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Each week, ESPN.com writer Brett Okamoto provides his take on the hottest topics in the world of mixed martial arts.This week, Okamoto squares off with former UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis to debate all things MMA ahead of his Saturday showdown against Charles Oliveira at UFC Fight Night in Vancouver, British Columbia. Pettis (18-5) is in a three-fight losing streak for the first time in his career but hopes to stop it against Oliviera.1. UFC president Dana White has said he will not book a trilogy fight between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz immediately. Is the UFC taking a risk by not doing so?Pettis: The risk is people forgetting about it and not caring anymore. It was a close fight. It could have gone either way. There was a case for either side winning that fight. Im not sure exactly what the UFCs plan is on it. It was a good fight, so Id watch it again. Why not? A trilogy fight would be a hard one to call. They both had some strong points. If Diaz can put some more pressure on him in the second and third round when he gasses, I think Diaz could take it. Conor, I dont think he can finish Nate. If he could he would have early in that fight; he had him wobbled twice.Okamoto: Absolutely not. I know everyone has McGregor/Diaz fever right now, but honestly, I wouldnt even like the idea of cramming this trilogy into one year. Its unnecessary. A third fight will be insanity whenever it happens -- let it sit for now. To me, it can only get bigger. Imagine if one wins a title at lightweight and their final chapter plays out with a belt on the line. And if the worst happens -- both stumble and lose between now and then -- you can still revisit this rivalry. Play the prefight, postfight highlights and well all come back. Zero risk in skipping this trilogy fight for now.2. Whom should McGregor fight next?Pettis: Conor McGregor should be fighting ... I dont know, Jose Aldo is the one with the interim belt. Id like to see that get figured out before he starts moving around different weight classes. Yeah, I would say Jose Aldo. Most definitely a rematch would look different. I think Aldo would not come out as crazy as he did last time, not be as stupid as he was. Conor is one of them guys, though, who definitely has some skills. Hes a big dude to be making 145. Im similar size to him and Im making that cut to 145 now, too.Okamoto: Lightweight champ?Eddie Alvarez. As Ive said before, this entire thing started with a 155-pound championship between McGregor and Rafael dos Anjos. A broken foot, plus McGregors willingness to accept a last-second change in opponent, took us on a serious detour. Im in favor of heading back to the starting line. McGregor can fight very comfortably at lightweight -- hes not killing himself to make weight, nor is he facing guys who are too big for him. Alvarez wants a big name, and as deep as that lightweight division is (and as good as Khabib Nurmagomedov is), theres not a must-see title fight that would prevent McGregor from getting the next title shot.3. If McGregor does not return to featherweight to defend his title, whom should interim champion Jose Aldo fight next?Pettis: I have no idea. I honestly havent even looked that high up. I know he just beat Frankie Edgar, so whoever is behind Edgar. Ive got to go handle business this weekend and then we can start putting my name in the mix.Okamoto: A ranked lightweight. If McGregor says, Eh, Im not interested in featherweight anymore. Keep the toy belt, Im heading to lightweight, Aldos response should be, In that case, Im heading to lightweight, too. Lets be real for a minute: McGregor punked Aldo in 2015. Beat him up, verbally, at one press conference after another and then dropped him in 13 seconds. Its on Aldo to get that fight back. McGregor chased him for two years because he was the champion. Now its Aldo who needs to chase. Accept and win fights that force that rematch. Aldo is more than capable of doing that. Hes one of the best fighters in the world. What if Aldo chased McGregor to 155, beat anyone that dared stand in his way and set up that second fight? Can you imagine how big that would be?4. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency is gathering information on Nate Diazs admitted use of CBD oil at the UFC 202 press conference. Should USADA be investigating this?Pettis: No, I dont think so. Im not really familiar with the rules on how they test for that, but its after the fight. Im pretty sure the amount of THC from that wouldnt be high enough that it would matter. He was kind of pushing the rules, I guess, hes doing it right in front of everybody, but yeah -- I dont know. I dont have a strong opinion on it.Okamoto: The unfortunate answer is yes. And the reason for that is thats what theyre here for. UFC partnered with USADA to establish a strict drug testing environment. Under USADAs rules, what Diaz did is a potential violation -- so for them to just ignore it? They cant. HOWEVER. Any kind of suspension for this would, in my opinion, go against the spirit of the program, which is made to be strict but is not made to bury an athlete who is not seeking any performance-enhancing ability whatsoever. If USADA finds a rule was violated, the punishment should be a public warning and that is it. Rules are rules and Im all for upholding them, but there is also room for common sense to prevail in this program, and I hope that will be the case.5. UFC Fight Night this weekend features a main event between Demian Maia and Carlos Condit. What is more difficult to prepare for: Maias ground game or Condits striking?Pettis: Theyre both dangerous. Ive trained with Carlos; to see the way hes attacking this fight is interesting. I think both of them, you cant catch up to these guys. Condit has years and years of striking experience and Maia, years and years of grappling. Only difference is grappling changes when youre getting punched in the face, so it all depends on how Condit uses his striking to an advantage when it comes