What was the greatest moment of Cub Swanson’s long MMA career, and what will he be remembered for most fondly after his retirement fight at UFC 327? Plus, what can the struggle to get a Conor McGregor fight across the finish line tell us about the UFC’s current financial incentives?
All that and more in this week’s mailbag. To ask a question of your own, hit up @BenFowlkesMMA on X or @Ben_Fowlkes on Threads.
@nickj812: What’s your favourite Cub story (& fight)?
Realised writing this Choi Do Ho was 10 years ago. He wasn’t supposed to win, but we got 5 friggin rounds of full on heart & damage. Choi was arguably never the same.
& Cub’s STILL fighting….. OMG
Cub Swanson has a lot of “Fight of the Night” performances to choose from, but that win over Choi Doo-Ho was also the best fight of the whole year back in 2016. Which is, my god, 10 whole years ago. Swanson seemed like a grizzled veteran of this game even then. Now he’s got over two decades of professional MMA experience, which means he’s been in the cage for essentially the entire modern evolution of the sport. Let that sink in, as the kids say.
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As for my favorite Cub story, I did a feature on him last year that tried to tell the story of his long and memorable career through the injuries he picked up along the way. One of the things we talked a lot about were his experiences recovering from broken jaws, which many fighters will tell you is one of the most psychologically taxing injuries to deal with. Swanson found he couldn’t take the pain medication because it made him nauseous. And feeling nauseous is a potentially serious problem when your jaw is wired shut. If you vomit, you could choke on it. Swanson said his doctor even told him to carry pliers with him at all times, just in case. (He never did.)
But the worst part, he said, was the isolation. Teammates did not exactly rally around him in his convalescence.
“I remember not really hearing from anybody and feeling very alone,” Swanson said. “And I realized that fighters, they have that fault. They think: It can’t happen to me, it won’t happen to me. They feel the bad stuff and know it’s possible, but you can’t let that seep in. You have to put up these blinders because you have to feel confident. You have to feel secure and ready. If somebody you know gets hurt, you don’t want to think about it too much, but you need to believe it won’t happen to you. You have to convince yourself that you’re going to be able to get through it without that happening.
“So I remember feeling pretty alone in that moment and just realizing, ‘Oh, OK, it’s not that they don’t care about me. It’s just that I had a serious injury.’ And people, they don’t want to face the reality that that’s always a possibility.”
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Take my word for it when I tell you there aren’t a lot of fighters with that kind of awareness and ability to talk openly and honesty on these difficult subjects.
Cub Swanson is all smiles after a knockout victory against Billy Quarantillo during a UFC Fight Night event at Amalie Arena on Dec. 14, 2024, in Tampa, Florida.
(Chris Unger via Getty Images)
@shadore66: Curtis Blaydes is only a tiny betting favorite over Josh Hokit this weekend. I’ll preface my question with the stipulation that betting on heavyweight mma is dumb and nobody should do it…butttttttt is this an opportunity to make some money?!?!?
You could have ended this question with “betting on heavyweight mma is dumb and nobody should do it.” That’s especially true in this fight. With just eight pro fights on his record — only two in the UFC, against two guys you couldn’t pick out of a police lineup — do we really have any idea what to expect from Josh Hokit yet? And on paper Curtis Blaydes only loses to the top dogs, but did you see his last fight against Rizvan Kuniev? That didn’t look like a guy who’s not on the decline.
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What I’m saying is, there’s almost no outcome here that would surprise me. And that includes all manner of weirdness that’s practically endemic to the heavyweight division. Bet on this one at your own risk, my friend.
@FakeJonYoung: Does the end of the PPV era mean the UFC has lost its incentive to make the biggest fights? What is their motivation to pay McGregor now that the broadcast deal has been secured?
