B/R Staff Roundtable: MMA Fantasy Fight Island Dream Matchups

Fight Island is no longer just a dream or fantasy reserved only for movies or video games, or movies based on video games.

Instead, we live in a brave new era in sports, a time period in which UFC president Dana White has either become the amazing live-sports savior of the U.S., a full-fledged James Bond villain or something somewhere in between.

White told TMZ on April 6 he is securing a private island to host future fights amid the coronavirus pandemic. 

So what better time than now to come up with dream fights that would make the most sense for this amazing new location that is Fight Island?

That's why Bleacher Report's MMA crew got together this time around, and we promise, you won't be disappointed with our answers.

Snowden: Alistair Overeem vs. Henry Cejudo and Joseph Benavidez

Jeff Bottari/Getty Images

Could these old foes together take on a heavyweight?!

Jonathan Snowden: Fight Island is no place for messing around. Look, if you're going to ignore medical science and the health and welfare of your employees, you might as well go all-in. There is no Fight Island sanctioning body, no athletic commission, no rules and order of any kind. So, let's get weird with it.

You know what I've always wanted to see? An enormous heavyweight fight two little guys at the same time. 

That's right—my dream fight is Alistair Overeem against Henry Cejudo and Joseph Benavidez. 

Not back to back. Not part of a tag team. Together, at once, pitting their collective will against a giant of a man. 

Can two smaller, technically gifted athletes overcome the sheer might of a heavyweight behemoth? Well, friends, there's only one way to find out!

McCarson: Henry Cejudo vs. Valentina Shevchenko

Mike Roach/Getty Images

McCarson believes Shevchenko can find out what's really going on at Fight Island.

Kelsey McCarson: Look, we've already entered some strange territory here. As Jonathan previously suggested, in creating such a place to host UFC events, one assumes without the pesky need for governmental oversight or the cumbersome practicality of the basic rule of law, there's almost no limit to what kind of amazing fights we could dream up. 

I think there's no better time than now to make Henry Cejudo's intergender dream fight come true. Cejudo vs. Valentina Shevchenko would be an amazing spectacle, mostly because that's all the cover Shevchenko would need to get there. 

White is pulling the standard super-villain move by hosting a martial arts tournament on an island somewhere in the middle of nowhere during a worldwide crisis. 

No, I'm not saying Shevchenko is a spy. 

But what I am saying is that judging by her Instagram profile she absolutely knows how to do all things a spy would know how to do. 

On top of that, I'm not definitively saying she isn't a spy.

So it's imperative we get Bullet to that island as soon as humanly possible. The fate of the world as we know it might hinge on it. 

Besides, I kind of think Shevchenko wrecks Cejudo. 

Fitzsimmons: Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Ronda Rousey

Isaac Brekken/Associated Press

Fitzsimmons ponders Mayweather against another MMA star.

Lyle Fitzsimmons: A picturesque island oasis with international waters lapping at its shore.

Perfect for television glamour shots and far from the grasp of overreaching regulators.

Welcome, one and all, to Dana White's signature achievement—Fight Island.

It'll be up and running soon, the UFC czar insists. And when it is, the most ruthless pirate in competitive combat will have the pay-per-view antidote to a global pandemic that's crippled the sports world.

Those other candy-ass sports, that is, that are OK with taking no for an answer from legislators, health care professionals and, well...everyone else with a pulse indicative of common sense.

That's not us, says Dana, who argues he'd have been happy to get it on this weekend in California—on sovereign tribal lands—had it not been for Disney and ESPN shutting things down.

He'll wait a month out of "respect" for the partnership with (read: cash flow from) the cable-sports conglomerate, before heading to the island to put on a show to end all shows.

Of course, a show to end all shows is going to need a main event worthy of its context.

Neither a sublime matchup of top whatever-weights nor a cross-division scrap between champions will be good enough. Rather, it's got to be something that'll both lock in the customers that Dana has already reeled in 248 times and stoke the curiosity of passers-by to the point that they'll drop all concern about medical testing, emergency logistics or economic catastrophe and race to buy their $64.99 ticket to the circus.

Toward that end, ladies and gentlemen, I give you Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Ronda Rousey.

On one side, the boxing champion with a pristine record and an opportunistic streak, who's already slapped around the most famous mixed martial artist in the world while cashing a $200 million check.

And on the other, the deposed UFC flag-bearer who bolted for scripted combat when her cage run ended but could barely keep Mayweather's name out of her mouth when she was atop the mountain.

Woman vs. man. Wrestling vs. boxing. Hero vs. villain.

With storylines like that, the stipulations don't even matter.

And social distancing be damned, could you imagine a more fun media tour?

Go ahead...I dare you to say you wouldn't buy it.