Sherdog Column

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2021

Trying to Fit a Fight Into a Sport 7/29

The Grisly Allure of Broken Bones 7/14

A Motion for Meritocracy 1/26

Breaking Curses and Records 1/19

2020

If “The Eagle” Ever Loses, It Will Be At UFC 254 10/22

A Safe Space for Racists 9/24

The Gray Area Between Cheating and Savvy 9/17

What It Means to be The Best 9/9

There’s No Going Back 8/26

Legacies and Losses 8/19

The Things that Matter 8/6

Refereeing the referees 7/30

A New Ceiling 7/22

The Fights Worth Fighting 7/15

Pandemic Preparation 7/8

Mythmaking in Real Time 6/24

Small Cages and Squash Matches 6/18

Fighting Together 6/10

When You Run Out Of Lessons To Learn 6/3

The Trouble of Selling Tragedy 5/20

Risk and Consequence 5/13

Watching Fights Like an Analyst pt. 4 5/6

Watching Fights Like an Analyst pt. 3 4/29

ONE of a Kind 4/22

Then and Now: 10 Years of the Lightweight Division 4/15

Watching Fights Like an Analyst pt. 2 4/8

Watching Fights Like an Analyst pt. 1 3/31

A World Without MMA 3/28

Fighting in the Age of Coronavirus 3/18

A Night of Returns 3/10

A Lament for Joseph Benavidez 3/4

Different Sides of Violence 2/28

Untangling 205 2/18

The Complexities of Grieving Someone You Didn’t Know 1/28

On Fighters as Role Models 1/21

An Ode to the Undercard 1/14

Low Hopes for McGregor’s Redemption 1/8

2019

More Pounds, Same Problems 11/20

The Best Division in the Sport 11/12

When Risks Pay Off 11/5

GOAT-for-Bust swap still the right move 10/30

Why UFC Hawaii Probably Won’t Happen Any Time Soon 10/19

Cub Swanson and the Moment He Needed 10/15

Lightweight’s Best-Case Scenario 9/17

A Different Kind of Dominance 9/10

Why Do We Interview Fighters? 8/27

Everybody Sucks, and Other Reasons to be Patient 8/20

The Downside of Dominance 8/15

Colby Covington Knows What He’s Doing 8/5

Ingredients of a Rebound 7/29

UFC 239 as an Educational Experience 7/11

Two Ways To Be Number Two 7/2

A Zombie Realized 6/25

Farewell to the Bad Guy 6/17

No Exaggeration Needed 6/10

Cutting Losses by Cutting Winners 5/27

Same But Different 5/20

Following Fear 5/13

End Game 4/29

13 Ways of Looking at Fighting in One Week 4/22

It Is What It Is, and It Is Beautiful 4/15

Words of War 4/8

What’s Dehydration Got To Do With It? 3/25

Owning the Narrative 3/18

Why Some Careers Resurge and Some Don’t 3/11

Keep It Simple, Stupid 3/4

Man, Myth, Legend 2/19

What Fighting is All About 2/11

Don’t Call It A Comeback 2/4

What Fast Finishes Really Mean 1/28

A Little Bit of Everything 1/21

Talking the Talk 1/14

Lessons from The Real OC 1/7

2018

Merry Christmas, Ya Filthy Animals Sherdog, 12/24

Ragin’ With the Best of Them Sherdog, 12/17

Don’t Sweat the Technique Sherdog, 12/10

Age Is Much More Than A Number Sherdog, 12/3

Just A Moment Sherdog, 11/12

Making Middleweight Great Again Sherdog, 11/5

Eighty Pounds of Thinness Sherdog, 10/29

Heavy Truths Sherdog, 10/16

We Are Who You Thought We Were Sherdog, 10/8

Don’t Forget About Bellator Sherdog, 10/1

The Conundrum of Patience Sherdog, 9/10

High Stakes on Multiple Fronts Sherdog, 9/3

Violence, Money, and John McCain Sherdog, 8/27

When Superfights Lose Their Luster Sherdog, 8/20

Let’s Not Get Ahead of Ourselves Sherdog, 8/10

Three Former Champs, Three Different Stories Sherdog, 7/30

Score One for the Good Guys Sherdog, 7/16

The Daddest Man on the Planet Sherdog, 7/9

Stay Weird, MMA Sherdog, 7/2

What It Means to Make a Mistake Sherdog, 6/25

Four Takeaways from UFC 225 Sherdog, 6/11

When History Rhymes Sherdog, 6/4

Casualties of the UFC’s Quest for Legitimacy Sherdog, 5/29

We Learn Nothing Sherdog, 5/21

