We’re about to win at IRONY!
TOP SCORE!!!
We should probably feel sad about the fact that we live in a country where people get more passionate about voting for the winner of a reality show than they do for voting for their school board representatives. Or that many of you have probably quoted “the Founding Fathers™” inaccurately in a typo-ridden Facebook rant at some point in your lives. Or that many of you don’t know when this year’s presidential election is, yet have already voted for the awards we’re about to shamelessly plug.
But if we did that, then we might miss out on one of these fighters winning an ESPY. We wouldn’t want that, would we? Didn’t think so.
Yesterday, voting opened for this year’s ESPY Awards, which will air live on ESPN on July 11 at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles. While MMA fighters may not be eligible for “Male/Female Athlete of the Year” (Ronda Rousey is not impressed), our sport finds itself represented in two categories.
Obviously, “Best Fighter” has UFC athletes Anderson Silva and Jon Jones up for nomination, along with boxing’s Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Andre Ward. An MMA fighter has never won “Best Fighter” since the category’s inception (?!), but with Floyd Mayweather being broken by jail and Anderson Silva fighting two days before the voting ends, this year may very well give us an MMA fighter winning this category, like God intended.
Also of note, Edson Barboza’s third-round wheel kick knockout of Terry Etim at UFC 142 is up for “Best Play of the Year”. Voting in this category is 16 seed tournament-style, with the first eight matchups having a voting period ending on Tuesday. The winners advance to an Elite Eight round from July 3-9, and voters will have all of July 9th to pick the winner from the final four plays to advance.
This round, Barboza’s wheel kick KO is matched up against a freaking golf highlight. We can’t possibly let ourselves lose to golf, can we? Then click here to vote for Edson Barboza, and click here to vote for the other categories, including “Best Fighter”. Go out and make your voices heard!