Fightmania Mailbag: Rankings, Greg Jackson, Bellator

It’s been too long since we’ve had a mailbag, and there’s no time like the present to change that. In this edition of the Fightmania Mailbag, I’ll talk about my pound-for-pound rankings and whether or not a champion should get the benefit of the doubt in a title fight. Also, we’ll discuss Greg Jackson’s stance on his fighters competing against one another, and get to the bottom of my sad lack of Bellator coverage so far this season.

Mick left his thoughts on rankings and title matches in the comments section of my March rankings:

This is a pretty accurate ranking in my opinion. I don’t get Rashad being above Lyoto in the “Pound for Pound” class.

Also I have been bewildered by the draw with Edgar and Maynard. I am a boxer from the 60′s & 70′s (26-3-1) and in a championship fight the unspoken rule in my time was that the challenger had to “clearly defeat” the Champion. In the event of a 10 point must bringing a draw the Win went to the Champion because of that standard. Isn’t MMA the same in a Title match?

Well, let me first say again that I’m really not a fan of pound-for-pound rankings. They’re pretty much expected, so I do them, but only while wearing a scowl, I assure you. I do have Rashad Evans above Lyoto Machida, and I’m sure one reason why you don’t agree is that Evans was knocked out by Machida.

The thing is, like I was saying in my rankings manifesto, it’s hard to play the “fighter x beat fighter y, so fighter x is ranked higher” game for long. Machida has since lost twice in a row, including his last bout against Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, a fighter that Evans defeated. This is why MMA math just doesn’t add up, of course.

So, with Evans’ comparatively better performances in his last couple of fights, I have him ranked higher. Look at it this way, you have to be a pretty talented fighter to lose two in a row and still be ranked as a top ten pound-for-pound fighter at all. Plus, pound-for-pound rankings are just imaginary journalist bullshit, so don’t put too much stock into them.

As far as the title fights go, I’ve actually heard that said a lot in the past. However, there is no rule, unwritten or otherwise, in MMA that allows for judges to give close rounds to the champion in a title fight, or to score the rounds any differently than a non-title fight, for that matter.

If you think about it, the champion already has an edge, since a draw allows him to keep his title, as Edgar did after drawing with Maynard. Unfortunately, unlike in pro wrestling, Edgar’s cornerman can’t toss Edgar a chair so that Edgar can smack Maynard in his head with it to get intentionally disqualified and hang on to his belt.

Seriously, though: with the 10-point must system, it’s actually harder to favor champions anyway, since each round is to be scored individually. If the fight was scored as a whole, not only would draws not happen, but judges could conceivably favor a champion with greater ease since he or she wouldn’t have to justify giving individual rounds to someone who may not have deserved to win them.

Jim from parts unknown wants to talk about Greg Jackson:

Greg Jackson has made some headlines the last week or so with his talk about Evans vs. Jones. He said that not only does he think training partners shouldn’t fight, but that he won’t watch the fight and he would rather disappear into the desert somewhere that night and avoid it all together.

It sounds to me like he’s just looking for attention and trying to make himself seem impartial. Maybe cause he wants Rashad to come back to the gym? Since Rashad thinks he prefers Jones, he has to be careful with what he says and how he acts if he wants to fix the situation.

I can see where you’re coming from on that. I do think that Jackson is legitimately uncomfortable with his fighters facing one another. Jackson actually brought up a great point recently when he said that if training partners know they may fight one another in the future, they won’t go all out in training or may hold back certain techniques or tips in order to maintain some kind of edge.

This is one of the better practical reasons I’ve heard to back up the idea that training partners shouldn’t fight one another. Most of the arguments against it before had been based on the notion of not wanting to fight friends because it’s uncomfortable or hard to do. To actually bring up a tangible way that the situation can affect training negatively is important, and Jackson has done that.

The way I see it, it’s like client-doctor privilege. If you knew your psychologist or doctor was going to tell the neighborhood about your weird sexual fantasies or that weird rash you’ve been battling with, you wouldn’t feel comfortable sharing everything with him or her, and your time would be less productive as a result. Similarly, if you know your training partner may be an opponent in the not-too-distant future, you may think twice about helping them improve or telling them when they are making mistakes, since you could instead withhold the information and exploit those mistakes in an eventual fight. As a result, training becomes less effective as everyone is afraid to let their guard down.

This situation with Rashad leaving and being offended about Jones taking his title shot when he had to drop out of the fight with Shogun only proves Jackson’s point. Because of the ensuing rift, Jackson has lost one of his fighters, while Jones and Evans have each lost a high-quality training partner.

Smitty from Missouri isn’t going to let me get away with my lack of Bellator coverage:

Dude, I seem to remember you really being into Bellator not too long ago, but I haven’t been seeing anything on Fightmania about the newest season. What gives? Bellator has been awesome this season and it’s not like there’s been a lot else going on recently! Let’s get some more Bellator stories, please.

You’re preaching to the choir, my man. Part of it is just logistics. With the switch to MTV2, there were conflicts early on when Bellator was running against Strikeforce and there have been problems since because MTV2 doesn’t replay the events as much as Fox Sports Net did. Which is weird, because if MTV knows anything, it’s how to ram their programming into the ground with replay after replay.

The short answer is that I’ve had stuff going on, either with other MMA events to cover or just things going on when a few of the episodes have been on. Last season, this wasn’t as much of a problem, because FSN would replay Bellator at some insane time, like 3:00am. Sure, I’d have to lose some sleep to catch it, but there wasn’t a lot to get in the way since I’m not usually busy at 3:00am. Usually.

Okay, I’m done complaining. I do love Bellator, and I’ll try to do better. I’ve been tracking down, er, replays on the internet and by the time I do that, it’s usually too late to cover the events. However, I’m going to have a Bellator mid-season review up soon with some thoughts on the tournaments so far and what I expect to happen in the rest of the season. So, there you have it.

That’s it for this time. Make sure to shoot me your e-mails or leave a comment so that you can be featured in a future mailbag. As always, thanks for reading.

E-Mail Jon Hartley

Tags: Bellator, Greg Jackson, imaginary journalist bullshit, Jon Jones, Lyoto Machida, Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson, Rashad Evans, UFC