It is a rivalry as old as American sports. Well, at least since professional sports teams moved out west.
Whether it be college or professional football, basketball, baseball or even horse racing; the main rivals in this country seem to be the west coast vs the east coast.
When Nate Diaz walked out to “Still Ballin” by Tupac Skakur, (a song that among other things talks about pride for the westside and being from California) in his opponent Jim Miller’s hometown of East Rutherford, New Jersey, it seemed as if there may be some “West Coast vs East Coast” tension brewing in MMA too.
Sooner or later this rivalry had to start. Which coast produces the better fighters? Are their unique styles associated with where a fighter’s from? Or is MMA different from other sports because it is an individual sport and fighters come from all over the globe?
Is there any way to settle who is really better? Of course there isn’t an exact science, but what if there was a way to try to tally up a score to see which coast has the supreme MMA fighters?
There are going to be some gray/controversial areas in this competition. Logistics can be a controversial topic because what parts of the country exactly constitute as the West Coast and the the East Coast?
Does a fighter like Rampage who was born and raised in Tennessee, but became an MMA fighter while training and living in Irvine, California, count as west or east?
Are we counting Canada? Do Brazil, Japan, the UK and Eastern Europe have similar geographical rivalries?
There are several ways to do this, however, I developed a scoring system to try to settle a little bit of the score. So when you’re done with the slideshow, let me know what you think of the system and how I could make it better.
Enjoy…