UFC/MMA December: pee eff ell

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What was your favorite MMA story of 2023? This poll is closed.
The fall of Valentina Shevchenko	3	7.14%
Tom Aspinall's comeback	1	2.38%
Francis Ngannou floors Tyson Fury	34	80.95%
actually boy that one was really great	1	2.38%
honestly you should probably vote for that one	1	2.38%
why are you still reading this	2	4.76%
Total:	42 votes

[Edit Poll (moderators only)]

LobsterMobster: Oct 29, 2009; "I was being quiet and trying to be a good boy but he dialed the right combination to open the throw-down vault and it was on."

"Walter Foxx is ten times brighter than your bulb at the bottom of the tree merry xmas"

CarlCX posted:

We made it through another year, and that means it's time for another year's community feedback and reflection thread. If you stuck with all of the writeups/monthlies/etc. this year you read 300,000+ words, and for that, a) thank you, and b) I am sorry I took away the time you could have spent reading an actual book.

LobsterMobster's writing an actual recap for 2023 and I don't wanna step on toes, but I did want to highlight that I believe we all just lived through what was, statistically, the wildest year in the history of UFC title belts. If you map out champions at the start of 2023 vs the end, it's kind of nuts:

Heavyweight: Francis Ngannou -> Vacant -> Jon Jones (Tom Aspinall)

Light Heavyweight: Vacant -> Jamahal Hill -> Vacant -> Alex Pereira

Middleweight: Alex Pereira -> Israel Adesanya -> Sean Strickland

Welterweight: Leon Edwards

Lightweight: Islam Makhachev

Featherweight: Alexander Volkanovski (Yair Rodriguez)

Bantamweight: Aljamain Sterling -> Sean O'Malley

Flyweight: Deiveson Figueiredo -> Brandon Moreno -> Alexandre Pantoja

Women's Featherweight: Amanda Nunes -> Vacant

Women's Bantamweight: Amanda Nunes -> Vacant

Women's Flyweight: Valentina Shevchenko -> Alexa Grasso

Women's Strawweight: Zhang Weili
That's a grand total of 13 positional championship changes in twelve months. 15, if you count interim titles. (16 if you count Yair losing the interim when Volk beat him, I guess?) Comparatively, there were only 10 title defenses in twelve months, and that's if you count the Alexa Grasso vs Valentina Shevchenko draw. 20% of the year's title defenses were just Islam Makhachev repeatedly beating Alexander Volkanovski.

Alexander Volkanovski was, in fact, your most active champion of the year, who thanks to his last-minute fill-in against Islam averaged a championship fight every 83.6 days which was, in retrospect, a pretty bad idea. Your most active champion of the year fighting in exclusively planned fights was Aljamain Sterling, who between his October fight against Henry Cejudo and his August loss to Sean O'Malley managed a title fight every 100.3 days, which, unfortunately, was also a pretty lousy idea.

You also lived through the life, death, and zombie-like rebirth of Power Slap, so congratulations on walking this sin-cursed Earth with us.

As for the forum itself, if there were a few favorite moments of mine we had this year, they were LobsterMobster's Eulogy for Bellator, which was the exact kind of reverent and irreverent Bellator as an organization deserved in a way I deeply appreciate, my silly Tank Abbott tournament, which I drastically underestimated the workload for but which was ultimately a lot of fun to do, and the moment we all found out Jase1 faked his death, which is still the funniest, dumbest thing that's happened here in awhile.

And, as with every year, I am mostly here for annual community feedback. It's no secret that we've got more folks than ever disenchanted with the current product, so I wanted to see if there was any interest in 2024 participation in any of these:
A return of the old thread where we RNG-assigned old events to participating posters for retro reviews

Ripping off those darned wrestling posters and having a communal old-event sync-watching thread

More posts/threads about weirdo-league MMA like Karate Combat, BKFC and other C-league promotions
And, y'know, as stated above in general:
Is there any poo poo I/we could be doing better?
Otherwise, thanks for another year of whistling through the graveyard of respectability, I appreciate you all, god bless Mark Hunt and literally no one else, and here's to a 2024 that I hope will be better while realistically strapping myself in for some real bullshit.

Hi Carl! Thank you for all of your writing this year.

As for Community Feedback, I am interested in all of them. I struggle to find motivation to write, but having an "assignment" as it were would be helpful for me to just get words down.

