Make your pick for the biggest robbery of 2017 in Bloody Elbow’s Year-End Awards.
It’s back!
Over the next few days, Bloody Elbow is going to ask for your opinion on some of the best things that have happened in the MMA world over the course of 2017. There will be a total of eight different categories you’ll be asked to vote on. For the sake of simplicity we’re going to stick with high-level and relevant MMA stuff in these posts. While I’m sure there was a ludicrous knockout in an unscheduled MMA event at The Lumberyard strip club in Des Moines, or an insane pancreas lock submission on an obscure ZST! card in Japan, let’s just stick to stuff a lot of us have seen, okay? (If that spiel looked familiar, it’s because I’ve used the same one for seven years in a row. Originality? What originality?)
It’s pretty simple. I’ll post 5-10 options in a category, you vote for what you think was the best. If you think I left something really important off my list, post it in the comments and we can add it to the poll if it’s deemed worthy. I can almost guarantee you won’t like all my suggestions, but narrowing down these lists is tough.
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s get onto the second poll – the biggest robbery of 2017. As usual in MMA, there was a fair amount of controversial decisions this year, and these are nominees are the worst of the bunch. To be honest though, 2017 has been a lot better than others years.
If you don’t like my choices, I still don’t think you guys can be as salty as Al Iaquinta was when he “won” this award two years ago.
Raphael Assuncao over Marlon Moraes, UFC 212 – To me, this was an extremely close contest between two evenly-matched opponents. It looked like Moraes won two rounds though, and 16 of 17 media members agreed. But two judges did not, and it went the other way.
Tyron Woodley over Stephen Thompson, UFC 209 – This is one where it’s not so much that the wrong person won – it’s that no one should have won. The bout should have been a draw. It was an absolutely dreadful fight, but Wonderboy was the only one doing anything in rounds 1, 2, and 4. Woodley clearly won round two and should have been awarded a 10-8 fifth, but only one judge saw it that way. Two other judges inexplicably gave Woodley the second round, securing the decision for him.
Joe Lauzon over Marcin Held, UFC Fight Night 103 – This one was just plain awful. Held quite clearly won the second and third, and the first was close. Lauzon just did not win two rounds. No way. Not a single media member believed Lauzon won. Yet, once again, two judges believed he did (with the other judge giving Held a 30-27 score).
Anderson Silva over Derek Brunson, UFC 208 – Does any non-Brazilian really think Anderson won this fight? Sure, a few media members leaned his way (4 of 24 to be exact). But even Silva himself didn’t think he won before the cards were announced. It was a total farce on a night with a few curious scores.
Volkan Oezdemir over Ovince Saint Preux, UFC Fight Night 104 – Personally, I had Oezdemir winning a close fight here. But I was one of only two media members that did. Most thought OSP took the final two rounds. It’s kind of crazy to see where Oezdemir is now after arguably getting lucky in his first UFC bout.