In my former life, I was a tech journalist, covering the wild world of Silicon Valley and the developing culture of Web 2.0.
Most of you will have no idea what that sentence means, but I’ll put it this way: As of the first quarter of 2015, Twitter had 236 million monthly active users. I am Twitter user No. 13,396. I’m not saying this makes me smarter or better than anyone else on Twitter, but I do know that I’ve been around the block and am an experienced and active Twitter user.
I’ve decided to take some of that Twitter experience and bring it here to Bleacher Report in the form of a weekly mailbag. Each week, I’ll ask for questions from my followers, and if you aren’t following me already, what are you waiting for? I’ll pick out some of the best questions and publish them here along with my answers.
The plan is to publish each Twitter mailbag on Tuesday, but let’s just say that the schedule will be fluid every now and then.
Let’s get started, shall we?
Late last week, I reported that the UFC is targeting a welterweight mini-tournament of sorts for UFC 194 at the end of the year: Robbie Lawler will defend the championship against Carlos Condit, and Tyron Woodley will face Johny Hendricks. The winners are expected to meet in 2016.
As far as who will win the tournament (if it goes down injury-free as planned): I favor Condit over Lawler, but only slightly. And Woodley has the tools to get it done against Hendricks. But the problem with Woodley is that, every so often, he just doesn’t show up.
It’s a weird thing. Woodley has the tools to be a champion in that division: wrestling, punching power and everything else. But there are times when he just doesn’t seem to be mentally there, and it costs him.
If I were forced to pick a winner for the entire tournament, I’d have to go with Condit. And I say that knowing full well that I have looked foolish several times when picking against Lawler in the past. But the reality is this: Any one of these four men could potentially wind up as a UFC champion when this thing is over, and that’s the beauty of it.
This question has been bandied about a lot over the past few weeks. The thing about Dana White is that he’s always been this way. His unfiltered and raw nature is one of the reasons he became so popular and was able to harness his popularity to help push the UFC to new heights. He says what he thinks, consequences be damned.
That trait used to be endearing, but that’s no longer the case. Perhaps it’s because we’ve seen it for well over 10 years at this point. Everything gets old. What was once popular will eventually become grating.
The main reason is that we’ve reached a tipping point with the UFC. The Reebok deal was unpopular with fans and fighters. The firing of Stitch Duran gave those fans more ammo. White’s tirade against fans who voiced their opinions seemed to send everyone over the edge.
Would the UFC benefit from a change in visible leadership? Perhaps, especially if they’re serious about being as mainstream as the NFL, NBA or MLB. They’ve tidied up the broadcasts. They’ve created uniforms to give the product a cohesive look. They’re striving to be seen as a competitive sports league, and yet the face of the company is spending his time calling fans fat and ugly on Twitter.
Take a look at the leaders of other major sports leagues. Roger Goodell? He hasn’t tweeted since the beginning of last year’s NFL season. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver? He doesn’t even have a Twitter account. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has an account, but he has never used it.
I don’t know if getting rid of White is the answer. But I do know that curtailing his use of Twitter would probably be a good thing.
According to FightMetric, the official statistics provider of the UFC, significant strikes are defined as such:
“Significant strikes refer to all strikes at distance and power strikes in the clinch and on the ground. It does not include small, short strikes in the clinch and on the ground. Those will be included in the Total Strikes category.”
To me, this means any kind of power strike is counted as a significant strike. I don’t know if short and light jabs are counted, even though they are usually from distance. But you have to assume that most other standing strikes, such as hooks, uppercuts, overhands and most kicks, are counted as significant.
We don’t know that U.S. Anti-Doping Agency hasn’t randomly tested any fighters on the UFC roster. We haven’t heard about it on social media, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened. What we do know, however, is that the USADA‘s testing results database has not been updated with any UFC test results. The UFC itself isn’t even a selectable option in the dropdown box on the database search page.
But even if there haven’t been any tests, I don’t think there’s any cause for concern. This is a new and major program, and it might take awhile to ramp up. Just because you haven’t seen any test results in July, that doesn’t mean something is amiss. Breathe easy. Testing is coming.
The “when” part of that question is tricky. Officially, Silva hasn’t been suspended by the Nevada Athletic Commission for his drug-test failures earlier this year. That will happen eventually, of course. It’s just that his punishment hearings keep getting pushed back.
The way things used to work, Silva would likely be suspended for 12 months and then allowed to return. The NAC recently voted to drastically increase the length of suspensions for test failures, though.
However, those new regulations won’t go into effect until the fall, and because Silva’s failures occurred prior to the new rules going into effect, he’ll still be subject to the current regulations, which likely means a one-year suspension.
And since that one-year suspension will probably be backdated to the date of the test failure, it means Silva should be eligible to return in early 2016.
It’s likely that we’ll see Silva back in the Octagon. I can’t imagine him being satisfied with leaving on a sour note. Don’t be surprised to see him in action sometime before next summer.
A few months ago, this was probably an easy answer: Brock Lesnar vs. Fedor Emelianenko would be a massive drawing card. And it probably still would be if it ever came to fruition.
But today, Jose Aldo vs. Conor McGregor would outdraw anything else the UFC can put on right now, including Ronda Rousey vs. Cyborg. And if it’s on top of a stacked UFC 200 card, it would be even bigger.
Obviously, we’re going to get that fight much sooner than UFC 200. I expect Aldo and McGregor to step in the Octagon on January 2, and they may do so on top of a stacked card that could include Rousey vs. Miesha Tate and the debut of CM Punk. If that card comes together, it would likely challenge UFC 100 as the highest-drawing pay-per-view in UFC history.
Jeremy Botter covers mixed martial arts for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter.
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