Hello, friends! The UFC, world’s premier MMA organisation, is returning to full force after a nearly month without any events. Tonight, Las Vegas, NV, will host its third event in as many weekends. The main event will see top-ranked middleweights Jack Hermansson versus Sean Strickland in a fight that could lead to a title shot.

Unfortunately the remainder of the card was pretty poor, but fortunately there are plenty of things you can talk about in the world MMA. Let’s start.

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UFC Vegas 47

I have to be a Strickland supporter, but it doesn’t make me feel great about it.

Strictly on the merits, tonight’s main event is a compelling matchup between two top-10 middleweights. Hermansson, a keystay in the division and one of the most unorthodox fighters on the cage, is Hermansson. Strickland, who has been on a four fight tear since his return to middleweight, is showing every promise that he will be a title contender. This should be a fight I’m thrilled about — and yet, I can’t get excited, entirely because of Sean Strickland.

Strickland has said a number of horrific things that in any other sport in the world would have him, at the minimum, suspended. He hasn’t been disciplined at all, which is an indictment of UFC and their absurd “Fighter Code of Conduct.”

Can you imagine what will happen if Strickland did, God forbid, end up killing someone in the cage? I honestly don’t even want to consider it.

It is not only the horrible Strickland optics that make me stop, but all possible future outcomes. Strickland has, bravely, spoken about his traumatic upbringing and how training and fighting gave him purpose and probably saved his life, or at least the lives of others. Strickland isn’t able to face the past and accept his mistakes, but he does recognize where he is. It is extremely dangerous to have earnest thoughts about killing people. This requires legitimate assistance. The UFC is in the position to get him that help, but they seem disinterested in doing so, which creates a world where maybe a different road rage incident goes wrong and this time someone gets seriously injured.

MMA has no shortage of cautionary tales, and I truly hope Strickland is not another one to be added to the list. But so long as he keeps behaving in the manner he has, I’m going to have serious concerns about watching him fight.

As for his fight tonight though, I suspect Strickland will win decisively. For as crafty as Hermansson is, we saw him struggle against Marvin Vettori, who is basically a larger version of Strickland. Strickland isn’t much of a finisher, so Hermansson will likely have the full 25 minutes to try and catch him with his patented guillotine, but I think Strickland is good enough to avoid the danger and simply outwork Hermansson over five rounds.

Strickland by unanimous decision.

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Fighter Pay and Francis Ngannou

I wrote last week in these internet pages how the UFC would be best served by giving a little ground to Ngannou in this situation, lest the floodgates truly open.

In short, my argument was (and remains) that keeping your top fighters happy, even if it costs more, is a better business move than holding a hard line that will, eventually, result in fighters coming for their real fair share of revenue. It seems like a logical result to me, but I am starting to feel that this isn’t the case with the UFC. They will continue to do business the same as they have always done and they won’t let their selfishness get in the way of the fighters. Thus far, that’s been an incredibly profitable bet.

And given how, just yesterday, Jon Jones made a public declaration of his willingness to undercut Ngannou’s negotiating power, it probably will continue to be a good one.

Shortly after Zuffa sold the UFC for $4 billion, I said that if this didn’t get fighters to come together to get their value, nothing would. Well, it’s been over five years now and the fighters are still in the same boat they’ve always been in. I’m not sure that Francis Ngannou and Jake Paul are going to be the ones to get fighters to act in their own self-interest. Last week I had forgotten about this, but Jon Jones, a man who decried UFC’s willingness pay him, reminded me of the reality of how it works.

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Sean O’Malley

I don’t believe so but he will certainly get some opportunities to try.

O’Malley has an excellent offensive skills set and is a highly skilled fighter. This alone makes O’Malley a very dangerous bantamweight. He’s also only 27, which means that he still has room to develop. Ultimately though, I don’t think he is a good enough athlete nor self-aware enough to climb to the top of the mountain. O’Malley is good, but he lost to Chito Vera for a legitimate reason, and his refusal to own that makes me question his ability to adapt, which is something he will need to do if he hopes to have a prayer of beating Petr Yan or Aljamain Sterling.

O’Malley, a genuine star, will give “Suga” at least one shot at winning the bantamweight title. At the end of it all, you only need to have one chance at the title. If I had to bet, O’Malley would never taste UFC gold.

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Khamzat Chimaev

Kamaru Usman. This is the complete list.

In the MMA Fighting Global Rankings, I currently have Khamzat ranked as the second-best welterweight in the world, because if you booked him against anyone else at 170, I’m backing Chimaev to get the W. I could be totally wrong, but I don’t think I am. That dude is a PROBLEM. And if he does end up facing Gilbert Burns and rolls through him the same way he has everyone else, then I might not even favor Usman. As it stands, the quality of Usman’s resume forces me to respect him in a hypothetical match against Chimaev, but he’s the only one I’ll give that respect to.

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Max Holloway AKA Wolverine

Yesterday, news broke that Max Holloway has fully recovered from the injury which removed him from his scheduled fight against Alexander Volkanovski and that he would be ready to compete again by April. As such, Holloway has offered to serve as the backup fighter for Volkanovski’s title defense against Chan Sung Jung at UFC 273. And I, for one, hate the idea.

I’m on the record (and I maintain) that moving on from Holloway once he was injured was the correct course of action for Volkanovski. The Korean Zombie is awesome and this presents Volko with a chance to add another quality win to his already stellar resume. Assuming Volko gets the job done, he and Holloway can have their third fight later this year. But that’s when it should happen, later this year.

Volkanovski and Holloway are the two best featherweights in the world by a wide margin. Hell, they are two of the 10 best fighters in the world, full stop. It’s the best fistfighting you can do when those men are competing. That’s what I want, and not by any late-replacements or backups. For what may be the most important trilogy of UFC history, I need a complete build. I want both men at their absolute peaks and solely focused on one another.

If something occurs to Korean Zombie within the next week then you can run it. Let Volko concentrate on TKZ, and Max be caged so that they can end their rivalry later in the year.

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Thank you for reading, and for all the tweets. Do you have any burning questions about things at least somewhat related to combat sports? Then you’re in luck, because you can send your Hot Tweets to me, @JedKMeshew, and I will answer them! It doesn’t matter what they are, it doesn’t really matter. Send them to me and I’ll answer the ones I like the most. Let’s have fun.