight sports is Nelson Algren’s short story “Dark Came Early In That Country.” If you haven’t read that, do whatever you have to do to get your hands on it. There are so many truths about the fight game in that story that still remain true today. Plus it’s just really good, funny, interesting writing, because Algren was rad.

As for novels, the historical fiction book “Black Ajax” by George MacDonald Fraser is one that I loved, but almost no one I’ve recommended it to has ever liked. Of course, “Fat City” by Leonard Gardner is a classic. So is “The Professional” by W.C. Heinz, who was one of the all-time great boxing journalists. If it’s pro wrestling fiction you’re after, you simply must read “Champion of the World” by the big homie Chad Dundas. If you want MMA fiction, I happened to write a story called “You’ll Apologize If You Have To” that was included in Best American Short Stories 2015, nbd.

I think the first step is everyone being honest with themselves about what this fight is. Is it really just one last time around the dance floor as a way of saying goodbye? If so, then make a fun fight we never got to see Poirier in, perhaps against someone from a different weight class, but definitely against a peer with equal or similar name value.

Definitely don’t try to put him in some fight against a young guy on the way up, because: A) Poirier might win and then we’re talking title shot all over again, and B) if he gets beat up to put someone else over, it’s just going to be a bummer.

Poirier deserves to be treated like a star, because he is. Even without a belt, his drawing power and his place in the hearts of fans is rare. All I ask of the matchmakers is that they don’t abuse that here.

Because everyone needs something to get them off the couch and get the blood pumping. For me, it’s beer league hockey with my friends. I mean, have you ever tried it? It’s so fun even when you’re terrible at it! And it’s a lot easier on the old pile o’ trash neck than jiu-jitsu was.

First off, I look down on slap fighting because it is so incredibly dumb — not because it’s dangerous. (Though it is.) I think people should be free to do dangerous things. They should be as informed as possible about the risks, but ultimately they should all get to make their own decisions.

That said, as I read a lot of those declarations from fighters, I kept thinking that we really don’t know yet what an old MMA fighter looks like. The sport just hasn’t been around long enough. We’ve seen old boxers. We’ve seen old football players. But the first generation of career MMA fighters is only now getting to their 50s and early 60s.

As for fan responsibility, we all knew enough to know that so many hits to the head, not to mention the grueling joint damage from years on the mats, wouldn’t do anyone any favors. This is a sport where doing damage to others is the main goal. It is literally written into the scoring criteria. Of course people are going to get hurt doing this, at times irreparably.

Knowing that, I think part of what’s required of fans is to respect and honor the sacrifice inherent in this sport. And if you respect what fighters give of themselves in order to do this, you should want to see them paid fairly. You should want to see the people who got rich off other people’s sacrifices bear some of the cost of their ongoing medical care. Mostly, you should be honest with yourself about what this is. All those knockouts on the highlight reels? Those are real people who don’t stop existing once they disappear from our view. There’s no sport without them, so we should all want to see them taken care of.

My favorite types to write are the ones where I get to learn new things or get new perspectives. I wouldn’t say that’s a guilty pleasure, but I do sometimes feel like I seek those out because they’re more fun for me. The trouble with only talking to fighters when they have a fight to promote is that you always hear more or less the same things but rarely feel like you actually learned anything. It’s much more interesting, at least for me as an interviewer and writer, to talk them about topics and concepts than about specific upcoming events.

I kind of hate that fight for Nick Diaz. But then, I’m not sure there’s many realistic fight options for him that would be much better.

The only way I can explain the appeal of Diaz in his prime is that he brought this raw authenticity. He had zero ability to fake anything. He saw this sport as total war and wasn’t going to pretend otherwise. I think a lot of the appeal of fight sports is the honesty in it. You can say whatever you want before fight night, but eventually we’re going to lock the cage door and find out what’s what. You don’t really get that in a lot of other areas of modern life.

Diaz brought that energy to everything he did, even when it was a bad idea. Plus, he was a ton of fun to watch. His fight against Paul Daley in Strikeforce is still the best one-round fight I’ve ever seen in person. His fight against Takanori Gomi in PRIDE ought to be required viewing for any MMA fan. If you haven’t seen it, fix that right now. Matter of fact, I’m going to go revisit it right now.