UFC 206 took place over the weekend, and despite losing multiple fights (including its original main event) to injuries, it ended up being one of the best fight cards of the year. It was uncomplicated, brutal fun—a breath of fresh air after months of beefs, organizational drama, and various other flavors of bullshit.
Over the weekend, Conor McGregor became the first UFC fighter to ever simultaneously hold belts in two different weight classes. He is, without a doubt, a legend-in-the-making, a star we should appreciate while he’s still around. But he’s also hotheaded and petulant, and I worry that both the UFC and other fighters…
On October 5, the first volume of a comic called Head Lopper will be released. If you missed its 2015-16 run, and have any interest whatsoever in cool and interesting things, I suggest you check it out.
Sometimes UFC fight cards amount to just that: a series of fights organized according to significance, with maximum room for approximately 20,000 tedious ads in between. Every once in a while, though, it all unravels, and the ensuing chaos is absolutely beautiful.
Pro wrestling is an act, as many a helpful Internet commenter will point out below any article about this stuff. It’s staged. It’s scripted. The evil Russian bad guys, it turns out, are often actually Americans.
This weekend at UFC 202, Conor McGregor takes on Nate Diaz in a rematch of their first slobberknocker, which McGregor lost in dramatic fashion even though Diaz took the fight on extremely short notice. Last time, the lead-up was all McGregor. This time around, it couldn’t be any more different.
For a little while, UFC 200 seemed cursed. The “best card ever” lost its original main event to a squabble between Conor McGregor and the UFC. Then, two days before the big show, Jon Jones got busted for a doping violation, scrapping yet another main event and sending the UFC scrambling.
UFC 199 was stacked with moments that reminded me why I love MMA. Michael Bisping’s championship win. Dan Henderson’s age-defying comeback KO of Hector Lombard. The last ten seconds of Max Holloway vs Ricardo Lamas. Shame the UFC had to mar it by being a petty wreck of an organization.
It’s been a few days since UFC 197, but discussion rages on. Mainly, everyone’s talking about Jon Jones, who returned after a year of atonement for actual crimes, and Conor McGregor, who didn’t even fight at UFC 197. Flyweight champion Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson is once again getting the shaft.
If you at all follow UFC goings-on (or even just follow someone on Twitter who accidentally watched a UFC card at a bar once), you’ve probably heard about the Biblical drama storm currently following Conor McGregor. This week McGregor “retired” from MMA over the UFC’s refusal to give him a slightly lighter promotional…
“I’m here to tell you there’s something else...” Prince showed me the life I wanted to live. He was my black genius superhero.
I had a long, entertaining chat with Ta-Nehisi Coates two weeks before the first issue of the new Black Panther series came out. It was so fun that I’m putting the majority of our talk here. Warning: it’s long and has spoilers
Conor McGregor is one of my favorite fighters. He lost in devastating fashion on Saturday night, and I couldn’t be happier.
Part of me was hoping that Wednesday night’s episode of Black-ish would give me the Magic Words: the exact right things to say to my daughter when she starts asking me about institutionalized racism. It didn’t, because, really, how could it?
I am sure that Daniel Bryan, who is possibly the greatest pro wrestler in the world, wants to wrestle this Sunday. If he does—if he competes in WWE’s 30-man Royal Rumble—then I hope that the thousands of Daniel Bryan fans who’ve been rooting for him to make a comeback don’t discover one day that we basically rooted…
This weekend’s UFC fight has been four years in the making. Dominick Cruz pioneered a nigh-untouchable Matrix-like fighting style and dominated a whole division with it. Then he got injured. For years. While he was away, TJ Dillashaw claimed his belt with remarkably similar moves. Now, they’re finally gonna fight.
The UFC is not super kind to fighters. Don’t get me wrong: some champs and popular up-and-comers make decent bank, but they have little leverage. A few ugly losses, ill-advised words, or hell, a uniform violation can leave them jobless—or at least on the UFC’s shitlist. So it’s crazy to see a fighter making the UFC…
In 2015, seven UFC championship belts changed hands. Jon Jones pleaded guilty to a felony and fell from grace. Ronda Rousey got knocked into oblivion by Holly Holm. Deadspin reported that Vitor Belfort was allowed to compete despite suspicious testosterone levels. Reebok ruined everything. And yet, it’s been a damn…
As the year winds down, we ran our annual round-up of best surprises and biggest disappointments. Disappointments got the better traffic yet again! Both posts were among my favorites of the week, as were these five:
