(Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports)
The MMA Manifesto has gathered together some of the brightest minds in the sport (ok – that's some hyperbole right there, but let's go with it anyway) to ponder, debate and discuss the hot topics in the MMA world today. And when MMA heads gather, they don't gather at a roundtable – they gather at an octagon shaped one – duh. We present to you The MMA Writers' Octa-Table – Volume 2.
Panel: Jeff Fox (JF) – The MMA Manifesto, speeds (SP) –Sports Two MMA Forum, and Daniel Vreeland (DV) from The MMA Manifesto and PrelimPicker.
Should Lyoto Machida get an immediate rematch with Phil Davis like he’s requesting?
DV: I personally am not a big fan of the instant rematch. Do I think that Machida won? Yes, but I’m not sure what a rematch would prove. Match both men up with some stiff competition and move on.
SP: Not so keen on seeing this rematch. His first fight with Shogun was a decision everyone needed to get out of their system. Not really the case with this fight. Wouldn’t mind seeing a rematch with Rashad Evans instead.
JF: Ya, I don’t need to see Davis-Machida II. Like pretty much the rest of the world, I feel that Machida won the first fight, but he has no one to blame but himself for losing the actual decision. He has to be more active and not “leave it in the hands of the judges”. That being said, there’s plenty of big names in the division for Davis and Machida to move on and fight next.
If Glover Teixeira has a dominant performance versus Ryan Bader apparently he’s been promised the next light heavyweight title shot; Daniel Cormier plans on demanding a light heavyweight title shot if he beats Roy Nelson; Phil Davis has now beaten the top two contenders (Machida & Alexander Gustafsson) in the division – who should get the next title shot?
DV: Personally, I would choose Glover. He’s got a skill set that I think could potentially give Jones trouble and I think it’d be fun to watch. It’s been a long time since Davis beat Gustafsson and I personally don’t think his match with Machida was a win and I think we need to see how Cormier cuts before making any decisions on title fights.
SP: Don’t love the idea of guys getting wins in one division in order to earn title shots in another. Phil Davis’s win over Machida was razor-thin. If Tex has a big performance or even just a solid one against The Master I think he should be given the number one contender spot. Still, the way things have been going having two or three options should injuries arise seems like a good thing.
JF: I agree with Dan – let’s see if Cormier can get down to 205 first (as well as seeing how effective he is at that weight) before we hand him a title shot. But I do want to see Cormier-Jones go at it some day – I thank Cormier could give him a real tough test. For now, Davis is the most deserving (wins over Machida, Gustafsson, Little Nog) in the division based on resume. But I’d be fine with Glover, too.
DV: I do agree with Jeff if we list resumes like that, but Phil Davis beat Gustafsson three and a half years ago. That was not the same fighter. He also beat Little Nog two and a half years ago. The only notable win since then was this very controversial win over Machida and I’m not ready to hand him a title shot for that.
Jose Aldo says he’ll leave it up to the UFC brass to decide if he should move to lightweight. If you were in charge, what would you tell him to do?
SP: Stay at featherweight. Lamas, Pettis, and Swanson 2.0 are all there for him to fight. I could understand if he was reaching ‘just rematches’ territory but he’s not there, yet. I don’t see what the rush is.
JF: Totally agree – there’s a great wave of young featherweight talent on the come up so he definitely hasn’t cleared out the division or run the table yet. Plus I think Chad Mendes is more than deserving of a second shot at Aldo (how about you not cheat and grab the fence this time around, Champ?)
DV: I’m of the belief that no champion should leave their division when there are many strong challengers still out there. And, to be honest, in modern MMA new challengers are being born every day to the point where I think it’s silly to leave the division you are naturally suited for. I mean, people thought Silva was out of challengers when Weidman started making his way through the ranks. It’s like Jeff said, there is a wave of young featherweight talent and, in my opinion, there always will be.
Rampage vs Tito!!! Bellator PPV!!! Are we all excited?!
SP: Makes more sense than Page boxing RJJ. Bellator needs to build up their brand and Rampage could be their poster boy (along with the underappreciated Mike Chandler). Having Page thump Tito Ortiz will get them some new eyeballs in the short term but they need to keep focusing on creating their own stars.
DV: I agree 100%. While Rampage gets them some buys on this pay-per-view, I think they need to work on building their own guys. The novelty of Jackson only has so much momentum before people realize he’s fighting in their weakest division. I reserve my excitement until I see what else this card has to hold. Book me an exciting Pat Curran or Michael Chandler fight and it could be worth a buy.
JF: The first thing I thought when I heard of the PPV is – “wow – it must really suck having to run a MMA promotion that isn’t the UFC.”. This isn’t going to draw flies, especially since it sounds like it’ll be priced in the $35-45 range.
DV: I agree. In addition, what happens if one of these two guys get hurt? It’s obviously been said, but neither of these two are young and Tito doesn’t have the best health track record. Do they push forward and try to sell it anyways? Or cancel it altogether, furthering the idea that they undervalue their champions?
Rarely does a week go by with talk of “superfights”. But with Anderson Silva proven to be mortal, are there any fights left out there that would qualify as “super”?
SP: Jon Jones vs. Cain Velasquez does in my book.
JF: Works for me! Other than that, not much else out there. Benson vs GSP would be cool, too, although I think GSP handles him with no problem.
DV: I kind of disagree with these two picks. Like I said before, I’m not a fan of the superfight because there are always plenty of challengers in the division. If we gave in to all of these superfight attempts we would have missed things like Weidman/Silva (and Weidman/Silva II) and the upcoming Hendricks/GSP fight. Those are the fights that I prefer.
JF: The only superfight I truly was interested in was Silva-Jones (although I expected Jones to overpower him and win with relative ease) and that doesn’t hold much interest any longer (at least until Silva gets his groove back). And I’d only be up for Jones-Velasquez if Jones was moving to heavyweight permanently. So, really, I agree with Dan – everyone just stay in their own weight classes for now, or if they are going to move, move permanently – don’t pull a Chael Sonnen and switch classes every other day.
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