Mailbag: What’s the impact of Dana White joining the Meta board? Plus Conor McGregor’s $250 million rumors and more

Is there a case that Jon Jones vs. Alex Pereira is the fight to make next? What’s up with UFC CEO Dana White being added to the board of directors at Meta? And who benefits most from getting out of the UFC APEX and back onto the road for UFC Fight Night events?

All that and more in this week’s mailbag. To ask a question of your own, hit up @benfowlkesMMA on X or @benfowlkes.bsky.social over on Bluesky.

I have no problem at all with that fight, but one of two things needs to happen first: Either Jon Jones fights Tom Aspinall, or Jones gives up the UFC heavyweight title.

I’d prefer the former. It’s what makes sense for the division and title. You can’t keep Aspinall twisting in the wind as the interim champ if you’re going to keep putting the actual champ into these other fights. It’s absurd. But if Jones does fight Aspinall, win or lose you could still match him up with Alex Pereira next. That’s a fight that doesn’t even have to be for a specific title. Just put those two in the cage together and people will watch.

But also? I think Jones wins that fight pretty easily. As scary as Pereira is, he still has weaknesses in the wrestling department that line up a little too perfectly with Jones’ strengths.

I think the connection to Trump is absolutely a big part of it that we shouldn’t overlook. The same way Bud Light went running to sign a new sponsorship deal with the UFC right when it worried it might be losing the MAGA crowd for good, Meta could be adding White partly as an indicator that it wants to be on the team rather than in the crosshairs.

I also think part of it is that Mark Zuckerberg is legitimately a fan. Remember how the UFC basically shut down the APEX so he could come watch his favorite fighter, Mackenzie Dern? Remember how we were promised the imminent reality of “fights in the Metaverse,” a phrase whose exact meaning was never totally clear before it just stopped being mentioned entirely? There’s also an existing business relationship, as anyone old enough to remember the days of Facebook prelims knows.

But along with the things White brings to Meta, he also comes with some baggage. That was evident right away, as the company was reportedly hard at work scrubbing negative comments from employees as they were posted to an internal messaging platform following the announcement. Zuckerberg must have known or at least suspected this would be part of the deal. It is, after all, exactly the punishment White envisioned for himself after he was caught on video slapping his wife. Just seems that Zuckerberg and Meta think whatever they’re getting out of it is worth it in the end.

Hear me out: He should fight Charles Bennett, the fighter formerly known as “Krazy Horse” (peep the highlights if you’re unfamiliar). I would honestly pay upwards of $100 via pay-per-view just for that fight alone. It’s semi-realistic, too. Bennett is older than Zuckerberg, and slightly smaller. Plus, jiu-jitsu was never really Bennett’s thing, while Zuckerberg is, or so we’re told, a quality blue belt.

To make it more fair, let’s agree that no one will tell Bennett about the fight until the day of. Zuckerberg gets a full eight-week training camp with all the best coaches and facilities that his monstrous wealth can bring. But Bennett? We’re just gonna shove him into a van, drive him to the arena, and explain on the way. Tell me you wouldn’t watch.

It’s still too early to have any idea what to expect from the GFL. It’s already making some of the mistakes I warned against based on my own time with a failed MMA promotion. The big mistake I see is overspending right out of the gate in an effort to go from the basement to the penthouse all at once.

I suspect that, if and when the GFL does get around to holding an actual event, it will include only a handful of the names on that initial list. I suspect it will also draw some views out of sheer curiosity, the same way people will slow down to look at a car accident. That’s not necessarily bad, since fight sports have always been part spectacle. I just don’t know if it’s sustainable.

The fighters benefit most from getting back on the road, but the UFC itself is a close second. We know the fighters hate the APEX. It’s so small and quiet. Even a title fight there feels unimportant. Fighters feed off that crowd energy. Jumping up on the cage with your arms spread in triumph is just a whole different deal when there’s 18,000 people cheering for you as opposed to a few dozen. Packed arenas are where legends are made in this sport.

I get why the UFC likes the APEX. As company executives have explained, it’s a reliable and custom-made atmosphere for shooting and broadcasting live fights. It’s also much cheaper and right in the epicenter of the MMA world. If a fighter falls out last minute, hey, you’re already in Vegas — chances are someone in the same weight class isn’t more than a 20-minute drive away.

But it seems like every time the UFC does take the show somewhere new, or even just somewhere it hasn’t visited in a while, we hear tales of the money that’s pouring in on ticket sales. It also helps sustain fan interest, since not everyone wants to fly to Vegas on the basis of “fight card subject to change.” Getting back out there more might be less convenient, but it is inarguably better.

I hope so. I went to UFC 300 last spring, the first live event I’d covered in a couple years, and it was a good reminder of why I missed it. There’s something about being there in person. Everything just feels bigger and louder and more … urgent.

It’s just a question of finding the event where the benefit of covering it live justifies the travel cost of flying out of Missoula International (MSO).

A few of the guys whose future looks bright to me, in no particular order: Caio Borralho, Sean Brady and Carlos Ulberg.

They’re all ranked fighters now, so it’s not exactly a stretch. But I think this next year will be big for all three of them.

I believe that McGregor wants to believe it. Getting a monster payday to box a dude who is not really a boxer probably sounds a lot better than fighting an actual MMA fighter who will surely kick him in his recently broken leg for a lot less than that.

I have a hard time believing that fight and that payday will actually materialize for McGregor, but I almost hope it does because it would give me all the permission I need to just not care.