Mailbag: Is Derrick Lewis vs. Tallison Teixeira actually an ideal headliner for a UFC Fight Night event?

Yahoo

09-07-2025

Are heavyweights like Derrick Lewis and Tallison Teixeira actually the ideal formula for a UFC Fight Night main event? What's the best possible outcome of the Kayla Harrison vs. Amanda Nunes women's bantamweight title fight? And is MMA really so different from (or better than) professional wrestling?
All that and more in this week's mailbag. To ask a question of your own, hit up @BenFowlkesMMA.
@shadore66: Are heavyweight perfect main events for fight night cards? Take this weekend: Who cares who wins really, one of these dudes is gonna blast the others face off probably in round 1. There's no bullshit about the number 8 vs number 9 flyweight - just big boys slapping meat
Can I be real with you here? Right now you sound like a person who's never sat through 25 uninspiring minutes of heavyweight MMA. I have. It can sometimes feel like you're watching two robots run out of batteries at roughly the same rate. You see them look up at the clock and, my God, there's still three more minutes left in this round and two more rounds to go after that. It's the worst.
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But these two — Derrick Lewis and Tallison Teixeira — do seem unlikely to go that route. If we hear the words 'Round 2' in Saturday's UFC Nashville main event, I'll be both surprised and disappointed.
As for the stakes, it does feel like the kind of fight that could be meaningful but only if one guy wins. That guy here is Teixeira. He's a young, undefeated finisher. He's also a massive individual. That's the kind of guy heavyweight could potentially get excited for. Lewis? As much as I love having him around, it feels like we know where he fits and what he's good for by now — and clearly, so does the UFC.
@jmprobus: Even with the Pantoja reign, is the current state of Flyweight the most entertaining it's ever been? It just seems like there are more fun & exciting matchups in the top 15 than we are used to having. Just a bunch of dudes who like to f***ing scrap & leave it all in the cage.
I think flyweight is sort of like the jazz of the MMA world. Or maybe the modern dance. Which is to say, the nerds who really know and appreciate what they're seeing totally love it. But it's never going to be for mass consumption. There's a ceiling on its popularity, which is a shame but also just a fact of life we might as well accept at this point.
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As mentioned above, you book a heavyweight fight and there are always two options: You might get a quick finish, or you might get a three-round slog that makes you rethink your entire life. But when you book flyweights, it's the closest thing you get to a guaranteed good time in this sport. Is it a shame that they aren't more appreciated? Yes. Do I think that will change now just because there are a bunch of good ones all in the UFC at one time? Not really.
@marktooch: How is Royval ranked lower than Moreno after this last scrap?
Will anyone buy the max Dustin card?
Should fighters be compensated post fight if their opponent pops? This is related to a post by Charles Johnson
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That's a lot, so let me try to tackle these in order:
I'm guessing it's because Brandon Moreno has gone 2-0 since they fought, while Brandon Royval has gone 1-1. Head-to-head wins should count for a lot, I agree. But rankings, like MMA judges, tend to remember best what they saw last.
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Yes, I think so. Dustin Poirier is a beloved fighter who seems to have crafted a nearly perfect exit for himself. Max Holloway is a great final opponent, not only because of their shared history but also because he feels like a peer who can deliver a sendoff that's fitting and exciting without being gross. All of that is very rare in this sport.
MMA fighters are some of the most underpaid and overexploited athletes in all of pro sports, so I'm all for anything that gets them paid more. The question is, who pays in that instance? The fighter who pops positive? Because by the time the test results come back, he may not even have the money he made from the fight. He may have spent all or most of that just getting to the fight itself.
As much as I like the idea of stronger incentives to fight clean (and make the contracted weight), I don't love the idea of pushing fighters into debt. This is already one of the toughest jobs you can do and still emerge from it worse off than when you started.
@WorldsWorstHero: If you were not part of the MMA media, what would you be doing as a career?
One of my writing heroes, Jim Shepard, used to say that he wanted to be a veterinarian until he found out that the job entailed more than just petting dogs. A naive part of me still thinks I could somehow make that work, though.
@logsupacoowacky: Is Harrison vs. Nunes some ploy to have Nunes regain her BW title then Harrison goes up to FW to re-open the division? Will we ever get Women's Atomweight? It feels like we've been stuck in this stagnant Zhang-Shevchenko-Nunes-Harrison loop for 5 years. WMMA is in an odd place.
I think if you walked into UFC headquarters and told the matchmakers there was a plan to bring back women's featherweight, they'd jump out of the nearest open window. Even women's bantamweight is struggling for talent right now. So many of the known names there have aged out, and not enough new faces are coming in to keep the division stocked and active and interesting.
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Honestly, I think Kayla Harrison vs. Amanda Nunes is an incredible fight that just sort of fell into the UFC's lap. I also think, as much as I respect Nunes as the unquestioned women's MMA GOAT, she has a job of work ahead of her here. The current version of Harrison would have been a tough opponent for Nunes in her prime. But now? Two years removed from her last fight and on the wrong side of 35? I have to say my money would be on Harrison.
@BlaowPlaow: This generation of fans seem to have an anti-pro wrestling sentiment anytime we get a bit of theatrics while bemoaning the dull nature of the sport. Isn't promoting fights inherently 'pro wrestling'? As a bonus, tell us about your favorite pro wrestling inspired MMA memories.
I think this is sort of like how siblings hate being mistaken for one another — especially when they really are very similar. In terms of business model, the UFC and WWE are practically the same thing. And the stuff MMA fans love — all the drama between fighters, the (often fake) feuds and unlikely friendships, the rises and falls and violent comeuppance — is basically all pro wrestling. The only difference is that the fights here are real and unscripted, which makes them sometimes more boring and predictable but other times more thrilling and unexpected.
I think a lot of MMA fans have this sense of superiority over pro wrestling just because they feel like this is a real sport and that other thing is fighting cosplay. But if you look at how MMA actually operates outside of the cage and how things like title shots are decided, you realize the mechanics of this sport have a lot more in common with pro wrestling than they do with pro football. Winning all of the fights isn't enough to make you a champion in this sport. Being the best isn't enough to make you the highest paid.
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MMA is pro wrestling … right up until the cage door closes. I wish we could make our peace with that. And after watching Seth Rollins walk out with a flamethrower at WrestleMania, I wish we could have a little bit more of that kind of fun — prior to the closing of the cage door.