#been a while but ill probably be around for the undercard at least

[cloacacarnage]

[aion-rsa]

25 Best Sports TV Shows

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Sports stories have traditionally belonged to the movies. Something about the rhythms of competition, in which an athlete or team trains, plays, and then either wins or loses, is a natural fit for the film world’s three act structure.

Television, with its multiple episodes and seasons, is often more discursive and therefore less viable for truly great sports stories. Thankfully, that all seems poised to change. While some sports TV shows have found success in the past, now the medium has really kicked things up a notch. Sports stories like Brockmire, Ted Lasso, Cobra Kai, and more are not only welcome on television, but an essential part of the cable and streaming landscape. 

Read more

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With that in mind, it’s high time we pay homage to TV’s great sports programs. What follows is a list of 25 of the best sports TV shows of all time, hand selected by Den of Geek (i.e. me: the arms-crossed weirdo in the picture at the bottom of this article). 

It’s important to keep in mind that these are the best scripted sports TV shows. Television is, of course, no stranger to live sports and the various programs that surround them. Consider these unscripted American sports shows as honorable mentions: Hard Knocks, Last Chance U, Ken Burns’ Baseball, The Last Dance (and most other 30-for-30s), Cheer, Inside the NBA.

Enough of the undercard, now onto the main event. 

25. Red Oaks

Amazon Prime’s Red Oaks examines the bougie tennis lifestyle of the 1980s. It all comes through the lens of David Myers (Craig Roberts), a college student looking to pick up some cash by taking a summer job at an upscale Jewish country club in New Jersey. Sports stories and coming-of-age stories fit particularly well because the end goal of each one is usually growth. It’s hard to say whether David grows during his time at Red Oaks, but he certainly changes over the series’ three seasons. 

24. The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers

A TV show based on Disney sports movie behemoth franchise The Mighty Ducks was all but an inevitability, particularly when the major conglomerate secured its own streamer in Disney+. We’re all lucky then that The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers turned out to be quite good rather than completely perfunctory. The show is bold enough to recast its Ducks’ franchise as the villains and to rally around the radical idea that youth sports should be fun. 

23. One Tree Hill

At first glance, One Tree Hill doesn’t seem too different from the other teen shows of its era on The CW (though The CW was still “The WB” for One Tree Hill’s first two seasons). It’s about high schoolers in a small town, doing high school things. Where One Tree Hill excels (at least in its early, still high school seasons) is the introduction of basketball as a storytelling crutch. Half brothers Lucas (Chad Michael Murray) and Nathan Scott (James Lafferty) have a turbulent enough relationship to begin with. What better way to contextualize that relationship than through the high stakes lens of high school basketball?

22. Lights Out

Not to be confused with the 2016 horror film of the same name, Lights Out is a boxing series from FX that ran for one excellent season in 2011. Holt McCallany (best known now as Agent Bill Tench on Mindhunter) stars as retired heavyweight champion Patrick “Lights” Leary. Despite displaying signs of neurological trauma from his career, Lights can’t help but want to return to the ring for one more shot of glory (and to pay off his family’s many debts). Lights Out is a sad, elegiac little story about how one man who sees a sport that broke his brain as the only realistic option for success. 

21. Big Shot

Big Shot premiered shortly after its bigger-named Disney+ cousin The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers. And while Game Changers made a slightly bigger splash, Big Shot might be the better sports show. The story follows Marvyn Korn (John Stamos), a tempermental basketball coach who ends up at an elite all-girls prep school to shepherd its basketball program. Big Shot runs through all the tried and true tropes and beats of sports stories and does so with aplomb. Consider it Hardball meets Hoosiers with plenty of Stamos charm. 

20. Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper

Sports are somewhat incidental to Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper’s mission. Sure, lead character Mr. Cooper (Mark Curry) is a former Golden State Warriors basketball player turned PE teacher. But like its TGIF programming block peers, this show is a charming hangout comedy with few lasting conflicts to speak of. Still, you don’t spend that much time in a gym without some three-pointers and lay-ups. 

19. Coach

Before Craig T. Nelson was Mr. Incredible (or made this truly amazing televised statement), he was best known for portraying the title role in ‘90s ABC sitcom Coach. In fact, many of our archetypical perceptions of what makes a football coach likely come from Nelson’s portrayal of Coach Hayden Fox (who first coached for a fictional NCAA football team and later an NFL one). This is a man whose skill at molding young athletes belies his lack of skill at…well, everything else. Ultimately, Coach is a worthwhile multiseason experience in which a grown man grows up.