We all need to Just Post

# ? Dec 27, 2023 03:06

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# ? Apr 28, 2024 21:01

Orange Carlisle: Jul 14, 2007

gets punched in the head for a living, owns a ton of firearms and just got a bunch of ammo

what could go wrong

# ? Dec 27, 2023 03:14

Lid: Feb 18, 2005; And the mercy seat is awaiting,
And I think my head is burning,
And in a way I'm yearning,
To be done with all this measuring of proof.
An eye for an eye
And a tooth for a tooth,
And anyway I told the truth,
And I'm not afraid to die.

at least we have a rizin new years eve to look forward to

# ? Dec 27, 2023 03:15

Shumagorath: Jun 6, 2001

Orange Carlisle posted:

gets punched in the head for a living, owns a ton of firearms and just got a bunch of ammo

what could go wrong

better book him into a title fight while he has that sizzle

# ? Dec 27, 2023 03:20

BlindSite: Feb 8, 2009

Wanting at least partly to over throw your govt is cool and good, buying 400 rounds of dirty thirty and posting about your wish to do so - less cool and good.

Also the jase1 not being dead thread was an incredible read.

# ? Dec 27, 2023 03:27

Snowman_McK: Jan 31, 2010

Digital Jedi posted:

Simple reason, Dana doesn't like that he said he wouldn't fight his friend and teammate Aljo for the belt

I can see why someone having friends would annoy Dana

# ? Dec 27, 2023 05:13

Josuke Higashikata: Mar 7, 2013

MMA Fighting giving Sean Strickland fighter of the year because he encapsulates how right-wing 2023 has been and then beat Izzy is a choice. I wish I was.kidding about that first bit.

As opposed to Islam Makhachev who beat Alex in a close fight than sparked him.

# ? Dec 27, 2023 09:06

BlindSite: Feb 8, 2009

I mean if it's Strickland's politics that give you pause makachev isn't a better choice.

That being said. He should be fighter of the year.

# ? Dec 28, 2023 00:04

henkman: Oct 8, 2008

Woah, finding out jase1 is alive is nice. Also nice that it almost confirms what i've always assumed: that the man is a huge liar lmao

# ? Dec 28, 2023 00:10

CarlCX: Dec 14, 2003

Strickland's in the conversation but I wouldn't give it to him. Not just politics, but Imavov and Abus making GBS threads the bed makes those wins a little less than stellar. Beating Izzy's still pretty cool.

Just off the top of my head as far as fighter of the year goes:

Patchy Mix: Dude murdered Raufeon Stots and Sergio Pettis in a single calendar year, come the gently caress on
Shavkat Rakhmonov: FOTY candidate against Geoff Neal followed by totally dominating and becoming the first person to tap out Wonderboy
Tom Aspinall: Comes back from his leg exploding without missing a beat, kills Tybura, rolls off the couch on a week's notice and kills a fully-trained Pavlovich in a minute
Chihiro Suzuki: The clusterfuck with Kleber wasn't great, but then he murdered Pitbull and Karamov
Jessica Andrade: A special achievement award for getting steamrolled by three top contenders in a single year only to then beat the absolute poo poo out of Mackenzie Dern and ruin the UFC's marketing hopes yet again

# ? Dec 28, 2023 00:24

Foul Fowl: Sep 12, 2008; Uuuuh! Seek ye me?

agree with the above and i think pantoja has a really good argument for it too. leon beating usman very decisively in the rematch and then beating colby in an aldo-esque lazy cruise to a decision puts him in the running too.

i don�t really buy the argument for islam. volk is a featherweight with no wins at lightweight and he only very narrowly beat him when they both had full camps, and then beat him again decisively but with a full camp while volk had a week�s notice or whatever it was. islam is incredibly good but other people had better years.

# ? Dec 28, 2023 00:44

kimbo305: Jun 9, 2007; actually, yeah, I am a little mad

If anyone�s wondering if Cody Garbrandt�s lost his touch, he absolutely has not

# ? Dec 28, 2023 06:32

CarlCX: Dec 14, 2003

ONE has announced the main event for their Qatar event in March is Anatoly Malykhin attempting to complete his hater's quest by fighting Reinier de Ridder again, this time for his 205-pound title.

