Mailbag: UFC 332 is looking like an event without a headliner, and time is running out

UFC 332 lost its title fight and is in dire need of some help to fill out the fight card with just a month left to go, so what gives? Plus, Bella Mir says her former UFC champion father's brain is "not good today" after all the punishment of a long career. How concerned should the MMA world be about that?

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.

@michal_sobek: UFC332 is 30 days away, with no main event and an underwhelming card. Utah is paying to bring UFC there. Is this what they had in mind with the deal?Compared to UFC 333, the contrast is crazy. Do you think fighters avoid Utah due to altitude, and that's why the card is like this?

If fighters were that scared of the elevation then Mexico City and Denver would never get any decent fights. I've talked to a bunch of fighters about this over the years and you would be absolutely stunned by how many of them just don't know or care when they're accepting fights at higher elevations. They're way more likely to avoid certain spots for tax purposes (especially if they've had their money yanked there once already) than they are to think that thin air could possibly affect a beast like them.

But you're not wrong about UFC 332 looking like a glorified Fight Night event right now. I keep seeing rumors that it will be headlined by an interim title bout between Natalia Silva and Wang Cong, but I refuse to believe it. Maybe I just don't want to believe it, since that would essentially mean the UFC has decided that it doesn't have to try at all anymore.

I'm glad you made the point about Salt Lake City paying to bring the UFC to town, though. That helps explain how we got here. Right now UFC 332 has no main event and only one fight featuring ranked fighters (No. 9 Deiveson Figueiredo vs. No. 11 Payton Talbott). It's listed as UFC 332: TBD vs. TBD" on the UFC website. Tickets are on sale and plenty of good seats are still available. So why isn't there some urgency about bolstering this event that's a month away?

The answer is because the UFC gets paid either way. It gets paid by Salt Lake City whether anyone shows up or not. And it gets paid by Paramount+ whether anyone watches or not. Good for the suits at TKO, who have figured out a way to remove the UFC from its own historical incentive structure and still make money. Not so good for the fans.

@jaypettry: Have you listened to the new Mastodon album? It absolutely rips, and it's an unexpected tearjerker too. Oh, about MMA? What do you posit is the best possible, realistic, sellable headliner you could matchmake for UFC 332 one month away?

@jaypettry: Have you listened to the new Mastodon album? It absolutely rips, and it's an unexpected tearjerker too.

Oh, about MMA? What do you posit is the best possible, realistic, sellable headliner you could matchmake for UFC 332 one month away?

It's the whole one-month-away thing that's really a problem. No one with an actual UFC title should be willing to risk it on that kind of notice. Not unless they were already dialed in and going hard in the gym. So that leaves something like a just-for-fun brawl between big names as the best possible option.

Who fits that description? There's a handful we could name. But who's available and willing at this late hour? That's the part only the UFC matchmakers know for sure. And man, I hope they're on the phone right now trying to talk those people into it. This card needs something and it needs it soon.

@Beastin364: Did you see the part of Bella Mir's interview on Ariel's show where she said her dad is dealing with lots of brain damage now? First I've heard of Frank having those issues and seems like a big deal that people are sorta shrugging off

That was concerning, to say the least. But it reminds me of something I've been saying for a while now, which is that we don't know what an elderly MMA fighter looks like yet. The sport hasn't been around long enough.

The pioneers who broke in just as the sport was gaining enough momentum for this to be a somewhat regular gig — guys like Don Frye, Randy Couture, Mark Coleman — are just now getting into their 60s. Guys like Frank Mir were the next generation, the first to enter this sport as young men and stick with it as a full-time lifestyle.

Mir fought for about 18 years, pretty much all of it at the UFC (and Bellator) level. He took a lot of damage but not an uncommon amount. He probably sparred hard and not all that smart, as most of that generation did. It might be more surprising if he didn't have some brain trauma, not to mention the wear and tear on the joints.

The point is, I know people get sick of those of us in the media who harp on fighter pay. But this is why. There is a cost to doing this sport. There are ways to mitigate it, and a lot of younger fighters are much better about doing that. But you're never going to remove entirely the physical toll that fighting for a living takes on a person. They should at least be paid fairly for it, and ideally have some kind of pension or ongoing health care set up by the promoters who profited from their self-destruction.

@MMAMATLOCK: Did you pre-order Cory Sandhagen's comic book? When can we expect a full review?

I'll be honest, this is the first I'm hearing about " Gnos and the Dervies ," by Cory Sandhagen, but I'm absolutely interested. Any fighter who sits down and writes a whole book in between battles inside the cage deserves our support.

@nickj812: Which retired MMA figure would you most like see an (all access) warts & all biography written on? (Not currently published or bring drafted)..

@nickj812: Which retired MMA figure would you most like see an (all access) warts & all biography written on?

(Not currently published or bring drafted)..

Jon Jones. While I still don't believe he's retired, his story would be wild and weird and maybe even weirdly tragic. In a lot of ways he's the most supremely talented fighter in the history of the sport. Just think what he could have been and what he could have achieved if he'd stayed focused and stopped shooting himself in the foot over and over.

If someone could ever get the whole truth and nothing but truth from his friends and family and training partners and coaches, man, it would be a wild ride. But I'm not holding my breath on that one.