Mailbag: UFC 308 make-or-break fights, matchmaking Francis Ngannou, plus plexiglass cages and more

Who has the most to lose at UFC 308? What can/should the PFL do with Francis Ngannou after his big win Saturday? Should we just give up policing fence grabs and let everyone cling to the chainlink till their hearts’ content?

We're hitting these and other topics in this week’s mailbag. To ask a question of your own for future installments, hit me up at @BenFowlkesMMA.

I think there’s two people on the UFC 308 main card who absolutely need to have great performances on Saturday.

One is Magomed Ankalaev, who has to not only beat Aleksandar Rakic but also get on the mic afterward and make sure the whole (MMA) world knows he’s next in line for a shot at Alex Pereira’s title.

The other is Khamzat Chimaev, who could either become an instant top contender at middleweight with a win over Robert Whittaker — or could tumble back into the middle of the pack with a loss.

Ask yourself, when was the last time Chimaev really looked good in a fight with an opponent who really mattered? It sure wasn’t his last one, where he held onto to Kamaru Usman like a drowning sailor clinging to the last piece of driftwood. A year before that he ragdolled Kevin Holland, but that was after he showed up so egregiously overweight for a fight with Nate Diaz that he forced almost the entire main card to get reshuffled. Before that was his decision win over Gilbert Burns, which was a lot of fun to watch and actually a meaningful win (in the welterweight division).

That Burns fight was in early 2022. In other words, it’s been a while. Since then Chimaev has mostly been yapping on social media while struggling to make it to the cage. A win over a perennial contender and former champ like Whittaker could rehabilitate his hype levels instantly. But it’s also not going to come easy.

Let’s face it, PFL doesn’t have anyone on the current roster who could give Francis Ngannou a fight that would fans would get truly excited to see. Even booking him against Renan Ferreira was a stretch, but at least he had a title and a lot of sheer mass helping the sales pitch. Now? PFL will definitely need to acquire some help from outside the organization in order to make a fight that feels fitting for Ngannou.

I honestly love the idea of matching him against Rico Verhoeven, whether it’s in MMA, boxing or kickboxing. Deontay Wilder also previously teased the idea of a “true tea party” in which he’d come to MMA for one fight if Ngannou would face him in boxing for another. Of course, talking about it and being about it are two different things.

If PFL wants to hold Ngannou’s interest as well as the public’s, it needs at least one solid heavyweight addition, either from the UFC or elsewhere. And soon.

It might have been a better feeling for Pereira. He and his friends are such guys who only move to music, but it didn’t sound like anyone was eager to stand up to Ngannou the last time he showed up in the hotel hallway suggesting that they keep it down and take their post-fight party elsewhere. But then, I guess Pereira didn’t have anything to celebrate after Saturday’s loss.

Maybe I’m just cynical, but it seems like PFL/Bellator made a calculation that no one knows who Daiane Silva is and so the story of her hospitalization prior to her Bellator debut in London wouldn’t get much attention as long as the organization kept quiet about it.

That turned out to be wrong. People know, as they should, and it’s a bad look for the company to be on reactive mode for a thing like this. Maybe the bosses there think that because it was her first fight for the organization, and because she never technically made it to the cage, they could wash their hands of the whole thing. That’s not the way to do it. We know weight cuts can be dangerous, especially if you’re trying to make a weight you’ve never made before, as Silva was. But when it happens on your watch, for a fight your organization booked, you have to step up and own it.

Plexiglass was actually among the options considered way back when the UFC was just a concept and a crazy dream. They decided against it because, well, sweaty bodies smeared all over it don’t make for the best viewing experience.

As for fence grabs, there are two arguments against legalizing it. The first is that it’s a major injury risk. If fighters get their fingers tangled up in there during the heat of combat, something bad is going to happen. The second is that it just looks ridiculous. Imagine looking up from your wings and cold beer down at B-Dubs on a UFC event night and seeing one man clinging to the chainlink while another tries to pry him off like a frustrated parent carrying a mutinous toddler off to bed. Would you think to yourself, now there’s a serious professional sport?

I can’t knock a guy down the rankings for what was ultimately a clear and pretty one-sided victory. Eblen just doesn’t have a very fun fighting style and doesn’t much seem to mind.

I don’t think PFL’s in a position where it can afford to cast off legitimate talent, but it also can’t build much excitement around his fights at this point. It’s the Ben Askren problem all over again, so maybe Eblen just needs to make himself harder to ignore with what he says before and after the fights.