Q. What have you done?
A. Created a monster. A monster of time-killing tedium, but a labor of love! It is my own Top-300 fights of the calendar year of 2012, ranked in order.
Q. How the? What the?
A. Yeah…
Q. How complete is it? You can’t possibly have watched every fight that’s taken place this year.
A. Pretty damned close to every one. If there was any film at all of a card, I watched every minute of it. Cards from all over the world, some with four people in attendance, some that appear to have taken place in a WWII bunker with a single swinging lightbulb as if someone is getting interrogated. Hundreds of cards were watched, thousands of fights.
Q. Wow! You must be real popular with the ladies!
A. Eat shit.
Q. What are your criteria for rank?
A. I graded each fight I watched on:
1. Striking: How well and actively both fighters were utilizing striking, be it on the feet, on the ground, or in the clinch.
2. Grappling: How well and actively both fighters were utilizing grappling, both in the submission game, evading submissions, and control, including clinchwork.
3. Activity: How active were both fighters in their offense and defense? Did it have a purpose or were they just flailing for no reason? Because those are awful.
4. Excitement: Was the fight exciting to someone with a knowledge of the sport. Not neccessarily a slugfest, although those count too, but interesting and fun from a technical, strategical, and dramatic point of view as well.
5. “Oh shit!” Moments: Did the fight have any moments that made you, well, say “oh shit!”. Not the most scientific of scores, I’ll concede, but who doesn’t love a good “Oh shit!” moment?
6. Fighting Spirit: A sentiment cribbed from puroresu and a nod to our friends in the Orient. How much did the fighters give in the cage/ring/bunker? Did they leave it all out there? Did they give you your money’s worth? To what extent?
Q. Why 300?
A. Good a number as any, I suppose. Last year, I gave this project a trial run, wanted to do 250, only ended up at 235. So I figured I could make 300 this year with that under my belt.
Q. So what now?
A. Over the course of the week, I’ll be rolling out monthly look-backs as a primer and we’ll get down to the list in a few days!
Q. Best Queen album?
A. The Game.
Q. Seriously?
A. Yeah, top-to-bottom. Even though it doesn’t have any of my favorites, just rock-solid.
Q. Which fight was #1?
A. No ma’am! You’ll have to wait and see. It’s not who you expect, though. Haven’t seen it top many (any?) lists.
Q. Where can I keep track of all these?
A. They’ll be listed, in order, in the Top-300 section on Undercard Superstar above me here on the header. One-stop for all of my social-killing neurotic projects!
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