18. Kingdom

Kingdom is probably the best sports TV show that you’ve never heard of. Don’t worry, it’s not your fault. That’s just the kind of thing that happens when a show is damned to languish on AT&T’s ludicrous “Audience Network”. Kingdom is set in an MMA gym and captures all the drama provided in the heightened world of mixed martial arts combat. The show is blessed with some great characters and an even better cast. Frank Grillo (Captain America’s most annoying foe, Brock Rumlow), Kiele Sanchez (Lost), Matt Lauria (Friday Night Lights), Jonathan Tucker, (Justified)  and Nick Jonas (yes, that Nick Jonas) all make their mark on the series.

17. The White Shadow

Premiering in 1978, CBS’s The White Shadow was uncommonly progressive for its time. The series follows Ken Reeves (Ken Howard), a white NBA player who retires after a knee injury and elects to take up coaching at Carver High School in South Central Los Angeles. Coach Reeves’s team is made up primarily of Black and Hispanic players and the show deals with the social ills of life in the inner city. It’s also quite funny and charming and features a commitment to realistic basketball scenes.

16. The League

FX comedy The League works as a sports show (and as a TV show in general) because it has a deep understanding of sports from a fan’s perspective. Sure, fans watch collegiate and professional sports to marvel at the athleticism, training, and skill on display. But more importantly, they watch sports to have something to talk about with their friends. Though the participants in the titular fantasy football league at the center of The League grew up as friends, who’s to say they would have stayed friends so long without this league keeping them together? Ruxin (Nick Kroll) is an asshole. Andre (Paul Scheer) is annoying. And Taco (Jon Lajoie) is, well…Taco.

15. Rocket Power

If the ‘90s taught us anything it’s that extreme sports are sports too, man! Rocket Power is a lovely little slice of life Nick Toon that follows four kids in a fictional California surfing community. Otto Rocket, Reggie Rocket, Maurice “Twister” Rodriguez, and Sam “Squid” Dullard spend their days skateboarding, surfing, playing street hockey, and occasionally snowboarding. It’s a wonderful ode to childhood and all the athletic activities that make the day (and years) go by far too quickly. 

14. Luck

If things shook out differently, perhaps Luck could have been considered one of the five or so best sports shows of all time. All of the pieces were in place. This 2012 HBO series had the right creative team (created and run by Deadwood’s David Milch and starring Dustin Hoffman with a pilot directed by Michael Mann) to go along with an intriguing premise (complicated characters’ lives intersecting at a horse track). But alas…the dead horses. Oh so many dead horses. Despite stringent safety measures put in place, Luck lost three hoof bois during filming of its first season and was canceled shortly thereafter. May they all rest in peace.

13. All American

High school is a turbulent time in all our lives. And when the high stakes world of competitive football is added in, things can only get more intense. The CW’s All American opts to take the world of high school football and opts to add in a welcome dose of sociopolitical commentary. This series is loosely based on the life of former New York Giants linebacker Spencer Paysinger and follows his character “Spencer James” as he is recruited from South L.A. to play for the affluent Beverly Hills High. The show wisely understands that sports (particularly when they involve Black teenagers) are a marvelous portal to explore American society. 

12. Pitch

Cruelly cut short after just one season of 10 episodes, Pitch is the kind of sports show that will inspire sports stories for years to come. This baseball series for Fox comes from Dan Fogelman (This Is Us) and Rick Singer. It follows the saga of Ginny Baker (Kylie Bunbury), who becomes the first woman to play in Major League Baseball when she’s called up to pitch by the San Diego Padres. Pitch was blessed with an excellent cast including Bunbury and Mark-Paul Gosselaar as a veteran catcher nearing the end of his Hall of Fame career. More interestingly, it was blessed with an actual MLB licensing deal. There are no silly fictional teams in this show like the Tuscaloosa Barn-Burners or the Helena Hellcats. It’s all real MLB team names and logos, adding to the realism of a cool premise.

11. Ballers

Of course, Elizabeth Warren’s favorite show has to be on this list. Ballers has a bit of an unearned reputation for being cringe thanks to its ridiculous name and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s delightful cornball energy. In reality, this is an exceedingly watchable TV show and one that examines the corporate side of professional sports quite well. It’s also noticeable for being most viewers’ introduction to eventual Tenet star John David Washington. 

