Author: Scott Harris

What follows is a list of 10 people I think would be good guest referees in the UFC. But before you dismiss this list as just another exercise in slideshow-based frivolity, I’d like you to ask yourself one question:

Would I want one of these guys as my referee, or would I prefer Steve Mazzagatti?

Not so frivolous anymore now, is it? Slideshows: part of the solution. Read on. 

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I believe Strikeforce should be the Triple-A UFC. Why the false competition? Just call it all what it is and start letting the two entities help each other.

Just to seed that conversation a little bit, because I know Dana White and Scott Coker are absolutely reading this, here are 12 fighters on the Strikeforce roster who make sense as UFC entrants.

Admittedly, I made some of these decisions on a gut level. This isn’t just a list of the 12 best fighters in Strikeforce. It’s guys I thought, for one reason or another, had both fully earned a shot in MMA‘s major league and made sense for the promotion in a matchup and/or marketability context. So maybe call them the 12 most UFC-ready “properties” in Strikeforce. 

As a delightful added bonus, I’ve also included one Strikeforce alum you can ship back. Go ahead…guess who it is.

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There are no competent broadcasters working in sports media today, at least if the Internet is to be believed.

Joe Buck? A pompous windbag. Jim Nantz? A simpering suit. Jon Gruden? An insufferable sycophant. And the worst part is, none of them Know the Game the way you Know the Game.

This article is about some of those broadcasters. And yet, I’ve come today not to bury Caeser, but to praise him. For the most part, anyway.

I think a lot of them get a bad rap. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I feel bad for them—after all, it’s a pretty decent gig. But I do think they make for something of an overeasy target.

Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan, the cornerstone announcers of the UFC, are no exception. As you may be aware, MMA and UFC opinions run rather hot on the web, where discussion board warriors grow strong and thick on a diet of Goldie blood and Fedor Emelianenko memories.  

I lost my train of thought. Right, so Goldberg and Rogan are wacky, maybe a little sloppy, perhaps a little stilted in one way or another. Maybe they don’t Know the Game the way you do. But by and large, I think they’re pretty good, and getting better.

Regardless, it looks like Joe and Mike are the UFC’s A team for the foreseeable future. So how do they stack up against a cross-section of the nation’s most visible sports broadcasting talent?  

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Dear MMA fighters mentioned in this slideshow,

What follows has nothing whatsoever to do with your capacities in combat sports. In fact, I’m a fan of each and every one of you. That’s kind of my thing, actually. I’m a fan.

And while it may seem at first like I am insulting you here, I come to you today as a friend, with one simple message.

You can do better.

It’s your entrance song. It just…it’s just not getting it done. And hey, I realize there are more important things on your mind. You don’t come to the arena to listen to music; you come to fight. Good thing I’m here, then, because there is nothing more important on my mind.

First thing’s first: If someone selected that entrance song for you, go ahead and fire them. Pick up the phone and do it now. They’ll thank you one day. I’m almost sure of it. And if you selected the song yourself, well, consider this the first day of the rest of your life. 

If you do these things, if you really commit, maybe one day your entrance song will no longer find itself here, on a list of the five biggest cliches in the world of MMA fighter entrance music.

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