Hot Tweets: Paul Felder’s big gamble, the light heavyweight title picture, and Patricio Pitbull’s place in the featherweight division

In the past week Paul Felder stepped in on short notice against Rafael dos Anjos, Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier 2 got functionally announced, Patricio Pitbull obliterated Pedro Carvalho, and Glover Teixeira made his case for a light heavyweight title shot. Let’s talk about all of that and who the most underrated fighter on the UFC roster is.

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[h=1]Paul Felder vs. Rafael dos Anjos[/h]First of all, mad respect to Mr. Paul Felder who decided to go full on wild man and accept a fight with RDA on five days’ notice. However it plays out tonight, that’s a Sam Cassell celebration level of cajones.
As far as what happens if he wins, sadly, not too much. The lightweight division has a clearly defined caste system right now and unfortunately, Felder is sitting right outside of the ruling class, along with Charles Oliveira. If we take it as truth that Khabib Nurmagomedov is in fact retired, then the guys in the title picture at 155 are Justin Gaethje, Dustin Poirier, Conor McGregor, Tony Ferguson, and Michael Chandler. One win from any of those guys and they may well get a title shot. Dan Hooker, Oliveira, and Felder are all at least two wins away from a shot, one win to get a crack at a ruling member and then beating that person to get the title shot. So while a win over RDA on short notice, while impressive, doesn’t gain him too much ground. Instead, the best Felder can hope for is that he beats RDA and can leverage that win into a fight with Chandler, Gaethje, or Ferguson. (I think he’ll call out Gaethje if he wins, as that fight makes sense for him and would get him a title shot).
But all of that is putting the cart before the horse because first Felder has to win. RDA may not be the fighter he once was, but we are still talking about a very good fighter who has been training for months, competing against a guy with no training camp who has been open about potentially retiring. It’s a big ask for Felder to do the damn thing on such short notice, and for five rounds, no less. I’m not saying he can’t win, I’m just saying this is a big risk and it’s anyone’s guess what will happen tonight. I can’t wait to find out.

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[h=1]The light heavyweight title picture[/h]Glover Teixeira should get the next light heavyweight title shot.
God love Israel Adesanya (I know I do) but the man has not done what he said he would do, which is clean out the middleweight division. The fact of the matter is, there is a legitimate contender at middleweight that Adesanya should defend his belt against, and it doesn’t matter that it’s a guy he already beat. Plenty of fights end up different the second time around, and even though most people think this would not be one of those occasions, Robert Whittaker has earned his right to try again. The man has done nothing but win in the middleweight division and rebounded from his title loss with two top-shelf wins, one over the guy Adesanya hand-picked to be his next opponent.
Moreover, Teixeira deserves a title fight. He’s on a four-fight win streak in the division, and when Jones vacated the light heavyweight belt, they should have put together a four-man tournament to crown the winner instead of just trying to hand the belt to Dominick Reyes. Teixeira proved that point by taking out Thiago Santos and given his current streak, having him sit on the sidelines so the UFC can desperately try to make the Jon Jones-Israel Adesanya fight is just bad form. Sadly, it’s probably going to happen anyway.

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[h=1]Patricio Pitbull Freire[/h]Nope. But he’s in the top 5.
The best featherweight on the planet is Alexander Volkanovski, and if, like Joe Rogan, you are a fan of the transitive property of MMA fights, he’s the consensus greatest featherweight of all-time. Volkanovski’s resume is better than Pitbull’s and really, that’s the end of conversation. Volko has wins over Chad Mendes, Jose Aldo, and Max Holloway. That’s as good as it gets. And, not to put too fine a point on it, but he would whip Pitbull handily.
But that doesn’t mean Pitbull is a bum, it just means Volko is exceptional. Pitbull is one of the four or five best featherweights in the world. Personally, I have him third behind Volko and Max Holloway. I think he’d beat Brian Ortega and fights between him and the rest of the top-10 in the UFC would all be awesome. But as much as hardcore fans may want it to be so, the competition is better in the UFC, and until Pitbull comes to the show and dukes it out with the top guys over there, he doesn’t get to claim the title of best featherweight in the world.
Hopefully, he will follow Michael Chandler’s lead sooner rather than later.

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[h=1]The lightweight title picture[/h]Well, for one thing because the fight isn’t certified official yet. Though all signs point to the bout being a done deal from both sides, the ink is not on paper yet and so the UFC can’t announce it for a title fight until it’s actually signed.
However, even when the fight does become official, I doubt it will be announced as a title fight, at least not immediately. I addressed this last week, so you can read my thoughts here but the short version is: the UFC doesn’t need to make this for a title. People will tune in to watch Conor McGregor fight, whether it’s for a belt or not, and if by not vacating Khabib’s title the UFC can maybe sneak one more fight out of the pound-for-pound king before he retires, then why wouldn’t they try to do that?
If Khabib sticks to his guns about retiring, the UFC still has months to declare this fight for a belt but I suspect what will actually happen is that when this fight becomes official, the UFC will announce it as for the interim lightweight title. Then, if Khabib convinces them he’s really done, they can upgrade it to the undisputed belt or, they can keep ignoring Khabib, pray Conor wins, and hope Conor can coax Khabib back for one more dance using the belt and what I can only imagine will be a litany of offensive trash talk.
Or hell, maybe they do the right thing and announce a lightweight grand prix to crown the new champion.