Kind of feels like the lengthy struggle to get a Conor McGregor fight on the books is a sign that the UFC (or, more accurately, parent company TKO) is having this argument with itself right now. Even with a billion bucks per year coming in from Paramount, you’re still in the fight promotion business. You still, at least theoretically, need to put on big fights that fans want to see. But what’s it really worth to you now that you aren’t being paid per view, as it were?
I don’t know if the UFC has settled on an answer for that yet. We can feel a growing sense of discontent from fans. The big fights just aren’t happening right now. Instead we’re getting backup plans and budget-friendly options. A big, loud summer spectacle would sure be a nice way to remind us that you can still blow the roof off T-Mobile Arena when you want to.
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Ironically, it kind of feels like the UFC as a whole is exhibiting some of the signs of what UFC CEO Dana White once said were the perils of paying fighters too much. They get lazy and complacent, he said. They become risk-averse with these giant guaranteed purses. They don’t need to put on a show anymore, so they play it safe. Tell me that doesn’t describe the UFC’s current vibe.
@RMullaly: What do you think GC and Petesy are doing?
Remember when Stone Cold Steve Austin would take two open beer cans and bang them together before trying to pour them both in his mouth at the same time, thus creating a huge mess that somehow felt worth it just to prove a point? Yeah. Something like that. Then maybe they’ll end the night with a crisp sandwich.
@AzzaHausen: After Grasso’s holy s*** finish , Is that the best finish in the women’s division or does Ronda Rousey getting sparked out or Valentina sending Eye to the shadow realm beat it.
Alexa Grasso’s win was basically the WMMA version of when Demetrious Johnson threw Ray Borg up in the air and then armbarred him on the way down. That is to say, we didn’t know a sequence like this was possible until we saw it.
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But as great as that moment was, I think you also have to account for who did the big stuff in the big moments. When Holly Holm put Ronda Rousey away, you could almost feel the ground of the entire MMA world shake. When Amanda Nunes beat Cris Cyborg, you could feel the GOAT status shift.
But still, you could watch this sport for another decade and not see anything quite like Grasso’s win, which is saying something.
@BenTheBaneDavis: 1. How much lettuce do you think you could eat in an hour
2. What is the worst fantasy football punishment you can think of?
3. Greatest leg kick checker in MMA history
4. If you could make any fighter a foot taller who would it be?
5. If you could add carbonation to a still drink which is it
1. A lot. I’ve eaten Caesar salads you’ve never dreamed of with croutons you couldn’t comprehend.
2. Anything that requires you to explain to other grown adults that you’re in a fantasy football league that still does stuff like that.
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3. Jose Aldo. For a guy who could shred other people’s legs, he was also really good at keeping his own out of harm’s way.
4. Stefan Struve. Because I’m a sicko like that.
5. If anything, I would remove carbonation from a bunch of drinks. It’s gone too far, don’t you think?
@DarthIrritable: I share a sports doctor with Robert Whittaker. Should I tell him that his patient is known as Bobby Knuckles, or let him find out the next time he does a spinal adjustment?
My first reaction was to assume that, obviously, his doctor already knows this information. But then, how would that come up in conversation? I’ve never had a doctor ask: Do you have any rad nicknames I should be aware of? I say you go in there and just say “Bobby Knuckles” and then look for a flash of recognition in the doctor’s eyes. There’s a very real chance you could end up looking like a major weirdo, but it’s a risk I’m willing to take.
@LCombatsports: As a new combat sports writer, what would you recommend as far as accomplishing goals when writing a piece, making sure you’re consistent even if you feel it’s not the highest quality(similar to a new photographer taking pics everyday), & getting better when writing a new piece?
The best writing advice I have is also the most boring: Try to write every day and read as much as you can. Read all kinds of different stuff. Cram it into your brain and think about what works and what doesn’t and why. Then, when it comes time to write your own pieces, prioritize clarity of language and speed of narrative. Also don’t torture yourself over perfectionist impulses. You get more practice by writing the story, finishing it, and moving on to the next one.