# ? Dec 28, 2023 06:37

TheKingslayer: Sep 3, 2008

CarlCX posted:

Strickland's in the conversation but I wouldn't give it to him. Not just politics, but Imavov and Abus making GBS threads the bed makes those wins a little less than stellar. Beating Izzy's still pretty cool.

Just off the top of my head as far as fighter of the year goes:[list]
[*]Patchy Mix: Dude murdered Raufeon Stots and Sergio Pettis in a single calendar year, come the gently caress on

For me its this or Alex Pereira. Winning two belts in two different weight classes in 365 days in some pretty intense fights? Yeah I think that'll do it. No one else comes close to these two guys though for my money.

# ? Dec 28, 2023 07:31

Josuke Higashikata: Mar 7, 2013

BlindSite posted:

I mean if it's Strickland's politics that give you pause makachev isn't a better choice.

That being said. He should be fighter of the year.

It's not front and centre of the argument for him or his personality, even though it's highly probable he feels the same (I say in the lieu of hard evidence of him saying X but knowledge of where he's from and company kept. Also not saying that evidence of him being a racist homophobe ain't out there, I just don't make a habit of googling it.).

# ? Dec 28, 2023 07:32

Josuke Higashikata: Mar 7, 2013

CarlCX posted:

Otherwise, thanks for another year of whistling through the graveyard of respectability, I appreciate you all, god bless Mark Hunt and literally no one else, and here's to a 2024 that I hope will be better while realistically strapping myself in for some real bullshit.

Our lord and saviour Brutal Bob hung up the gloves, I would vote to canonise him alongside Hunt.

# ? Dec 28, 2023 07:36

CarlCX: Dec 14, 2003

TheKingslayer posted:

For me its this or Alex Pereira. Winning two belts in two different weight classes in 365 days in some pretty intense fights? Yeah I think that'll do it. No one else comes close to these two guys though for my money.

I thought about putting Pereira on that shortlist but second-guessed it. Becoming a two-class champion and destroying Jiri is plenty impressive, but for one, while he WON the Blachowicz fight I wouldn't call it a great performance, and for two, I feel like it's hard to be fighter of the year when you got knocked the gently caress out in said year.

# ? Dec 28, 2023 08:42

TheKingslayer: Sep 3, 2008

I mean that's a fair take, we're all gonna have some slightly different criteria. In my eyes coming back from that KO and getting right in the mix in a new weight class beating champs/former champs is very impressive from a mental perspective

# ? Dec 28, 2023 08:52

Spaced God: Feb 8, 2014; All torment, trouble, wonder and amazement
Inhabits here: some heavenly power guide us
Out of this fearful country!

A jet lagged, stoned, 3AM list of my most memorable things of the year

Derrick Lewis with the immediate flying knee KO
Robbie Lawler retiring on a beautiful KO
TKZ being serenaded off into retirement
Grasso taking the back and subbing sevchencko for the belt
I'm pretty sure that one dude who had like 7 fights cancelled on him finally fought this year and I'm very proud of him for it
oh also the time the really lovely person with horrible opinions got their entire course of their life changed by a punch. lol lmao

TKO, Carl, and all y'all are always making this hell sport enjoyable keep it up pals

# ? Dec 28, 2023 08:52

Tom Clancy is Dead: Jul 13, 2011

My fighter of the year is Gaethje. He turned back a young lion in Fiziev with a gritty and eventually technical performance, and then showed that his evolution does work at the highest level when he crushed his longtime rival Poirer to avenge one of his most significant losses. That's as close as anyone has gotten to two outstanding wins without asterisks this year, and there's no one with three great wins. I feel like 2023 has had the least activity out of contenders in the years I've been watching.

Then, in order:

CarlCX posted:

* Patchy Mix: Dude murdered Raufeon Stots and Sergio Pettis in a single calendar year, come the gently caress on
* Shavkat Rakhmonov: FOTY candidate against Geoff Neal followed by totally dominating and becoming the first person to tap out Wonderboy
* Tom Aspinall: Comes back from his leg exploding without missing a beat, kills Tybura, rolls off the couch on a week's notice and kills a fully-trained Pavlovich in a minute

Others for the honorable mentions off two good wins include Erin Blanchfield, Arman Tsarukyan, and Max Holloway. My dark horse is Brandon Moreno, who was in two of the best fights of the year despite losing his title by split decision.