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[h=1]P4P[/h]Pretty simple really: because the two guys above him have better resumes.
Khabib is undefeated and the GOAT of the best division in the sport. Jon Jones is functionally undefeated and the GOAT of the most recognizable division in the sport. Both men are firmly entrenched in the P4P GOAT conversation. Adesanya is incredible, and is making strides of his own down that path, but he’s not there yet. Frankly, I would argue that the person in the current P4P rankings list getting the shaft here is Kamaru Usman who is the dominant champion over the second-best division in the sport and has a note-perfect resume. But really, when it comes to splitting those kind of hairs, there’s no wrong way to eat that Reese’s.
If Adesanya does end up fighting Jan Blachowicz and claiming the light heavyweight title, then your man will ascend to the No. 1 spot on that list, I have no doubt. You just gotta give it time.

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[h=1]Jon Jones at heavyweight[/h]Speaking of moving up weight classes, remember when Jon Jones was gonna do that? Still haven’t heard when that’s gonna happen though. Instead Jon has just been being extremely not mad online. Weird.
Anyway, can he win? Sure. Will he win? That’s a tougher one to answer.
Jon Jones is one of the very best fighters we’ve ever seen. However, I think it’s safe to say that the man is past his best years. I could be wrong. He is only 33 years old after all but he’s spent a lot of time fighting and a lot of other time not taking the best care of himself. MMA is a grind and I think we’re starting to see that is taking a toll on him. He’s at the 12-year mark in his career which tends to be when fighters start declining, and in his last few bouts, Jon has looked very beatable.
Now, part of that is tactics. Jon Jones’ worst skillset is range kickboxing but because he’s a very long person he and his team have decided that is the manner in which he will fight. If he goes back to trying to clinch people, and beat the snot out of them on the interior, Jon might well look like a world-beater again. And I do think he may be planning to do so when he moves up in weight.
When you hear Jon talk about moving up, it’s clear he thinks size will be a factor for him and if he insists on fighting the style he currently employs, it’s true. Every fighter who can match the physical dimensions of Jon Jones has fared much better against him than those who can’t, largely because they can land punches on him. At heavyweight, everyone is going to be able to do that and Jones’ preoccupation with adding size would seem, to me, to indicate he intends to be in more close-quarters situations with those men where he will need the extra muscle.
All that being said, there’s still the manner of being hit, namely, that Jon Jones does not like it. I’m not saying Jon has a bad chin; quite the opposite in fact. Jon’s chin is exemplary. But he is very clearly risk-averse and doesn’t embrace the necessity of taking shots. That’s why he very nearly lost a decision to a Thiago Santos who had zero functioning knees: he flat out refused to put himself in any danger of getting hit. In my mind, it seems like Jon is so confident he’s better than his opponent that he views getting KO’d as the only way he can lose and so, extrapolating that out, he mitigates that to the end of all other things. Like that middle section of Georges St-Pierre’s title run where he kept going to decisions only instead of lay-and-pray, Jones is doing oblique kicks and jabs. Will that plan work at heavyweight? Probably yes and no, depending on the guy he’s facing.
So in summation: Jon can beat any heavyweight alive. Jon probably won’t stay undefeated if he does move up though. Right now I would favor him to beat Stipe Miocic and Israel Adesanya but l think he’d lose to Francis Ngannou. And the Adesanya fight is razor close.

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[h=1]Most underrated fighter in the UFC[/h]In all seriousness, I think it’s Khabib Nurmagomedov. As many accolades and plaudits as he has received the last few weeks, I still think everyone underestimates just how good he was/is. I have never seen a fighter like him before and I honestly don’t know that I’ll see one again in my lifetime.
But, that’s obviously not the gist you’re driving at so let me hit you with another. For a long time the answer would have been clear and obvious: Raphael Assuncao. However, Assuncao is finally showing his age and the days of him being the unheralded second-best fighter in the division are over, leaving a vacant most-underrated title that I think Beneil Dariush has laid claim to. I was tempted to keep it in the bantamweight division, and have Assuncao pass the torch to Pedro Munhoz, but Dariush makes more sense to me since Munhoz just got robbed by Edgar and now people are talking about that.
The key thing about being underrated is you have to compete in a deep division and rack up good wins without ever being really in the title conversation, but you also have to thread the needle with not becoming wildly known as “the dark horse” in the division that people then overrate you. Take Leon Edwards, for instance. Edwards is an elite, elite welterweight who does deserve a title shot, but just because he deserves one based on resume doesn’t mean he has a snowball’s chance in hell of winning. Basically, because Edwards now has “a thing” to be known about - being passed over - he’s too trendy to be underrated.
But Benny Dariush? Now that’s a man you were just made to forget. Remember that scene in Ocean’s 11 where Brad Pitt tells Matt Damon that Terry Benedict needs to like him but forget about him the moment he’s gone? Benny Dariush is that concept made fighting flesh. He turns in highlight reel performances, beats very good fighters, could legitimately win the title with a few lucky breaks, and I bet no one reading this can name his last three opponents, despite two of them being Performances of the Night and the third being a spinning backfist KO!
Beneil Dariush is a legit world champion grappler who prefers to throw hands, violently, and no one thinks about him at all in the lightweight title picture. He’s basically one weird gameshow stint away from having a Jorge Masvidal-esque career realignment, and that’s why he’s my pick for Most Underrated Fighter in the UFC.

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Thanks for reading this week, and thank you for everyone who sent in Tweets! Do you have any burning questions about at least tangentially related to combat sports? Then you’re in luck, because you can send your Hot Tweets to me, @JedKMeshew and I will answer them! Doesn’t matter if they’re topical or insane. Get weird with it. Let’s have fun.


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