Social media can be fun … amiright?
With 2022 in the books and 2023 now upon us it’s time for some half-baked “reflection.” Indeed, mixed martial arts (MMA) in 2022 had many memorable moments and, of course, it was all over Twitter. Well, we were on it and will share what our most popular tweets of 2022 ended up being. (Spoiler alert: people love Nate Diaz)
No. 1
3,343 Retweets | 492 Quote Tweets | 37.3K Likes
Our top tweet of 2022 was a hilarious clip between former heated rivals Chael Sonnen and Anderson Silva. Silva simply wanted to know why Sonnen never showed up to his barbecue … and Sonnen answered (more details here).
Anderson Silva asks Chael Sonnen why he never to his house for BBQ and Chael answers pic.twitter.com/eb9m2tLEWp
— MMA mania (@mmamania) September 12, 2022
No. 2
3,343 Retweets | 492 Quote Tweets | 37.3K Likes
Our next biggest tweet was an old-school .gif that has survived several forums:
“Eight years ago today, someone threw a skateboard in the Octagon during the main event.”
The tweet is a classic edit of Mauricio Rua slipping on a skateboard while in the Octagon and then getting knocked out by Ovince Saint Preux. The original fight is from a 2014 main event scrap between “OSP” and “Shogun” that lasted just 34 seconds.
The most shocking thing about this viral tweet was that people thought it was real — yikes.
8 years ago today, someone threw a skateboard in the octagon during the main eventpic.twitter.com/H1znim5Pot
— MMA mania (@mmamania) November 8, 2022
No. 3
3,417 Retweets | 701 Quote Tweets | 25.8K Likes
Our third most popular tweet is everyone’s favorite Stockton, Calif., fighter and his smoke session in front of a United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) employee (more details here). In short, Diaz did not want to give any more pee to the USADA employee and filmed it all for the world.
Nate Diaz not giving a fuck while USADA is trying to get more piss pic.twitter.com/s8FDPg6vPS
— MMA mania (@mmamania) August 26, 2022
No. 4
1,571 Retweets | 212 Quote Tweets | 20.2K Likes
Coming in fourth is a video of Michael Chandler talking to his son with an ice mask on, just days after his bloodbath scrap with Dustin Poirier at UFC 281 inside Madison Square Garden. It is a call back to him doing the exact thing after his epic war with Justin Gaethje.
With the way Chandler fights, I’m sure we will be getting some more videos of him and an ice mask.
Michael Chandler is back with the ice mask pic.twitter.com/FfZ0F9KvLO
— MMA mania (@mmamania) November 15, 2022
Best Submissions 2022 | Best KOs 2022 | Best Fights 2022 | Best Fighters 2022 | Best Events 2022
No. 5
2,037 Retweets | 324 Quote Tweets | 17.2K Likes
Our fifth and final most popular tweet of 2022 is another Diaz clip.
After the shake-up madness of UFC 279 — but before his pay-per-view (PPV) main event fight against Tony Ferguson — Diaz was talking with UFC reporter, Megan Olivi, and all of a sudden, he bashed The Rock’s sponsored shoes saying, “these shoes f—-king suck.“
It was a perfect Diaz moment and went along with his anti-establishment mindset.
Nate Diaz is not a fan of The Rock’s shoes pic.twitter.com/362whl5uZ0
— MMA mania (@mmamania) September 10, 2022
Thank you for a fantastic 2022, Maniacs, and be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. You won’t regret it.