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10. GLOW

Is professional wrestling a sport? Vince McMahon would argue that it’s “sports entertainment.” I would argue that that’s more than good enough to get the excellent GLOW on this list. GLOW tragically fell victim to Netflix’s whimsical cancellation procedures. Why the almighty algorithm decided a show needed to be canceled after it was already renewed is beyond me. But don’t let that sour three seasons of superb sportsy storytelling. GLOW follows the fictionalized rise of the very real “Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling” and it centers it on the conflict between two former best friends, Ruther Wilder (Alison Brie) and Debbie Eagen (Betty Gilpin). GLOW differs a bit from the usual sports fare in that the “sport” at its center wasn’t necessarily plan A for the athletes. But the experience of watching the ladies train, grow, and succeed is pure and sublime sports story stuff.

9. Cobra Kai

Cobra Kai absolutely could have been phoned in. The streaming world runs on nostalgia and there’s nothing more sweetly nostalgic than The Karate Kid franchise. Instead, this Netflix series changes the original franchise’s perspective by focusing on the “villainous” Cobra Kai dojo and re-examines things from Johnny’s point of view. Ralph Macchio and William Zabka deserve credit for embodying realistically adult, yet flawed versions of their original characters. Equally deserving of credit though is a whole host of young actors bringing the martial arts to a whole new generation. 

8. Blue Mountain State

A lot of the shows on this list are, let’s say, reverential to the sports, teams, and athletes they cover. Spike comedy Blue Mountain State is decidedly…not. This series, following the Mountain Goats football team for the fictional college Blue Mountain State, understands that not all depictions of athletes have to be saints. Sometimes college football player can just be the big dumb animals you want them to be. Through three seasons, this show developed a cult following that would follow it over for a lifetime of reruns on Netflix. Blue Mountain State is crass, dangerous, and entertaining, not entirely unlike football.

7. Sports Night

Speaking of being reverential to sports…like all Aaron Sorkin-created TV series, Sports Night can be a bit full of itself sometimes. That only works when the topic at hand, like the federal branch of the U.S. government, is consequential. Thankfully, sports can be pretty important sometimes too! This late ‘90s show follows the goings-on at a Sportscenter-esque news program hosted by Dan Rydell (Josh Charles) and Casey McCall (Peter Krause). It has all the witty dialogue you’d come to expect from a Sorkin venture. And if you can make your way through the inexplicable laugh track of the early episodes, you will find a mature, entertaining show that properly understands and contextualizes professional sports’ role in American society. 

6. Survivor’s Remorse

Survivor’s Remorse came into the world with two strikes against it. One is a bizarrely overwrought name, and the other is that its home network, Starz, isn’t a given on many cable packages. Still, this LeBron James-produced comedy is shockingly one of the best sports TV shows ever (and perhaps still the best creative venture James has been involved in yet). This story follows NBA athlete Cam Calloway (Jessie T. Usher) as he tries to balance the business and basketball aspects of his life. At first the show focuses on Cam’s guilt for having got out of his impoverished neighborhood when so many couldn’t (hence, the show’s title), but ultimately it evolves into a family comedy drama featuring some truly remarkable characters and performances like Cam’s cousin and manager Reggie Vaughn (RonReaco Lee) and his baller half-sister “M-Chuck” (Erica Ash). Even Monica Rambeau herself, Teyonah Parris, is a part of the proceedings. 

5. Playmakers

Sometimes I can’t even believe that Playmakers is real. Surely, this ESPN series about a fictional football team in a fictional league that is clearly the NFL was just a post-9/11 fever dream we all endured together. Alas, Playmakers was real and it was awesome. This series follows the players on the Cougars as they navigate a football landscape filled with ripped-from-the-headlines strife including Performance enhancing drugs, good old-fashioned drugs, domestic abuse, concussions, and more. The series even introduces the outing of a gay player more than a decade before Michael Sam and Carl Nassib revealed their sexual orientations. Naturally, Playmakers was canceled when the NFL intimated to its broadcast partner ESPN that it wasn’t too pleased with the content of its show. And enraging the National Football League alone is enough to make this an all-time classic.

4. Eastbound & Down

Eastbound & Down creator and star Danny McBride isn’t necessarily a huge fan of baseball. But he is, thankfully, a huge fan of weirdos and creeps. When McBride discovered just how bizarre and poorly behaved certain flamethrowing relief pitchers could be, Kenny Powers and the show around him was born. The baseball “action” in Eastbound isn’t much to write home about. The show isn’t too concerned with the results of any given baseball game and McBride always looks like he’s throwing a javelin and not a baseball. It’s still a phenomenal saga about athletes that dives into Paul Bunyan-esque tales of legendary misbehavior that fame encourages. It’s no coincidence that in the follow ups to Kenny Powers, McBride has delved into megalomaniacal vice principals and bejeweled, sweaty televangelists – all different aspects of the white American male id.

