UFC Saudi Arabia is in the books, and now, it’s on to UFC 312.

This past Saturday, Nassourdine Imavov scored the biggest win of his career when he knocked out former two-time champion Israel Adesanya in the second round of their main event matchup. Imavov seems poised to fight for the 185 belt sooner rather than later and so the big question is what will become of “The Last Stylebender?” Let’s answer that and more from this week’s mailbag.

Israel Adesanya

“What is the next best move for Izzy, and (relatedly) do fighters risk damaging their legacy by remaining active past their prime?”

Heading into UFC Saudi Arabia my biggest question was how much does Adesanya have left in the tank, and I think we got the answer pretty definitively. Adesanya is an all-time great, but he’s 35, been competing for 15 years, and has 115 professional fights. That’s an incredible amount of mileage, and it’s showing. Adesanya’s reflexes aren’t as fast as they once were so he’s getting hit more often, and he can’t take damage the same way. There’s a reason he’s been dropped or hurt in his past five fights: Izzy is aging out.

So with that in mind, I personally believe the best move would be for him to either retire or set up a retirement fight. Something he 100 percent should win so he can go out on a high note before he waits around for his Hall of Fame jacket. However, I doubt that happens. And assuming it doesn’t, I think the right move for Adesanya is a big step back in competition. Adesanya can still win fights, but he’s unlikely to beat up-and-comers or Top 10 opposition. So if I were in Izzy’s corner, I’d be targeting the legends sort of fights against other declining warriors with big names. But more on that in a few.

As far as damaging his legacy, the answer is both yes and no. In the case of Adesanya, what he’s accomplished can never be taken away from him. He’s the second-greatest middleweight ever and a Top 20 all-time fighter. No amount of losing will change that, only other fighters surpassing him. But that’s only the case for longstanding, hardcore fans. The truth of the matter is that newer fans rarely judge fighters based on their peaks but on the totality of the career. That’s why fighters like Anderson Silva and B.J. Penn and Fedor Emelianenko are routinely left out of GOAT conversations, because they hung around long enough to lose a lot, and losing dulls the mystique.

So for people who know, Adesanya sticking around won’t matter, but for those who don’t, it probably will.

Michael ‘Venom’ Page

“Do you think MVP could sneak into a title shot at WW or MW with one more win? With the right matchmaking, especially at MW, I think he could stifle another striker in the top ten and use his limited star power to put his name into the conversation.”

In the co-main event on Saturday, “MVP” pulled off a small upset and got himself into the middleweight rankings by doing classic MVP stuff to Shara Bullet. It was a vintage performance and one worthy of celebrating, but let’s not get out over our skis. This win did not make MVP a title threat at either weight class. It was just a good win over a capable opponent who had no real answers to the confounding style of Page.

The issue for MVP is that he’s not remotely near a title fight, much less one win away. At middleweight, there’s currently a backlog of contenders, meaning Page would need a few wins, and that’s exceedingly unlikely, and at welterweight, same story. Page is never going to fight for a UFC title and that’s fine. MMA isn’t a sport where it’s title or bust. You can have a long, productive, and memorable career by just being good at fighting and making people care about you, and Page is great at that.

Matchmaking

“How fast will Dana attempt to book MVP vs Adesanya and would Izzy even accept it?”

My guess is Dana White doesn’t try to book this, but honestly, this is exactly the fight Adesanya should be trying to get. Page is a big name, a fight between the two of them would draw a ton of interest, and Adesanya would have a really good chance to win this. Page’s game is pretty set at this point of looking for a few explosive shots, and while Adesanya has fallen off, he can simply set a super long range, chew up Page’s leg with low kicks, and win. This should be a pretty good style matchup for Adesanya so if I’m Izzy, and I want to keep going, this is the one to call for.

Heavyweight

“How many of the current UFC Heavyweight Top 10 could Tom Aspinall defeat at once?”

In the feature bout, Sergei Pavlovich won a dreadfully boring decision over top 10 heavyweight Jairzinho Rozenstruik, who the UFC then released. This weight class is a wasteland.

Because it’s heavyweight, Aspinall couldn’t beat up even two of the Top 10 at once, it’s just too hard. But if he’s doing a king of the hill sort of thing where it’s one at a time, there’s a legitimate chance Aspinall could clear the entire heavyweight Top 15 in one night.

Zhang Weili vs. Tatiana Suarez

“Zhang vs Suarez, should be a good fight, however, neither fighter is nearly active enough. I understand Suarez with Injuries, I guess, but Zhang fights once a year. Either way how do you see the future of the division playing out post 312?”

There’s a case to be made that Zhang’s lack of activity is a good thing because the top 15 at strawweight is basically the same people it was five years ago, which means if she was active we’d be firmly in the “this is all boring rematches” zone that women’s bantamweight finds itself in. Instead, Zhang’s infrequent title defenses are at least coming against new names, which brings some freshness to the situation.

That being said, I’m still getting concerned about the lack of growth of women’s MMA in the UFC. It was always going to be a tall order to find another Ronda Rousey but I’m not even sure the UFC has another Joanna Jedrzejczyk, in terms of star power. Valentina Shevchenko doesn’t have much longer, and Zhang is respected but never really broke out in the United States. Both strawweight and bantamweight are floundering for new talent. I don’t know how to fix it, but things are not the best for 115.

The lesser Topuria

“Jed... do you feel the UFC will put Topuria vs. Thicknesse on the main card because it’s now become the third most interesting fight on the slate?”

Aleksandre Topuria, brother of featherweight champion Ilia Topuria, makes his UFC debut on Saturday against Colby Thicknesse. He was supposed to face Cody Haddon but a late-notice change left him with considerably cooler, if less well-known name (I’m speaking entirely about the actual name, not the fighter — Colby Thickness is a great name).

Anyway, the UFC 100 percent should move this fight to the main card because, outside of the two title fights, UFC 312 is one of the worst cards the promotion has put together in years, with no big names and few compelling matchups. Topuria is at least related to somebody great and that honestly makes this one of the better bouts of the weekend.

Royal Rumble

“Which UFC fighter would you have booked to make an appearance in the Royal Rumble?”

I’ll preface this by saying that I don’t watch professional wrestling. I briefly enjoyed it (or the idea of it) when I was a child but I never followed it even passingly until I started working in MMA. The two are so intertwined it’s impossible not to have learned some things but I’m still woefully unschooled on basically anything about WWE.

That being said, I did watch the Royal Rumble this year (I was working, and if an MMA fighter showed I needed to be able to write about it) and I had three major thoughts:

1. I definitely thought John Cena was going to win, because I had no idea who Jey Uso was, so when they swerved I thought that was neat
2. I know this is scripted but iShowSpeed might have actually got hurt in there. Yeesh.
3. Pro wrestling isn’t for me but this is a fun concept

It’s impossible to do anything like that in MMA (though god love Dogfight Wild Tournament, they tried) but if someone ever has the good sense to hire me as head of creative for their fight promotion, I promise to try. The countdown thing is exciting and fun.

Anyway, based on my limited understanding of pro wrestling it appears you need to be jacked, athletic, and have charisma, so my choice would be Dricus du Plessis. The man almost feels like a pro wrestler already, and NO ONE would’ve seen it coming what with him defending his title in Australia on Saturday.

Swerve of the century.

Thanks for reading and thanks to everyone who sent in tweets (Xs?)! 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 tweets to me, @JedKMeshew, and I will answer my favorite ones! It doesn’t matter if they’re topical or insane, just so long as they are good. Thanks again, and see y’all next week.