Strickland has to be mentioned, he has 3 wins and got the title in an upset, but two of those wins weren't great and the title felt like more a resolution on Adesanya than a heralding of the Strickland Era. Edwards would be in there if he put his foot on the gas more and broke Covington, but as funny as Covington losing in a poo poo fight was the fight was still poo poo. Pantoja vs. Royval was just a bit too sloppy between the gassing and the lack of TDD.

CarlCX posted:

If you stuck with all of the writeups/monthlies/etc. this year you read 300,000+ words, and for that, a) thank you, and b) I am sorry I took away the time you could have spent reading an actual book.

Better than most books I read this year, and if you wrote a combo of predictions and results I'd buy the book form.

quote:

so I wanted to see if there was any interest in 2024 participation in any of these:

A return of the old thread where we RNG-assigned old events to participating posters for retro reviews

I'd be interested in this, but with specific fights for technical analysis rather than event recaps/reviews.

# ? Dec 28, 2023 14:21

Brut: Aug 21, 2007

Spaced God posted:

Derrick Lewis with the immediate flying knee KO

lmao I completely forgot about this, just went back to rewatch it, he spend more time dancing around in his underwear than the fight lasted.

# ? Dec 28, 2023 14:57

BlindSite: Feb 8, 2009

I loved that so much because on a stupid drunken whim I threw something like 20 bucks on him by knock out as they're doing the walk outs and welp.

# ? Dec 28, 2023 23:12

CommonShore: Jun 6, 2014; A true renaissance man

Benavidez also had a shot at Cruz's WEC title, which should count as a 5th.

# ? Dec 29, 2023 14:37

BlindSite: Feb 8, 2009

Any cards on tomorrow? I don't do new years, so would be good to have something to watch in the afternoon.

# ? Dec 30, 2023 02:56

Brut: Aug 21, 2007

BlindSite posted:

Any cards on tomorrow? I don't do new years, so would be good to have something to watch in the afternoon.

CFFC have a grappling tournament happening in south philly, there's a few UFC fighters on the card.

https://cffc.tv/tickets/fury-pro-grappling-8-december-30-event-2300-arena-philadelphia

I'd consider going to see this but I'm still getting over being sick.

Other than that there's RIZIN's new years show https://www.tapology.com/fightcenter/events/107924-rizin-45

# ? Dec 30, 2023 03:06

Digital Jedi: May 28, 2007; Fallen Rib

Yea not much. Always check with Grabaka Hitman see what he has up
https://grabakahitman.com/

2 cards in the morning out in China, card over in Sweden and Netherlands

And, the grappling as Brut mentioned plus Rizin

# ? Dec 30, 2023 03:20

Snowman_McK: Jan 31, 2010

Merry Xmas and happy new years. I'm largely checked out of our dumb gay sport these days, thanks to the awful, scummy aspects being harder to ignore, but the interest I retain is pretty much all due to this forum. The knowledge, wit and humour you all have keeps me interested the way it got me interested a decade and a half ago now. Thanks all and I hope you're all good this time of year.

# ? Dec 30, 2023 04:06

BlindSite: Feb 8, 2009

Thanks guy, I might queue up a couple of old favourites or something instead. Bit of a shame. One of my favourite new years ever was drinking whiskey and sodas watching the card where Garbrandt destroyed Dominic. Tremendous.

# ? Dec 30, 2023 04:13

COPE 27: Sep 11, 2006

Brut posted:

CFFC have a grappling tournament happening in south philly, there's a few UFC fighters on the card.

That's a better lineup than a lot of fight night cards

# ? Dec 30, 2023 04:21

Lid: Feb 18, 2005; And the mercy seat is awaiting,
And I think my head is burning,
And in a way I'm yearning,
To be done with all this measuring of proof.
An eye for an eye
And a tooth for a tooth,
And anyway I told the truth,
And I'm not afraid to die.

https://twitter.com/JHagholm1/status/1740580132950073613?t=RyO0nEnf2ARRLNZeWCAM5g&s=19

TUE is back on the menu boys

# ? Dec 30, 2023 08:18

Marching Powder: Mar 8, 2008; stop the fucking fight, cornerman, your dude is fucking done and is about to be killed.

oh yeah i forgot to predict that the talent in the ufc over the next few years will explode faster than when GSP learned to jab

# ? Dec 30, 2023 08:30

CarlCX: Dec 14, 2003

Snowman_McK posted:

Merry Xmas and happy new years. I'm largely checked out of our dumb gay sport these days, thanks to the awful, scummy aspects being harder to ignore, but the interest I retain is pretty much all due to this forum. The knowledge, wit and humour you all have keeps me interested the way it got me interested a decade and a half ago now. Thanks all and I hope you're all good this time of year.

