Remember when Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) released its official fighter rankings earlier this week and broke the interwebz?
Well, that's the kind of thing that happens when you have a bunch of media members, who don't know much about mixed martial arts (MMA), scribbling down names and numbers just to get free steaks at the UFC press conferences.
That's according to light heavyweight number one contender (cough) Chael Sonnen, who slammed the "official" rankings on a recent edition of UFC Tonight:
"I never understood what the fascination is with putting a number next to someone's name. I did this my entire tenure of college with girls I dated and I can assure you it never ended well. First and foremost, when people judge (other) people it's never fair. You got a bunch a media guys who really don't know a ton about the sport and every time you say that they take it as a huge insult but the reality is they don't. They go into a press conference with one thing, they hear the boss Dana White say something, they change their rankings on the spot so they can get into that big steak dinner the UFC hands out with the press conference. Let's make sure we understand how they came to be."
To see the rankings for each weight class click here.
The legitimacy of the MMA media has been heavily debated over the past 10 years due to what some fans and fighters cite as a lack of journalistic credentials, perhaps forgetting that until very recently, anyone considered a "real" journalist or sports reporter wouldn't be caught dead taking a UFC story to their editor.
You had to make due with what you had.
The punchline is that recent imports from other sports do have the credentials to call themselves journalists, but lack the knowledge of MMA to make an educated contribution. But hey, those free steaks sure are yummy! The good news is, you still have guys like Nostradumbass to kick around, who stinks as a journalist AND doesn't know anything about MMA.
But as long as you keep laughing at my corny dick jokes, I'll always have a job!