Best of the Best: MMAmania.com's UFC/MMA week in review (9/29/13)

Welcome, Maniacs, to the sixty-third edition of "This Week in MMAmania.com."

MMAmania is a gigantic and glorious place and we pump out a ridiculous amount of content. If you don't refresh this site every 60 minutes, you might just miss something amazing.

Have no fear, that's what this weekly article is all about! We'll recap the best of all things MMAmania, whether it be a great comment, FanPost, article, video or something else.

Comment of the week: So, Mama Ronda Rousey appeared on The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 18: "Rousey vs. Tate" on Wednesday evening, and in anticipation of that appearance, Mania writer Jesse Holland dutifully sought out the blog of Ann Maria Rousey DeMars. In her blog she wrote about her appearance on the show, shooting back at fans who called her daughter a "crybaby."

And the "fans" didn't take too kindly to her scolding:

sorry mrs. Rousey but you little girl is a phsyco-brat cry baby -- biggant

Ah heck, this week is a first place tie for best comment, because another Maniac nails it lower down in the thread comments:

Proof that being annoying is hereditary. -- Armando Baez

Honorable mention comment of the week: Personally, I was giddily delighted when Yushin Okami was cut from Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) despite the fact he's clearly among the Top 10, if not top five, Middleweight fighters in the world, rather recently competing for a world title. He's kind of a grinder with no power and little flash. But, not all fans felt the same, which is understandable.

After all, we have a diversity of opinion here at MMAmania.com (even some silly people who think Carlos Condit actually beat Nick Diaz, if you can believe that one):

That is just one aspect of why this was a poor decision. Dana White says Okami "couldn't get over the hump," meanwhile he's 3-1 in his last four, with wins over Belcher & Lombard, both of whom were being pushed as potential title contenders at the time.

Sure, he got stormed & put away by Tim Boetsch, but it was a fight that he was clearly winning. Prior to this, his first loss in sometime was his title fight with Anderson Silva.

Okami has been a perennial contender for years, and worked twice as hard as most for his title shot, as the UFC clearly didn't want to give him one. So, yes, he's been a gatekeeper in the sense that he knocks off a bunch of contenders to whom the UFC would rather grant a title shot, but unfortunately for them, can't stop the takedown consistently enough to deserve one.

The UFC was once about the best fighting the best. Now, they'd rather cut a top ten fighter because they don't like his style, while keeping guys who will never come close to a title shot, but fight like they're in a bar. Sure, wrestling can be boring to watch at times, but it's supposed to be a SPORT. MMA was built upon a concept that welcomed all styles, not just the ones that were aesthetically pleasing. Thanks. -- Joey 121

Good comment Joey. It actually sounds like you wanted to write a blog post about this based on how long it was.

Speaking of which, it's time for our Fanpost of the Week: A late entry by the nicest guy on MMAmania.com (may as well just give him the Scottidog good guy award every week), just in case you feel like you don't spend enough time with fellow Maniacs, you can always hook up via the latest, greatest violent blood-letting video game. Not only does this post give you a chance to network with other people who have the same homicidal tendencies, reading the comments could not give you a better sense of the close-knit community that exists here.

Our Article of the Week is also a kind of late-breaker: Look, I know these things are all subjective and you might think something else is more worthy of attention (and if so, e-mail me next time), but Jesse Holland's breakdown of everything that's going on in the UFC's constitutional challenge to New York state's ban on mixed martial arts (MMA) can be found within. There's also some considerably interesting discussion in the comments, too.

Interview of the Week: Not that the interview itself is mindblowing, but Jesse Holland (that guy AGAIN!) shared an excerpt from our "fine friends over at MMA Fighting" regarding the real reason Anderson Silva lost to Chris Weidman at UFC 162. Not only did it lead to a lot of groaning and moaning in the comments section, it produced one of the finest placed .gifs in the history of the Interwebs:

Speaking of gifs, the .gif of the week has to be Joe Warren's spectacularly bad spinning back kick from last week's Bellator 101:

Photoshop of the Week: It was a good week to be a fan of funny photoshops around here, mainly because OilCheck went a little bit overboard and spent many an hour inserting faces in places they shouldn't be. The best result comes at the expense of Chuck Liddell, inspired by his comments about Georges St. Pierre being a really boring fighter:

If you can't get enough of Photoshops, OilCheck created two fanposts dedicated to them. The first one involves fellow Maniacs (share your photo at your own risk and peril) and the second is devoted entirely to Mike Pierce, who looks ridiculous:

Statistic of the Week: The No. 1 most read article on MMAmania.com this past week was Dana White's explanation for canning Yushin Okami (It actually might be this, pending official verification).

Video of the Week: I know that everybody wanted to see the real/fake video of Chael Sonnen being confronted by Wanderlei Silva (who just happened to have a video recording up right away and just happened to have people holding him back and just happened to have a prepared speech about it), but it's not my pick of the week. No, that honour goes to a relatively obscure Slovenian fight, which quickly turns into a bloodbath:

Time for our Burn of the Week: This one is a little cruel, but if it wasn't then it wouldn't quite be an MMAmania.com classic, would it? First the context: Floyd Mayweather is apparently using the path of prayer to help Anderson Silva in his much anticipated rematch with champion Chris Weidman. Religion talk led to mention of the Amish, which of course led to Court McGee 's beard-ly resemblance.

That led to this:

his most impressive victory
Was over heroin addiction. -- christophermun

But, seriously, kids, heroin is not a laughing matter.

Bravest/dumbest comment of the week: I literally made up this category because I have to give props to OilCheck for daring to challenge 265-pound monster Travis Browne to a fight, with the winner taking his girlfriend Jenna Renee. Not only did Jenna take the bait, she cut Travis from the conversation:

That's a winking heart-shaped kiss she's blowing at OilCheck, in case you can't make it out. As for Jenna, she's a good segue into our ...

Obligatory TNA of the Week: Jenna Renee is a fitness model and personal fitness trainer with a kickin' bod. And if you don't believe me, drop the name into Google or Bing:

Now that I've plugged OilCheck's Twitter account (viewer discretion greatly advised), it's time for our #MMAmania Tweet of the Week:

"Opponent TBD" kinda looks like Thiago Alves. Also looks to be the most well rounded fighter in the UFC. http://t.co/jZ3uUWvbz9 -- Matthew Roth (@MattRoth512) October 2, 2013

If you want to catch any good tweets from your Mania writers, here are our accounts: Thomas Myers, Jesse Holland, Matthew Roth, Adam Guillen Jr., C.J. Tuttle, Andrew Richardson, George Halvatsis Jr., Michael Stets, Jason Probst and Cory Braiterman.

Let's finish this week's "Best of the Best" off with a little friendly debate, as per usual. Which overrated knockout machine is more likely to leave town after Chris Leben throws down with Uriah Hall? Leben used to be one of my most favorite fighters in the world, but years of abuse to his body has left him slow, plodding and on a huge losing streak (four losses in his past five fights).

But Uriah Hall seems cursed since joining UFC, losing a split decision to the undersized Kelvin Gastelum (who has since dropped down to 170 pounds) and following that up with another split decision to John Howard.

The good news is that Chris Leben is the last guy in the world likely to take him down, so unless Hall double legs "The Crippler," this should be a #bangfest.

That's it for this week. Did I miss something? Were you hoping to see an article, blog post, or photos that didn't get in? Well then email me.

No, seriously, email me: unambig at gmail.com.