Knowing When To Quit Sherdog, 5/14

O Kyoji, Where Art Thou? Sherdog, 5/7

Back To The Future Sherdog, 4/30

MMA’s Modern Mythological Hero Sherdog, 4/16

Making Sense of Nonsense Sherdog, 4/9

The Best of a Bad Situation Sherdog, 4/2

Demotivating Factors Sherdog, 3/26

More Than A Fight Sherdog, 3/19

Making Sense of McGregor Sherdog, 3/12

In With The New Sherdog, 3/5

The Illusion of Control Sherdog, 2/26

The Cathartic Zen of the Cowboy Sherdog, 2/20

A Good Night For Heavyweights Sherdog, 2/12

A Blueprint to Unionize Sherdog, 2/5

Make UFC Hawaii Happen Sherdog, 1/29

Heavyweight Durability Sherdog, 1/22

What It Takes To Build A Star Sherdog, 1/16

What’s at Stake for the Korean Superboy Sherdog, 1/8

2017

Mixed Feelings for the Middleweight Division 12/11

A GOAT For All Seasons 12/4

What’s Legacy Got To Do With It? 11/27

The UFC’s Old Epidemic 11/13

Are You Not Entertained? 11/6

Getting Ahead by Getting People Mad 10/30

One Man’s Loss is Another Man’s Luck 10/23

Violent Meditations 10/16

A Source of Pride 10/9

Respect Where Respect Is Due 9/25

In Defense of the Very Good 9/18

A Tale of Two Main Events 9/11

Self-Fulfilling Prophecies 9/5

Let’s Not Overthink This 8/28

The Simple Complexities of The Money Fight 8/21

The Dueling Insecurities of Boxing and MMA 8/14

Patience is a Virtue 8/7

What I Talk About When I Talk About MMA 7/31

The Dumb, Dizzying Depths of The Money Fight 7/18

A Half Empty Look at International Fight Week 7/10

The Final Tragic Stage of a Fighter’s Career 6/27

The Cost of Combat 6/19

The Old Man and the Beast 6/12

The Benefits of a Slow Boil 6/5

Down So Long It Looks Like Up 5/22

The Appeal of Relevance 5/15

Nostalgia is a Hell of a Drug 5/1

The Paradox of Perfection 4/17

The Most MMA Event of the Year 4/10

The Legitimacy of the Others 3/27

Life on Manuwa Island 3/20

View from the Fence 3/13

The Other Side of Anything Can Happen 3/6

A Meditation on Ethics in MMA 2/21

Cheating Pays 2/13

Korean Zombie in Context 2/3

The Myth of Mind Games 1/23

The Final Pass of the Torch 1/17

An Aging Prodigy 1/10

The Two Types of Defeat 1/2

2016

Watching Through the Rearview 12/19

A Fighter Forged from Conflict 12/12

Champion of Interims 11/28

The Role of Competition 11/21

Politics, UFC 205, and What it Means to Fight 11/14

UFC Fright Night and Other Spooky Musings 10/31

Emerging Markets and World Domination 10/24

Lies, Damned Lies, and Everything Else 10/17

A Beautiful Weird Twisted Reality 10/10

The Nature of the Beast 10/3

Cyborg a Missed Opportunity for the UFC 9/25

Money Fights and the Forgotten Art of Knowing Your Role 9/19

A Good Heavyweight is Hard to Find 9/11

Age Ain’t Nothin but a Number 8/29

Mixed Martial Artistry 8/22

When Chaos is OK 8/3

Time for a UFC-Invicta Merger 7/24

The Time Warp that was UFC 200 7/10

Money On Our Mind 6/26

Not Breaking the Bank 6/19

High Stakes in the Shadow of UFC 200 6/12

Exploring the UFC 199 Narratives 6/5

A Call for Recalibration 5/23

Putting Out Heavyweight Fires 5/16

The Costs of Control 5/2

The Many Faces of Pound for Pound 4/25

Pedestals and PED’s 4/12

The Intrigue of Newness 4/4

Fairytale Championships 3/28

Whose Stoppage is it Anyway? 3/21

The Slippery Nature of MMA Greatness 3/14

The Death of Imagination 3/7

Too Much of a Not Good Thing 2/22

Passing Torches Through Shrinking Windows 2/8

Sage Advice 2/1

The Prodigal Son Returns 1/25

Cyborg and the Post-Rousey World 1/20

2015

In Love with Useless 11/24

Lessons from UFC 193 11/16

More Superfights, Please 11/2

Money Matters 10/26

MMA Moralizing 10/19

Alpha Male Dilemmas 10/12

Alexander Gustafsson and the Dirk Nowitzki Parallels 10/5