to the grappling.Okamoto: Have to say Maias ground game. That doesnt mean I think Maia is better than Condit -- Im just saying, in terms of which strength is most difficult to prepare for ... its Maia. Condits volume is dizzying. Hes outclassed some phenomenal fighters with the angles he creates, the movement, versatility. Its a difficult style to beat. But Maias ground game, you really cant make a mistake. You let Maia into your hips for half a second, hes glued to you the rest of the round. Especially when hes fresh at the start of the fight, Maia will take advantage of any physical or mental pause his opponent takes. Again, doesnt mean Im calling him a better overall welterweight than Condit, but his grappling is one of the most menacing skills this sport has. Scarpe Ecco On Line . -- If this was Aaron Gordons final home game at Arizona, and it almost certainly was, then he went out in style. Scarpe Ecco Scontate . The judges scored it 48-47, 48-47, 49-46 for Jones (19-1). It was the champions closest call. Despite the loss, it was a remarkable show by the confident Swedish challenger, who had the best of the early rounds and then hung on in the fourth and fifth. http://www.scontateecco.it/ . If ever they start actually putting pictures beside words in the dictionary, the Blue Jays left-handers mug will appear beside “Consistency. Scarpe Ecco Ingrosso .C. at the helm of the top team in the Eastern Conference. His tenure as the GM in Vancouver was all too brief. Though he led the Canucks to what was then a franchise record-shattering campaign in just his second season, Nonis was gone and replaced one year later. Scarpe Ecco Uomo . Louis Rams wide receiver Stedman Bailey last Sunday. The fine is the fourth this season for Goldson. He was fined $30,000 for a hit on the New York Jets Jeff Cumberland in Week 1. Is it a coincidence that R Ashwin reached new heights as a spinner in away Tests after Virat Kohli and coach Anil Kumble came together? I believe not, for the two are among the most positive thinkers on the game that Indian cricket knows, and I am sure they have given Ashwin and the other Indian bowlers a dose of the sort of confidence they have rarely known before.While his promotion in the batting order in the first Test must have done Ashwins self-belief a world of good, we learn from the man himself that he successfully overcome his frustration at his lack of wickets in the first innings in Antigua thanks to Kumbles counselling.Kumble obviously knows from his own experience that bowlers sometimes go unrewarded while doing everything right, but not all bowlers recognise this fact. In their anxiety to get wickets, they may end up trying too hard and eventually lose the plot altogether, instead of calmly continuing to do what they have been doing and waiting patiently for their luck to turn.I never played international cricket and do not know firsthand what it is to feel the pressures of bowling at that level, but in my own cricket career I knew how to deal with wicketlessness. It never bothered me so long as I knew I was bowling well.(Actually, that last statement was not entirely true. There came a time when I did become anxious for wickets, and that was the beginning of the end of my bowling career.)As a specialist bowler Kumble brings a rare advantage to his job. He understands bowling and bowlers in a way batsmen-coaches can seldom do. In his all-too-short stint as captain of India, he handled bowlers perhaps better than most of his predecessors did.Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, in his second reign as captain, and Ajit Wadekar, with their different approaches, used their bowling resources well. Pataudi relied heavily on spinners and so did Wadekar, who was a little more defensive in his approach in a typically Mumbai style.Between Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid (or even Dravid and MS Dhoni), Dravid was usually more ready to go for the kill, especially in the matter of timing declarations. Both he and Ganguly had Kumble and Harbhajaan Singh at their command, though India sometimes went in with only one of them in the XI.ddddddddddddAs captain, Kumble himself insisted on two spinners in the XI, and used Harbhajan very effectively. He was also not averse to giving Virender Sehwag relatively long spells as an offspinner, or trying to include Ganguly the medium-pacer in his scheme of things.As coach, Kumble has even greater freedom to try out his bowling theories than he had in his captaincy days (as he doesnt have to deal with thinking of when to bring himself on or take himself off), though he still needs to sell his ideas to Kohli.In fact, the Kohli-Kumble partnership could be the ideal coach-captain combination, with Kohli bringing a complementary batsman-captains perspective into their discussions. It helps that both of them are equally aggressive in intent and tend to back the bowlers. Both seem to allow the bowlers to express themselves without inhibition.Bowling allrounder Kapil Dev handled his bowlers remarkably well in the 1983 World Cup and also in Test cricket, leading India to a 2-0 triumph in England, where he marshalled his resources - Chetan Sharma, Roger Binny, Madan Lal, Kapil himself and spinner Maninder Singh - admirably.At a recent cricket-related event, Kapil spoke of the problems he had communicating with one of his favourite bowlers, Roger Binny. He didnt know Hindi and I didnt know English. But Kapil also said that discussions between captain and bowler could assume greater importance than they deserve. There was little conversation possible between me and Roger, so I left him alone, and he bowled very well. Its sometimes good to leave bowlers alone.There can be such a thing as too much communication from the captain to the bowlers, as we saw during Sachin Tendulkars captaincy, or too little, as was sometimes evident when Dhoni led the side. Its early days still, but the Kumble-Kohli partnership does augur well for Indias bowlers in the long run, though the pair will be tested by stronger teams than West Indies. ' ' '