An MMA Thanksgiving: 2015 All-Turkey Team

World Series of Fighting

JORDAN BREEN: This year hasn’t been entirely without merit for World Series of Fighting. After all, the promotion staged its most thrilling fight ever in March with Justin Gaethje-Luis Palomino, then ran it back with its 155-pound poster boy winning again in September. The WSOF had David Branch improbably emerge as a two-division titlist, which frankly charms me. The promotion found better talent for Marlon Moraes to defend his title against and acquired some decent Russian prospects, too. Unfortunately, that’s about where the positive vibes start and end for the WSOF in 2015.

Where to even start? The company is millions deep in debt and being sued over control of its assets by a group of investors who were brought in to infuse the promotion with capital. In May, the company’s founder and shadowy overlord Shawn Lampman went away to federal prison for 10 months for not paying income tax. Its ratings on the NBC Sports Network continue to sag.

WSOF matchmaker Ali Abdelaziz this year saw two of his managerial clients, Fabricio Werdum and Rafael dos Anjos, win UFC titles. Yet it has been an extremely trying year for Abdelaziz on account of being the World Series of Fighting’s visible figurehead, with all due respect to President Ray Sefo. Abdelaziz has been skewered by the fight media for his dual role as a manager and matchmaker, which, as much as I friggin’ love double-titled Branch, manifests quite clearly in the favoring of Renzo Gracie Team fighters. This conflict of interest is actually one of the points of contention in the WSOF, as the group suing the company had previously sought his termination on those very grounds. On top of that, Abdelaziz has fostered a relationship with Chechnyan leader and sociopathic warlord Ramzan Kadyrov by procuring talent from his Akhmat MMA organization, suggesting a WSOF-Akhmat MMA co-promotion and even signing up the aforementioned Werdum to be Akhmat’s global ambassador.

Nick Newell retired, Lance Palmer was AWOL, we suffered through a Jon Fitch-Yushin Okami main event and unrepentant domestic abuser Thiago Silva fought for the promotion. WSOF’s most watched event this year was the horrendous and embarrassing Rousimar Palhares-Jake Shields debacle, which led to the company stripping Palhares of his welterweight title and the Brazilian catching a two-year, $40,000 suspension. WSOF announced an eight-man, one-night lightweight tournament for Seattle, only to then realize that Washington State wouldn’t permit such an event before being forced to move the card to Phoenix. When that tournament happened, two of the semifinalists were injured despite dominant victories, and Brian Foster won the tournament after being submitted in the first round by Joao Zeferino -- he knocked out Zeferino in the final.

Last but certainly not least, we have play-by-play man and general train wreck Todd Harris, who could be an entry in this article by himself every year. Instead, he’s but one of many turkeys smashed and mutated together to form the Frankensteinian bird that has been the WSOF in 2015.

Continue Reading » Edmond Tarverdyan