It was the night before Christmas
And to MMAFighting.com
Sport has settled for a quiet holiday
Most major promotions were made for the year
The time has therefore come to celebrate the end of the year celebrations!
Who was bad and who was good?
Santa Meshew is the arbiter of virtue and vice
He leaps up the chimney with gifts for all
Then he was gone in a flash, with one last call:
On Cocker! On Chatri! On sefo! On White!”
“Merry Christmas everyone and good night everyone.”
Who was bad in 2022? Who was nice?
– Jed Meshew II (@JedKMeshew) December 24, 2022
Great question, Jed!
Obviously that’s the kind of list that could grow to rival even Santa’s, given how many fighters there are out there, so in the interest of keeping things manageable, j decided to limit the number of entries to three each. So, without further ado:
The naughty list 2022
Douglas Croby
Crosby, one of the most aligned sports judges overall, was in his bag deeper than Saint Nick this year. Crosby submitted 57 scorecards in 2022 (by MMADecisions), including seven by split decision. By my reckoning, in five of those cases, Crosby was on the wrong side of the decision (although some are worse than others), and none of that includes the Paddy Pimblet fiasco, or Andrei Arlovsky get a gift decision Jake Necklaceor controversy Daniel Rodriguez more than Li Jingliang Scorecard. But that’s not why Crosby made the Naughty List; it’s because the man can’t take an L.
It’s okay to be wrong, it’s part of the human experience. Not everyone is right all the time, even when it’s part of their job description. Admitting your mistakes, however, is the key, and Crosby has failed spectacularly in this regard. If Crsoby wants to defend some of its terrible dashboards, that’s silly but whatever. But speak in response to the backlash functionally admitting that you are not doing your job well (Basically, Crosby blames the problems on the short time frame and the score submission process, except he explains that that’s not how the process is taught) and then backs out of the extremely valid criticism about judging fights on consecutive nights. opposite sides of the country with a “this is just a classist attack on me” is Grade A nonsense. Coal for you, Mr. Croby.
Kamaru Usman, Justin Gaethjeand Henry Cejudo
Accept Gifts from a Warlord means that you do not receive any gifts from Santa Claus. It is the rule.
Jake Shields and Jorge Masvidal
I don’t care what anybody tells you, you can’t attack people, even if they are also professional fighters. In fact, in this case, just fight these people professionally instead of attacking them in public. We live in a society and that’s not how it works.
The Nice 2022 list
On the one hand, Poirier beat Michael Chandler, which is always the fastest way to make my beautiful list every year. But on the other hand, Poirier continues to be a great guy with his charity work, providing 500 Thanksgiving meals to the less fortunate last month. The standard bearer of being a good person in this sport.
I’m throwing a curveball here because, as you probably know, Nate isn’t always the nicest person around people, especially on the Twitter machine. However, he gets a pass on this year’s roster because after the UFC stagnated for nearly a year and then did their best to publicly humiliate him, Nate got a Christmas miracle. and came out of everything that smelled of roses, he took the high road. The holidays are not about dancing on the graves of your enemies. They talk about forgiveness and family, and fucked up Stockton 209.
You
If you’re here reading this, if you love the sport despite its many egregious failures, if you support MMAFighting or myself or any of the people who do our best to bring you information and entertainment, I love you all and hope Santa brings you the moon.
What Christmas present would you give to every major fight promoter? Happy holidays too and long live the hw overs!
— Hans Z Gratt (@HansGratt) December 21, 2022
I love giving gifts! Let’s distribute some.
cfu
I’m not particularly interested in doing the UFC a favor. given that the recent rise in PPV prices should put them squarely on the rogues list (I know that’s technically an ESPN decision but come on), and so instead I’ll do the classic Christmas strategy of giving your loved one a present that’s really for you, in this case: UFC Africa.
The UFC’s return to London this year has been electric and their debut in France has been a blast. They’ve been teasing a UFC Africa for years, with Dana White saying they are aiming for it for 2023. Of all the gifts in the world, I would give this one to the UFC because really, we would be the ones to benefit.
Bellator
This is a difficult question. There are so many choices, but I’m going to pick the one that I think would be the biggest win for them: a new name.
Bellator is an outrageously stupid name. The only people who know what that means are WAY too deep into the MMA game, and it’s objectively off-putting to any common sports fan. Imagine if the NFL was called Pedesphera? Do you think anyone would watch this? Of course not. So for Christmas, Bellator becomes Showtime MMA or
PFL
For the organization that’s starting to really gain traction, I’m offering them something they desperately need in 2023: a bantamweight division.
135 pounds is one of the deepest and most interesting divisions in the world, and there is no shortage of talent. Lightweight and the lightness has been great for them. Let’s continue as we try to create a new WEC.
A
With ONE’s Amazon deal, I don’t know what to give the organization that has everything. A large cast, billions of viewers, and some damn good fighters on the roster are all any promoter could ask for. So I’m left with the gift you give someone when you don’t know what to give them: a gift card to Barnes and Noble.
Thanks for reading and thanks to everyone who tweeted! Do you have any burning questions about things at least somewhat related to combat sports? Then you’re in luck, because you can send me your Hot Tweets, @JedKMeshew, and I will answer them! It doesn’t matter if they are topical or nonsense. Send them to me and I’ll respond to the ones I like the most. Let’s have fun.
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