Make your pick for the biggest robbery of 2018 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 2018. 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 eight 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 2018. 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, it really wasn’t that bad. There are links to the play-by-play of all five fights for your reading pleasure if you’re interested.
*Media info via MMADecisions.com
Darren Till over Stephen Thompson via unanimous decision, UFC Liverpool
Three media members had this for till. A whopping 22 had it for Wonderboy, and 10 of them (including me) had it 49-46 Thompson. Not a single media member had it 49-46 Till. Two judges did. It was bonkers. Shockingly, it was in Till’s hometown.
Sergio Moraes over Tim Means via split decision, UFC Belem
13 of the media had Means. 1 had Moraes. To be fair, I thought this one was close. Moraes clearly won the first and Means clearly won the third. The second was a toss-up, but most had it for Means (as did I, ultimately).
Michelle Waterson over Cortney Casey via split decision, UFC Glendale
This one was 16-1 for Casey in the media scorecards. The rounds seemed somewhat close but decisive. The first was the swing round, and it seems that two judges went Waterson while literally everyone else went Casey. Oh well.
Said Nurmagomedov over Justin Scoggins via split decision, UFC Boise
Not a single media member out of 17 had it for Nurmagomedov. Four had it 30-27, 13 had it 29-28. Scoggins won the first with activity and dropped Nurmagomedov in the second, clearly taking that frame. Nurmy had a good two minutes of top time in the third but did nothing with it. I had it 29-28 Scoggins, clearly. Judges? Nope.
Rustam Khabilov over Kajan Johnson via split decision, UFC Moscow
Only one media member out of the 13 polled leaned towards Khabilov in this one. It ended up being Johnson’s last fight in the UFC. Johnson controlled the first and third with his kicks and kept Khabilov at bay. Khabilov did win the second with some top time and ended the fight on top, but it seemed to be pretty obviously 29-28 for Johnson. But they were in Russia – so that’s not how it went.