Did UFC Fight Night 115 represent a return to normalcy after Conor McGregor’s boxing match with Floyd Mayweather, or was it a missed opportunity to strike while the iron was hot? MMAjunkie columnist Ben Fowlkes and retired UFC and WEC fighter Danny Downes discuss.

Fowlkes: Well Danny, looks like things have finally gotten back to normal around here. The Mayweather-McGregor circus is over, the UFC’s late summer lull has ended, and on Saturday afternoon we celebrated with UFC Fight Night 115.

Actually, well, “celebrated” might be a strong word. We sort of eased into this one, a UFC Fight Pass-only fight card with no huge names or stakes or even too many compelling reasons to watch, aside from the most basic one: This was MMA, and you’re an MMA fan.

Watching this event, I was reminded of something I’d forgotten amid all the MayMac hype, which is that the UFC is not only a fight company – it’s a media company. One of its main functions is to churn out hours and hours of content.

That feels like mostly what we got on Saturday. We got MMA content, which is a long way from the weird cultural event of last weekend. Was it a letdown, in that sense? Or was a part of you glad to get back to this low key sense of normalcy?

Downes: It wasn’t a letdown for me because I barely paid attention. It was my son’s first birthday party, so I was more concerned with making sure children didn’t drown in the kiddie pool while I was also silently fuming at the fact that my brother-in-law’s gift was a ball pit. There are plastic balls everywhere, Ben! Everywhere!

I suppose that’s the point, though. Mayweather vs. McGregor was a cultural event that presents a high bar to clear, but yesterday’s card wasn’t even relevant to the UFC. Alexander Volkov may be a top-10 heavyweight, but if I told you he was the current Bellator champ, you’d probably believe me.

In one sense, it makes sense to check a box in Rotterdam with this card. It’s a holiday weekend in the U.S. More importantly, the MayMac hangover would have rendered even a high-profile card obsolete.

The big worry, though, is if this feeling of obsolescence turns out to be a long-term symptom. Once you get a taste of that circus, can you go back to Fight Pass-only cards and still be satisfied? It would be like McGregor wearing shoes that cost less than $1,000. Once you live a certain lifestyle, it’s hard to go back.

You could have completely ignored yesterday’s event and not missed anything in the UFC’s big picture. As the number of UFC events swelled a few years ago, we all worried that it would hurt the larger brand. I wonder if there’s a cumulative effect. As time goes by, do the UFC Rotterdams of the world make you less interested in the UFC as a whole? Has McGregor inadvertently exacerbated this disinterest?

Fowlkes: Honestly, a part of me felt relieved to return to regular old unspectacular MMA. It was like settling into a lukewarm bath. It doesn’t overpower the senses or require an exhaustive build-up, and you can basically forget about it right up until fight time and then forget it again as soon as it’s over. It was exactly what it appeared to be, which was a nice change of pace after weeks of MayMac hype.

At the same time, in the wake of the big boxing match, I heard a lot of people asking if the spectacle of McGregor would translate to increased interest in the UFC. It seemed like a reasonable enough question, but then I found myself wondering what exactly these people would see if they suddenly decided to give the UFC a try.

They almost certainly didn’t see this event, since who’s going to get so hyped by that Mayweather-McGregor fight that they run right out and subscribe to UFC Fight Pass, especially after all the news about the UFC’s streaming issues? They probably also won’t further abuse their cable bills by purchasing UFC 215, which the UFC has done little to promote and which even UFC President Dana White has talked about in tones that suggest he wouldn’t watch it if he didn’t have to.

I guess that leaves UFC Fight Night 116 on FS1 later this month. It’s not a bad event, but it’s also not exactly the best the UFC has to offer. It’s enough to make you wonder, should the UFC have done more to strike while the iron was hot? Or is it enough to keep on churning out that content, doing what it’s always done and hoping that people who weren’t fans will suddenly decide to become fans, even absent a new or especially compelling pitch?

Downes: If the UFC’s goal is to grow the fan base, then it would make sense to try to strike while the iron is hot. Then again, perhaps that isn’t the goal.

Think of it like a bar or restaurant. Maybe the goal isn’t to get new customers, but to keep the same customers coming back for more. If you keep the same number of regulars while simultaneously watering down the drinks, well, that leads to pure profit, my friend.

Beyond what’s happened over the last few months, we’re dealing with a larger question here. Many people involved in MMA (media, promoters, fans etc.) have had this idea that mixed martial arts could be “mainstream.” Individual definitions of what that entails vary from person to person, but the overriding idea was that MMA could break out of its niche status. The same way the UFC moved from the “human cockfighting” era to the Zuffa era, there would be another level of development.

The truth is, that progress has stalled. The WME-IMG ownership has changed some things, but it looks essentially unchanged from late-stage Zuffa. Same production values, same fighters, and same schedule. The two companies are virtually identical!

Attributing this mixed martial ennui to a MayMac hangover makes sense on the surface, but we have to be careful not to exaggerate its importance. There are structural issues in the UFC and MMA in general which we push to the background because a new, shiny toy comes around. Now that there’s nothing new and shiny on the horizon in the near future, perhaps it’s time to take a long look at what we already have in the toy chest.

Ben Fowlkes is MMAjunkie and USA TODAY’s MMA columnist. Danny Downes, a retired UFC and WEC fighter, is an MMAjunkie contributor who has also written for UFC.com and UFC 360. Follow them on twitter at @benfowlkesMMA and @dannyboydownes.

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