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On December 11, 2015 By In Mixed Martial Arts

UFC 194 Statistical Matchup Analysis

“It has finally arrived.

After a rollercoaster ride of press tours, promotional media appearances and an injury-induced postponement, Jose Aldo and Conor McGregor will square off in the Octagon in the UFC 194 main event on Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

It has seemed like a long time since Aldo — the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s most-tenured champion — has been active. He was last seen in October 2014, when he defended his title for the seventh time in the UFC — the ninth if you count his World Extreme Cagefighting run — against Chad Mendes in one of the best fights of the year. After gearing up for a July 11 showdown with McGregor at UFC 189, Aldo suffered a rib injury weeks before the fight and was forced to withdraw. Assuming everything goes according to plan, this year will be the first time since 2012 that the longtime featherweight king logs only a single fight in a calendar year…”

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On November 27, 2015 By In Mixed Martial Arts

An MMA Thanksgiving: 2015 All-Turkey Team

“One wonders what it was like to be in Jones’ inner circle in January — other than awesome, since being able to party hard on the dime of a successful friend is pretty ideal on the face. No, what we’re getting at is this: What were New Year’s resolution talks like?

Jones is not like the rest of us. Things like “eat less junk food, exercise more and don’t avoid my parents’ calls as much” probably didn’t come up in his resolutions. One would imagine things like “fight more than once, clear out the light heavyweight division and take a heavyweight fight” were more to the point…”

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On November 25, 2015 By In Mixed Martial Arts

In Love with Useless

“Let’s talk about love.

All of us love this sport, in varying degrees of psychopathy. It’s easy to get cynical about MMA, to be sure, but we keep coming back for one reason or another. Sometimes fights happen or narratives manifest that are so compelling that we fall back in love with it all over again. Sometimes, no such thing evokes our emotions, yet they continue to churn anyway. This is what is called being “in love with useless,” and right now, we should all feel the love…”

 

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On November 21, 2015 By In essay

What I’ve Learned About Being Local

“Before I left home last year to move to Korea, my nostalgic flashbacks to my life in Hawaii became particularly acute.

My parents still live close to my elementary school in Aikahi, and I remember how stoked everyone in the neighborhood was when the new playground was built — and how terrified we were when it almost burned down.

I would get out early on Wednesdays and go to Dave’s Ice Cream with my dad and my brother. I remember the liberation I felt when I got my first bus pass. I remember it all: There was the beach park where I got in my first fight, and the fence my friends and I used to hop over in middle school to smoke in secrecy…”

 

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On November 16, 2015 By In Mixed Martial Arts

What We Learned from UFC 193

“UFC 193 was every bit the historic event it was billed as being. It set the new all-time attendance record for the Ultimate Fighting Championship; it hosted the first former boxing champion to cross over and win UFC gold; and oh yeah, Ronda Rousey lost…

It’s said that experience is something you don’t know you don’t have until you get it, and that failure is the best teacher. Both of these lessons apply to Rousey, who crumpled under the record-setting stadium lights. Still, there are more lessons to be learned from the event. Here are some of them…”

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