What’s behind the apparent lack of excitement for the UFC 320 main event rematch between Magomed Ankalaev and Alex Pereira? What’s Cory Sandhagen’s best path to victory against Merab Dvalishvili in the co-main? And what’s the best way to watch your favorite old fights?

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

@shadore66: Ankalaev vs Pereira 2 seems completely irrelevant. What are your top reasons for this?

The main factor is that no one seems to care very much about Magomed Ankalaev. He won the title and then basically disappeared from the conversation. He succeeded in ending the Alex Pereira party, but without getting any of the enthusiasm from Pereira’s title reign to transfer over to him.

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Seems like the people in his camp recognize this problem. That’s why they’re trying to rebrand him as “Big Ank.” It’s not terrible, as nicknames go. But it does feel a little bit forced, like we’re trying to think of anything to make Ankalaev into an actual thing.

Then there’s the other part, which is built into any rematch like this. We already saw this fight. It wasn’t even that long ago. Ankalaev shut down Pereira over the course of five rounds, and Pereira fought like he was holding something back. If we see a repeat of that, I think people will understandably be unenthused. And we just haven’t been given many reasons to think it’ll be any different this time.

That said, this is light heavyweight. In the post-Jon Jones era, we’ve seen a fair amount of musical titles. Maybe Pereira figures something out this time. But if it’s the Ankalaev show all over again, I think most fans will end the night hoping for a fresh contender to deliver them from the Big Ank era.

@jmprobus: What is Sandhagen’s path to victory, if it exists?

Here’s what I’d be whispering in Cory Sandhagen’s ear while trying to give him a confidence that I don’t entirely share: Merab Dvalishvili has started feeling good about his stand-up game — maybe too good. He’s going to have to stand there with you for some length of time. Maybe he even thinks he’ll win there. But that’s your opportunity, Cory. Sting him one good time — maybe with that long hook or a knee to the head when he’s on the way in — and this becomes a different fight.

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Do I believe that’s how it will go? Not really. Dvalishvili is just so damn good. He takes over a fight. He makes everyone else dance to a rhythm they find extremely hectic, but which is perfectly comfortable for him. He also tends to get stronger as the fight goes on, so it’s not like you can just wear on him.

So yeah, tough fight for Sandhagen. But he’s tricky, this guy. He’s got a good transition game and he’s dangerous on the feet. He’s particularly good at certain ranges, and those happen to be the same ranges where Merab sometimes gets stuck pumping jabs at air. I don’t think Sandhagen can count on keeping the fight there for long. I don’t even think he should expect that he’ll get to decide where the fight takes place very often. But there will be moments and opportunities. Just not that many of them.

@braiiinnnnn: over under 2.5 fighters with a criminal history on the white house card?

Depends what we mean by “criminal” history. If we’re including minor stuff, especially of a vehicular nature, then I’m taking the over for sure.

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Thing is, the parties involved here have to spare at least a little thought for who they go with here and how it looks, right? This is not the event where you want to rely on the guys who are still trying to get their home monitoring anklets off in time to fight. This is one where, ideally, you’d like to go with those fighters who are a credit to this sport and the UFC itself. Those fighters do exist. They just aren’t the ones we’ve been hearing about so far in relation to this event.

@justlikelasagna: Got a little nostalgic for some old ufc so I popped open my espn + to find out I can’t in fact watch old fights really at all. Should I start regretting not holding on to my ufc vhs? Or will Paramount be benevolent and give me what I want?

Let’s be honest, ESPN+ barely works well enough to reliably show live UFC events. Asking it to have a comprehensive, easily searchable library of UFC fights is like asking a man with a broken ankle to fly. UFC Fight Pass has long been the best solution for watching old fights. It reliably does what it says it will, which is more than you can say for ESPN+.

But haven’t we all learned, in the digital streaming age, that you don’t ever truly “own” anything if you don’t have a physical copy on a shelf or in a drawer somewhere? Personally, I’m glad I never threw out my DVD set of the PRIDE 2005 Grand Prix.