Mailbag: How do we save the UFC White House card?

This past weekend, the UFC finally announced its slate of fights for UFC White House; the reaction wasn’t ideal. Reactions ranged from outright hostile to general indifference, with the overall feeling seemingly being that while the card is decent, it falls far short of the expectations that the UFC set for it.

So, how do we fix it? Plus, let’s talk about a bunch of other things going on in the wide world of MMA.

White House Down, Or How to Save The White House Card

Donald is pissed off that people feel underwhelmed by his birthday fight card. Dana calls the only mind that can save the day: you, Jed Meshew.

How do you change the matchups to make this evening one for the ages?

The truth is, we’re limited in what we can do to save UFC White House. Once the genie is out of the bottle, there’s no getting him back in. You can’t change any of the previously announced fights, really. Maybe we can get away with changing one of them by having a fighter pull out due to “injury,” but you can’t just rejigger the whole card. That would look silly.

But we can add fights! Not too many, obviously. The logistics of the event mean we need to keep the overall fight count low, but if we can have one fight “fall apart due to injury” and then add some extra juice to the event, I think we can put the ‘Merica back in UFC Freedom 250.

The first thing I’m telling Dana White to do is let’s fix the biggest issue on the card: the co-main event features a Brazilian taking on a Frenchman for a fake title. Not anymore! I know the UFC doesn’t want to do business with him, but Jon Jones vs. Alex Pereira is the fight everyone expected and, frankly, it’s the fight we all deserve. The greatest light heavyweight of all time vs. the most spectacular fighter of this generation, fighting for the (made-up) GOAT belt. That’s the new main event, and Ilia Topuria vs. Justin Gaethje gets bumped down to co-main status.

Wow, just like that, UFC White House is already much better. Now, there’s a chance the event ends with an American sports icon closing the show, instead of an American getting stretched out on the White House lawn. Significantly better.

Now, let’s add some juice. One of the biggest problems with the White House matchmaking is the lack of future stars. Bo Nickal is supposed to fill this role, but Bo is 30, and there are real questions about how high he climbs now. Let’s call up Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson and sign him to the UFC. Always good to have a gold medalist around, and we can book him against Donald Trump’s favorite fighter, Derrick Lewis. Now we’re cooking with gas.

And lastly, seven fights is a good number, but I think we can round things out with an eighth. And while many people might suggest doing Jorge Masvidal vs. Leon Edwards in a throwback to 1776, I’ve got a different revolutionary idea in mind. That’s right, they’ve teased it, so let’s just commit, Dana White vs. Eddie Hearn, in a boxing match inside the cage.

I’ve said from the very beginning that UFC White House should not be like any other PPV card, and honestly, that’s half of the response to it right now. Aside from fighting on the White House lawn, this card, as currently constructed, would be no different if it were set in Abu Dhabi, New York, or Chicago. It’s just a collection of fights. But the White House is not just another venue, so let’s bring something even more unexpected to the table. At the very least, people would be talking about it.

If everyone wants stand and bang why don’t UFC do 4 oz Muay Thai? Especially in the BMF fights. This baffles me.

Yeahhhhh, a lot of people were not the biggest fans of Charles Oliveira’s game plan against Max Holloway on Saturday. And while I understand the impulse of hardcore fans to dunk on them, I think we can also all admit that they have a point.

I’m not suggesting Oliveira needed to stand and bang with Max (though he should have done it at the end, frankly), but if you watch the fight, it’s pretty clear that after the first two rounds, Oliveira really focuses on control, and his offense levels off. As dominant as Oliveira was, he landed 50 significant strikes. It was incredibly impressive but definitely not a fight anyone is going to revisit.

And he may have killed the BMF belt. Not exactly a banner day.

How on Earth did no judge give Oliveira a 10-8 round? And why are judges still so reluctant to give out 10-8’s… surely a round like the 2nd (for example) can’t be scored the same as a close/normal 10-9?

Well, we’ll never know for sure, but my answer to this will always be “because MMA judges are lame.” I will, however, give them this: with the new rules update from last year, it’s defensible to score that fight 50-45 Oliveira, even though I think it is incorrect.

Last year, the ABC adopted some new clarifications, putting even more of a focus on damage and adding language around what that constitutes. You can read the clarifications in the link above, but this is the part I’m concerned with:

A round shall be scored 10-8 when a contestant earns the round by offensive actions that may include dominance with duration, but that must include significant damage resulting from effort or attempts that by their implicit nature, could finish the fight. …

Significant domination along with some damage and little to no offensive actions from the losing fighter may be enough to award a 10-8.

Now, the rules also clarify that “chokes that cause visible distress” constitute damage. So, all of that together suggests to me that the first two rounds should be scored 10-8s, as Holloway offered little offensive action, and Oliveira certainly established significant domination along with some damage. However, as you can also see, the rules do not dictate that a round must be scored a 10-8 under those circumstances, only that it may be. And we know that MMA judges are fundamentally opposed to 10-8 rounds if they can help it.

But that is the other reason I wanted to answer this question — I think this is very stupid. I’m completely OK with MMA favoring damage over anything else; that makes sense. But the idea that dominance is not also meritorious is silly. If you have back control for four minutes, there is no world in which that should be scored the same as a competitive round on the feet, where it’s a coin flip who won. This is intuitive and shouldn’t be so hard to figure out; alas, this is the world we’re in.

I think it’s a no brainer that the Ronda Rousey card does better numbers than any other MMA card this year. Will MVP/Netflix pull off a second big card and get the top 2 biggest MMA cards of the year?

Yes, the Rousey vs. Gina Carano card on Netflix is going to destroy anything else in MMA this year from a viewership standpoint. It’s going to be the most-watched MMA fight in history by a WIDE margin. Which will, of course, lead MVP to put on at least one more card, but I don’t know if it will be this year. It will depend on who they can get.

The thing about MVP is, they’re not going to put together a nonsense card and try to pretend it’s big business. When Jake Paul fought random boxers, they treated those events with the appropriate level of promotion. But when they went on Netflix, that’s when Paul fought Mike Tyson and Anthony Joshua. MVP will only bring a fight to Netflix that merits a full-court press, and there aren’t that many out there.

But there are some. Francis Ngannou vs. Rico Verhoeven was the fight they originally wanted for the co-main event, and while Rico now has a boxing date with Oleksandr Usyk, once that’s done, that fight can be revisited. Plus, Nate Diaz is still a free agent, and a Diaz vs. Paul MMA fight would draw pretty massive interest.

I expect MVP to put on a smattering of MMA events over the coming years, but never turn into a full-fledged MMA promotion.

Okay, Jed, I have a question for everyone. What would be your WALK-OUT SONG? And, what would be your alternate walk-out song? I will go with In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly. Beat that. Oh, for my alternate song, Sugar, Sugar by the Archies.

I’ve said this for years, and STILL no one has done it; probably because MMA is full of herbs. My walkout song would be Twist and Shout by The Beatles. It’s sneaky perfect for an MMA fight, but more importantly, the moment the song came on, the arena would be rocking like Ferris Bueller in a parade.

On a similar vein, Shout by the Isley Brothers would be my backup.

The first MMA fighter who steals my idea will be my new favorite fighter.

Thanks for reading, and thank you to everyone who sent in questions. Do you have any burning questions about things at least somewhat related to combat sports? Then you’re in luck, because you can send them to me. Every Sunday (sometimes I forget and it happens on Monday), I’ll put out a call for questions on The Feed. Doesn’t matter if they’re topical or insane; just drop your questions in there and let’s have fun.