Ben Fowlkes Uncrowned Thu, October 15, 2026 at 7:37 PM UTC · 7 min read About Our Ads Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Farid Basharat may have been perfect as a professional, but he apparently wasn't what the UFC was looking for. Is this a troubling sign, or a reminder that fight sports are not like other sports?
Plus, how should we judge Sean Strickland's complaints about fighter pay? And what's become of Alex Pereira's aura? 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.
@Beastin364: First MVP gets walking papers on a win streak and now Farid Basharat goes undefeated and UFC doesn't even try to keep him. Are we headed to this just being muay thai in small gloves?
Look, we've got to be real with ourselves at this point. The UFC is focused more on being an entertainment product than it is a sports product. And you want the part that's really hard to accept? It's because we, the fans, must want it that way. It's what we appreciate and reward the most. We don't want to see the best pure mixed martial artists prevail at all costs. We want action and excitement and finishes.
Consider the case of Farid Basharat, who confirmed today that the UFC let him finish his contract without trying to sign him to a new one, despite his perfect professional record of 16-0. He had seven UFC fights and won them all. All but one ended in decision. None won any kind of performance bonus. None even stands out as particularly memorable now.
Could he become the best bantamweight in the world? I don't know, maybe. We've never seen him lose. But we also know, just by the crowd noises in the arena, what fans are really there for. All this talk about seeing the best fight the best sounds nice, but what fans want is a show. It's like the crowd at a bullfight. It's not just about seeing the matador kill the bull while keeping himself safe and ungored. It's about the emotional highs and lows of the journey to get there.
MMA is a sport only between the time when the cage door closes and when it opens. The rest of the time it is a roving carnival trying to offer whatever will get a paying audience into the tent. The stuff we see once inside that tent is, one way or another, a reflection of what we've proven to enjoy — not what we'd like to claim we enjoy.
@ewillcock: What fight is more interesting right now,and which will be talked about more one it's over?
I know the Dana White vs. Eddie Hearn angle is what's sucking up all the oxygen in the room right now, but that feels like it can't go on forever. Already you can feel people getting sick of it. There's something childishly entertaining about seeing two grown men keep pecking at each other this way, but eventually it's just going to get annoying.
I think the biggest thing that the fight itself will have going for it once it finally gets here (assuming these arguments about production and promotion don't screw it up) is the sheer size and spectacle of it. Two heavyweights with big names, in a big stadium, streaming on Netflix for all to see.
Fight sports don't tend to have too many events where it feels like the world stops to see what we're up to. Some of the Jake Paul fights on Netflix had that. The UFC White House event did too. This has the potential to get there too, which is its own kind of party.
@shadore66: Kayla coming back from neck surgery to fight one of the most badass female fighters ever...good idea? Extremely bad idea?
I've known a few fighters who had that same surgery and most said they felt better than they had in years afterward. Obviously it's still a process to get yourself back in shape and fight ready, but those neck problems can be totally debilitating, not to mention extremely frustrating, so it's possible we might see a better version of Kayla Harrison now that she's got some surgical help.
You also have to factor in Amanda Nunes' own absence from the sport. She hasn't fought in over three years. That's a long layoff that could come with some considerable rust for a fighter nearing her 40th birthday.
@JeanLeBaptist: And the 30-year history of professional mixed martial arts, have you ever heard any fighter say they were overcompensated?
I'm struck by the fact that of the 100s of fighters who've ever been on the roster, no one's vocally said they're compensated well in defense of the UFC
Well, no, but I also haven't heard too many NFL players say they were overpaid. UFC president Dana White is richer than any fighter and he still seems to think he needs more and more. Some of that is just how our minds work when it comes to money.
There's only one bit of information we need to know when it comes to fighter pay: What's the split? How is the total revenue pie carved up? That used to be something of a mystery in the UFC, but thanks to the sale and the antitrust lawsuits and the whole TKO taking it public thing, now we know. UFC fighters collectively get less than 20% of the revenue. In most other major sports, it's more like 50/50. Just purely from a pro sports perspective, UFC fighters are underpaid. End of conversation.
The tricky part is asking what they can do about it. Sean Strickland is talking about a one-man strike as UFC middleweight champ. I think the UFC would just strip him of the title eventually and move on, and I don't think it would affect the bottom line in any meaningful way. Absent any collective action by the fighters as a group, or a successful antitrust case (which is how the NFL players got to an even split), it's hard to force any real change.
What I wonder about Strickland is what he thought was going to happen. He was in a situation where he felt like he had to sign that new contract to get a title shot, so he signed it. Did he think he'd be able to turn around a few months later and renegotiate after one fight? Just because he has the title again?
If so, he hasn't been paying attention. He's been in this long enough to know better. If you want something more from the UFC, you need leverage. And the UFC has very intentionally gotten to a place where being the champ is hardly any leverage at all.
@NeedXtoseePosts: Has anyone suffered from a "aura loss" more than Alex Periera
Or will it all be saved if he wins his next fight in spectacular fashion
Knockout victories have been known to salvage auras in this sport. If Alex Pereira can starch Sergei Pavlovich and then hit a sweet bow-and-arrow celly, I'm guessing there will be plenty of people ready to jump back on the bandwagon.
But if he loses — and this is an entirely losable fight for him — then he'll hit a new low in popularity. Especially if he handles that loss as poorly as he did the last one.
@AlumPalum: Does peetsy ever finished a convo with you and said that's all fowlkes?
Never. My esteemed colleague Petesy Carroll has too much class and too sharp a wit to reach for that low-hanging fruit.
@LaManchaMMA: As someone who just started writing serious articles in the MMA space, what advice can you give me not to give up lol? Aside from Uncrowned, there isn't much of a lane to make this more than a hobby.
Maybe it has to be a hobby first before it can be a job. I'd give you the same advice another writer once gave me: If there's something else you'd rather be doing with your time, go do that instead. Writing anything these days and trying to make it pay is going to be tough, but I find that you don't mind so much if writing is the thing you'd like to be doing anyway.
The good news is that the modern technological age offers many different ways to publish your writing for others to read without needing the approval of some company or other media gatekeeper. You could just start a Substack or a website — what we used to call a blog back in the day — and put your writing out that way.
Maybe someone sees it and offers you some work. Or you pitch someone and point to that body of work as proof that you're capable. Worst-case scenario, you put your brain to work and write some stuff just for the hell of it. Still beats staring at the wall.
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