We are in different positions on this sinking ship, but we are all riding it to the bottom one way or another.

I am going to watch 5 hours of AEW tomorrow followed by 7 hours of Japanese MMA and then I will go to bed at 6:30 in the morning.

edit: i posted this and then checked twitter
https://twitter.com/ykkymma/status/1741013300304027757

juan archuleta missed weight by six loving pounds and has been stripped of the rizin bantamweight belt, they have yet to decide if they'll even have their co-main event tomorrow

CarlCX fucked around with this message at 11:05 on Dec 30, 2023

# ? Dec 30, 2023 11:00

Lid: Feb 18, 2005; And the mercy seat is awaiting,
And I think my head is burning,
And in a way I'm yearning,
To be done with all this measuring of proof.
An eye for an eye
And a tooth for a tooth,
And anyway I told the truth,
And I'm not afraid to die.

Rizin Never Die

# ? Dec 30, 2023 11:46

TheKingslayer: Sep 3, 2008

Lid posted:

https://twitter.com/JHagholm1/status/1740580132950073613?t=RyO0nEnf2ARRLNZeWCAM5g&s=19

TUE is back on the menu boys

# ? Dec 30, 2023 12:48

Lid: Feb 18, 2005; And the mercy seat is awaiting,
And I think my head is burning,
And in a way I'm yearning,
To be done with all this measuring of proof.
An eye for an eye
And a tooth for a tooth,
And anyway I told the truth,
And I'm not afraid to die.

When they needed him he returned

# ? Dec 30, 2023 12:55

kimbo305: Jun 9, 2007; actually, yeah, I am a little mad

Jonny Hendricks is only 40 🤔

# ? Dec 30, 2023 16:15

Eat This Glob: Jan 14, 2008; God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. Who will wipe this blood off us? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we need to invent?

ufc: we take performance enhancing drug use seriously

ufc: seriously. you guys should take performance enhancing drugs

# ? Dec 30, 2023 18:41

Shumagorath: Jun 6, 2001

Eat This Glob posted:

ufc: we take performance enhancing drug use seriously

ufc: seriously. you guys should take performance enhancing drugs

UFC/MMA January: We take drug use seriously. Seriously; you should use drugs!

Shumagorath fucked around with this message at 18:53 on Dec 30, 2023

# ? Dec 30, 2023 18:46

LobsterMobster: Oct 29, 2009; "I was being quiet and trying to be a good boy but he dialed the right combination to open the throw-down vault and it was on."

"Walter Foxx is ten times brighter than your bulb at the bottom of the tree merry xmas"

CarlCX posted:

We are in different positions on this sinking ship, but we are all riding it to the bottom one way or another.

I am going to watch 5 hours of AEW tomorrow followed by 7 hours of Japanese MMA and then I will go to bed at 6:30 in the morning.

edit: i posted this and then checked twitter
https://twitter.com/ykkymma/status/1741013300304027757

juan archuleta missed weight by six loving pounds and has been stripped of the rizin bantamweight belt, they have yet to decide if they'll even have their co-main event tomorrow

lol and also, after further review, lmao

# ? Dec 30, 2023 20:40

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# ? Apr 28, 2024 21:01

Lucasar: Jan 25, 2005; save a few for lefty too

Lid posted:

https://twitter.com/JHagholm1/status/1740580132950073613?t=RyO0nEnf2ARRLNZeWCAM5g&s=19

TUE is back on the menu boys

At the risk of being the spelling guy, it's entail. Not intale. I don't have twitter so I can't correct this guy directly so I am posting here about it so that I can feel at least that much better.

# ? Dec 31, 2023 01:10

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Sports Argument Stadium > The Hammer House: Stinger Splash Zone > UFC/MMA December: pee eff ell

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