What’s really going on in the UFC’s welterweight title picture? Matter of fact, what’s going on with the UFC’s whole business in these uncertain times? And who, exactly, should usher “The Count” into retirement?

All that and more in this week’s edition of the Twitter Mailbag. To ask a question of your own, tweet to @BenFowlkesMMA.

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Obviously, Nate Diaz does not “deserve” a welterweight title fight. But the fact that Diaz and Tyron Woodley could even talk it up like it’s a realistic proposition is proof that the whole idea of having to prove that you deserve a title shot before you can get one isn’t really in play anymore.

The UFC has shown us that it’s in the business of making the fights that will sell. That’s how the money gets made in this sport, and fighters have learned that lesson. So can you really blame Woodley for trying to make that system work for him?

As for who should get the next welterweight title shot, if we’re playing by the usual rules, it’s got to be Rafael dos Anjos. His three-fight winning streak since moving to welterweight has left him with the strongest case, and I think he’d make for an interesting challenge for Woodley.

Still, you picture Woodley vs. dos Anjos as a pay-per-view headliner, and you don’t exactly hear cash registers going off in your head. Maybe the UFC is fine with that. Seems like Woodley might not be.

Definitely Michael Bisping. If he’s not going to go out on a heated rivalry fight (or so he says, anyway) then I can’t think of anyone better who still fulfills all his requirements.

You want a respectful, old-school martial-artist type? Lyoto Machida is pretty much the poster boy for that. And since he’s just a few months shy of 40, he’s also a peer of Bisping’s, and not some young punk looking to make a name for himself by smashing a veteran of the sport.

Plus, let’s be honest: He’s also just not as scary as some of the other options out there, so we can all watch without feeling too guilty about it. Really, what else do you want out of a retirement fight like this?

https://media.giphy.com/media/QhJfWFt039uN2/giphy.gif

Well, man, when you put it like that…

These are not the best of times for the UFC. They’re not the worst of times, either. But it does feel like, after hitting a high point in 2016 (just in time to sell the whole thing for $4 billion), we’re settling into a bit of a lull. It’s a crossroads, is what it is.

Ratings are down. PPV sales are down. Enthusiasm is down, or at least that’s how it feels. The current TV deal is almost up, and the future is uncertain. But every time you try to present that version of reality to UFC President Dana White he tells you that things are great, couldn’t be better, coming off the best year in company history and getting bigger every day. Look out, soccer.

In a way, maybe the champion-vs.-champion fights are a good sign. They at least indicate an awareness that marching one faceless contender after another into the cage isn’t going to bring the crowds. Instead, you have to give people something special – especially if you want to suddenly charge $65 for the same product that used to cost $50 just a few years ago.

Over on Deadspin.com today, Patrick Wyman makes several very good points about the UFC’s current struggles, but the one that resonates with me the most is this:

“The UFC fooled itself into thinking that it would always be able to convince a huge number of consumers to buy what it was selling simply because it was branded ‘UFC.’ It has never quite rid itself of that assumption, even as the evidence against it has continued to mount.”

Yep, that’s it in a nutshell. The UFC still has tons of good fighters, many of them with interesting stories. But the company just rolls from one event to the next, churning out content, and hyping the brand instead of the people. It’s all so routine at this point, and nobody gets excited about a routine.

I’m not saying it’s time to panic, but it is time to change. I just wonder to what extent the company brass realizes it and is willing to do what it takes to fix it.

First of all, we can stop waiting for a UFC 222 savior to descend from the heavens and save the show, because the UFC tapped Cris Cyborg and Yana Kunitskaya for the main event, and did so with all the flourish of an annoyed parent delivering a soggy grilled cheese to a whiny toddler. There, now eat that, and shut up about it.

Second, how long are we going to keep up this fascination with Brock Lesnar? He came back for one payday in a mediocre fight, got busted for steroids, tried to blame it on foot cream and eye drops, then took his suspension and ran back to the WWE without actually sticking around in the USADA testing pool long enough to serve it.

So tell me again, why do we want this guy back so bad? I get that he’s big and scary and fun to talk about, but man, Lesnar is not about that life. He does not want to be a full-time professional fighter. He only wants a quick payday here and there, and seemingly only if he can be all hopped up on foot cream when he does it.

Pro wrestling is the place for a guy like that. I say let him stay there.

Hold up, are you saying that maybe the UFC should actually look to capitalize on the diversity of its roster – a roster with fighters from all over the world, from all different backgrounds and stories to tell, with wildly varying interests and abilities and passions – rather than trying to homogenize everything to the point where every event looks like a bunch of interchangeable Reebok robots attacking each other for no good reason? Huh. Now there’s an idea.

I wrote about this issue this past week, but by now it out to be clear that there’s a problem with the women’s featherweight division in the UFC. Cyborg has already beaten most of the people who matter in the division. Bellator got a big head start on signing talent. The UFC seems content to do one-off title fights without constructing a division, and the result is that Cyborg ends up fighting a bunch of bantamweights who figure it’s the best shot they’re ever going to get.

That doesn’t make for competitive fights, but it does present a lot of opportunities for Cyborg to go smash. If that’s not what you’re here for, too bad. That’s pretty much all the UFC is selling at the women’s 145-pound class for now.

Ben Fowlkes is MMAjunkie and USA TODAY’s MMA columnist. Follow him on Twitter at @BenFowlkesMMA. Twitter Mailbag appears every Thursday on MMAjunkie.