Mailbag: Is Tom Aspinall vs. Ciryl Gane one big letdown after our hopes for a Jon Jones fight?

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Did Dustin Poirier let fans down in his final fight against Max Holloway at UFC 318? And how excited are we for Tom Aspinall vs. Ciryl Gane after expecting something much different?

All that and more in this week’s mailbag. To ask a question of your own, hit up @benfowlkesmma.

@GabeDert: Holloway points down

Dusty p doesn’t get down

And for the kind of fighter he was..

What the heck man

How can we feel about that?

I think we can understand. Can’t we? Poirier told our own Ariel Helwani that part of it was feeling like he was falling behind the speedier Holloway in those exchanges, but also it was partly an impulse toward self-preservation.

Yes, he wanted to win and go out on top with a BMF belt on his shoulder. But either way it was his last fight, and it might always only take one good punch to change your quality of life in retirement. I know fighters with plates and screws in their faces, nerve damage and cracked bones, stuff they still wince at when they roll out of bed. When you know it’s the end regardless, how can you not think about how it’s going to feel in the morning?

At the same time, once you start thinking like that, it’s probably time to go. Which, of course, is the same conclusion Poirier had already arrived at.

@Beastin364: So it's really Tom v Gane for the heavyweight title next? I guess it makes sense and all but am I alone in being super disappointed?

Nope, it’s a letdown. UFC CEO Dana White spent much of the past six months assuring us, don’t worry, he’d get a fight done between Tom Aspinall and Jon Jones. It was the only fight to make for the UFC heavyweight title. Turns out, nah, it was never really a possibility. Jones wanted none of it. After that, anything else (short of a Francis Ngannou return) was bound to feel like a disappointment.

Aspinall vs. Gane is a fine fight. Just … fine. By the time we get there, we might even be excited for it. But it’s hard to ignore that there were two monster fights on the horizon at the start of this year: Aspinall vs. Jones and Islam Makhachev vs. Ilia Topuria. So far, the UFC has turned zero of them into realities. And that’s a bummer, man.

@lyingawakezzz: Do you think Jon Jones lies awake at night wishing he received the send off Dustin Poirier got?

Not yet. I think right now he still thinks that sendoff might be forthcoming. He’s unretired (kind of) and back in the testing pool (allegedly), remember?

But I did see Khabib Nurmagomedov this week saying that there’s a difference between achievement and legacy. When it comes to achievement in this sport, he noted, Jones is at the top. But legacy? That hazier question of how people see you and what they say about you and whether or not they’d want their kids to be like you some day? That’s a different story. And with Jones, right now it really feels like the MMA world is sick of this guy and glad to be rid of him — for now.

@jmprobus: The year is 2050. A 1/4 century has passed, the current UFC regime is gone and the future regime has taken over. What does the landscape of the UFC and MMA, as a whole, look like?

I assume it’s all slap-fighting robots on the desolate plains of New Texas. The real fighting will be done on a barge anchored in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Phoenix. And somehow Derrick Lewis will still be a draw there.

@shonplant: Señor Ben no joke I’m going on a family trip to Montana this summer, any recommendations? We got a car and can drive anywhere in the state

Everyone is going to tell you to head up and see Glacier National Park. Which, yeah, it’s glorious. I do recommend it (though crowds in summer can be an issue). But one of my personal favorite drives is along Highway 200 from Missoula to Great Falls.

You coast through Lincoln, where the Unabomber’s cabin was, then along the majestic views of the Rocky Mountain front, and finally into the Montana city that’s home to an Air Force base and a disturbing stockpile of nuclear missiles. Don’t pay too much attention to that, though. Instead, go to the Sip & Dip Lounge to see the (literal) mermaids waving to you from behind the bar. Tell them I send my fondest regards.