Though its a bit late and traditions for the final Thursday in November are pretty well established at this point, we here at Sherdog.com would like to add a little something to the festivities.
OK, sure, its cliché and silly and counterintuitive to the purpose of Thanksgiving. But its also fun and a little mean spirited. And for my money any truly worthwhile thing has elements of each.
Weve scoured the headlines and gone through our notes to pick out five of the years most unforgettably obnoxious, ridiculous or just plain reprehensible moments. The work is done and five finalists for Sherdog.coms inaugural Turkey award have been chosen. Dont worry though, no one will leave empty handed.
Oh, and youre picking the winner.
In no particular order:
Eli Joslin (Pictures)
Its true accomplishment when someone can take the biggest opportunity of his or her life and flush it down the toilet like yesterdays burrito. Even more so when its done on national television. And thats just what young Eli Joslin (Pictures), a heavyweight from Mariposa, Calif., did on the debut episode of TUF 2 in August.
Joining eight heavyweights in Las Vegas to pursue a dream of becoming the newest Ultimate Fighter, Joslin began having doubts about his place on the cast when he realized that taping a television show might actually require having cameras pointed in his direction.
Apparently, confused Elis anxiety grew and grew during his first few days in the fighter house. So much so that he just up and quit, much to the chagrin of TUF 2 coaches Rich Franklin (Pictures) and Matt Hughes (Pictures), as well as UFC president Dana White.
A delicious turkey with all the trimmings goes to Eli, though you can be sure if theres a camera anywhere near, it wont get eaten.
Honorable mention goes to Kenny Stevens (Pictures), who like Joslin quit on the debut of TUF II prior to fighting. At least Stevens tried before failing to make weight for his fight against Sam Morgan (Pictures).
Dana White & Tito Ortiz (Pictures)
You could probably pick just about anything involving White and/or Ortiz and award it a Turkey, but this one is a combo nomination, as these two peas in a pod take the prize for most dysfunctional relationship.
Its really no wonder why the UFC boss and the former UFC light heavyweight champion (also a former Dana White client) cant stand each other theyre exactly alike. For almost nine months UFC fans were subjected to back-and-forth talk in the press from both men.
White called Ortiz every name in the book, and said things about him normal people wouldnt wish upon their worst enemy. And Ortiz kept at his former boss with puzzling demands and even more puzzling metaphors.
And so their dysfunction evolved until which point White mustve missed him so much (i.e. another promoter was about to scoop up the man White had invested millions of dollars in) that the two finally came together on a three-fight contract. Not only that, Ortiz was given the highest profile slot that can be bestowed upon a fighter in Whites stable: coach on the Ultimate Fighter reality series.
The meltdown thats bound to occur sometime in the late summer of 2006 has most observers salivating like well its Thanksgiving. Until that happens, though, heres to Ortiz and White sitting down to their bountiful Thanksgiving table and sharing in the cornucopia that is Zuffas success while dining on a lovely Sherdog.com Turkey.
Makes you all warm and fuzzy, doesnt it?
KOTC
Dont get us wrong, King of the Cage is a fine organization, but once in a while it tends to get a bit hyperbolic. Case in point, the greatest event since PT Barnum traveled this great country: KOTC Payback.
Headlined by a fight between two washout NFL players Michael Westbrook and Jarrod Bunch "Payback" attempted to do what no other mixed martial arts card had ever done before in North America: pass itself off Toughman as MMA.
Lost in the shuffle of some pretty good fights, Payback instead focused on the shameless part of the promotion: the NFL fight and a disastrous effort by Eric Esch (Pictures), aka Butterbean.
KOTC promoters promised unparalleled coverage among mainstream sports outlets. It got some, but hardly anything earth shattering. And promised highlights on ESPNs SportsCenter never materialized. Though, truth be told, ESPN was on hand in Cleveland State Universitys Convocation Center to witness the grand experiment of inexperienced former football players fighting in a cage.
How ESPN didnt lead its Emmy-award winning broadcast that February night with KOTC highlights, well never know. This Thanksgiving, KOTC gets the biggest, juiciest most wonderful Turkey of all time*. Its well deserved boys. Keep up the great work!
*Sherdog.com cannot guarantee the size or juiciness of promised Turkey.
Mainstream Media
While we bow our heads and pray that someday we may be considered as wise and important as our mainstream media big brothers, we cant let em get away with everything. So, Time and Sports Illustrated and just about everyone else, listen here: GET THE STORY RIGHT, WOULD YOU!
I digress.
Lets get a few things straight: Dana White and the boys at Zuffa had as much to do with the making of mixed martial arts rules as we know them today as the Sherdog.com staff had in creating Magnum Condoms.
For those of you still confused (and its not the easiest metaphor to get), that basically means that Dana and Co. had nothing to do with MMA rules in New Jersey, which promoted sanctioned MMA before Zuffa was anything more than a word thrown around by street kids in Naples, or anywhere else for that matter.
And thats no crime, thats just the truth. YET, bastions of journalism like Time and SI, which in 2005 ran feature stories on the UFC, purported it was Zuffa that came along and saved all of us from ourselves. Apparently, MMA would be the pastime of drug addicts and pedophiles if it wasnt for the philanthropic company based in the Nevada desert.
Furthermore, numerous daily newspapers in this country have written similar pieces without, it seems, checking their facts. No wonder the UFC prefers this brand of reporting to media that actually knows what its talking about.
Two roasted Guinea Pigs are to be sent to Time and SI with the note, Enjoy these wonderful Thanksgiving Turkeys, as even though they look and taste nothing like turkey, this message is surely enough to convince you otherwise. Now eat up.
Rafiel Torre
A break from the levity. Theres hardly a situation where it would be less appropriate to make light of something. Rafiel Torre took someones life, and for those, like myself, who knew the man, its still chilling.
The former PRIDE broadcaster was found guilty of murder in August, using a technique hed trained during his time in the gym. Think of it. Utterly Disgusting.
We like to think of MMA as an island, where what we do leaves the outside world unaffected. But as the sport grows, this just simply isnt reality. Its both fortunate and amazing that Torres trial did not garner more national media coverage.
If theres a bad guy on the list, its Torre, whose turkey will most surely be canned just like him.