3. Ted Lasso

Of all the sports shows in the TV canon, none feels more like a traditional sports movie than Ted Lasso. This Apple TV+ series plucks an American football coach-fish and gently places him out of water in the English Premier League. The affable Lasso (Sudeikis) is charged with reversing the fortunes of EPL side AFC Richmond. Little does he know, however, that spiteful owner Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddington) is counting on him to fail, Major League style. Ted Lasso isn’t interested in reinventing the wheel. Instead it perfects it. This is a tale of relentless optimism and unconditional positive regard. Ted breaks the mold for what we expect from coaches, which is probably why so many actual coaches are fond of the show. Simply put: sports stories can’t be done much better than this one. 

2. Brockmire

Sometimes commentators like to bemoan the modern state of baseball. What was once American’s pastime has now supposedly fallen behind things like football and videogames in the pop cultural pecking order. Then along comes something like Brockmire to teach us that baseball as a continuous, seemingly eternal American presence is just as vital as ever. In a career-defining role, Hank Azaria plays disgraced baseball broadcaster Jim Brockmire. Once at the top of his game, an on-air drunken meltdown loses him his job and his sanity. In season 1 of this superb IFC show, Brockmire returns to the booth, this time for an independent league team in Morristown, Pennsylvania. The four seasons that follow are one big love letter to not only baseball, but the messy human experience itself. It’s rare that you get something this funny and this affecting. The fact that it’s wrapped in a stylish diamond-shaped bow is just icing on the cake. 

1. Friday Night Lights

Not only is Friday Night Lights the best sports TV show of all time, it’s hard to imagine it ever being supplanted from its throne. Simply put, Friday Night Lights is a sports television masterpiece. Each of Friday Night Lights’ five seasons (save for the writer’s strike-shortened second) fully capture the ecstasy and agony of high school football in a small Texas town where high school football is the only thing that matters. Friday Night Lights doesn’t shy away from the unsavory institution that is big time high school athletics.

The series opens with a life-changing injury before following it up with tales of corrupt boosters and garden variety West Texas racism. And yet, the show never looks down on its characters. If winning state is important to Coach Taylor (Kyle Chandler), Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford), Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch), Smash Williams (Gaius Charles), and Vince Howard (Michael B. Jordan), then it’s important to us too. In fact, when Friday Night Lights is really rolling and the W.G. Snuffy Walden’s Explosions in the Sky-style soundtrack is swirling, you might not recall anything ever mattering to you as much as the Dillon Panthers or the East Dillon Lions winning a football game. Clear eyes, full hearts, absolutely cannot lose.

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[wrestlingisfake]

G1 Climax B Block finals preview

Kenny Omega (12 points) vs. Kota Ibushi (10 points) - This is for 2 points in the G1 Climax tournament’s B block.  Omega’s IWGP heavyweight title is not at stake, although if he loses that would virtually guarantee Ibushi gets a title match later, regardless of who wins the G1 tournament.

I already ran through all the scenarios of who can win B block (to face the A block winner in the finals).  If Omega wins this match, he wins the block.  If Ibushi wins, then either Ibushi or Tetsuya Naito wins the block, depending on whether Naito loses his match.  If this match goes to a 30-minute draw, either Omega or Naito will win the block, depending on the outcome of the Naito match.

As far as I could determine this is the first one-on-one Omega/Ibushi match since August 2012, when Ibushi defeated Omega to retain the DDT championship, during their original run as the Golden Lovers tag team.  I haven’t seen the match, but people talk about it in awestruck tones, and the NJPW English announce team has alluded to Kota and Kenny refusing to rematch for fear that they would go too far trying to top it.  Watching both of them damn near kill themselves against other opponents, I can see why there’d be concern about them working with one another.  So the hype for this thing is off the charts, and it’ll be very difficult to live up to.

The Golden Lovers gimmick is that Omega and Ibushi aren’t just friends but in an ambiguous romantic relationship.  I mean, it’s not ambiguous to the fans, but the wrestlers themselves don’t directly spell it out and New Japan seems to actively avoid commenting on it.  Regardless, the idea is that Kenny was damaged and incomplete while the team was disbanded, but their reunion this year has turned everything around and contributed to Kenny winning the IWGP title.  What matters here, then, is that neither man wants to seriously harm the other, but they can’t go easy either, so we’ll be seeing a lot of mixed emotions beyond the usual “friends have to fight” match.

The “Bullet Club OG” group (Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa, and Bad Luck Fale) have basically made it their mission to ruin this tournament, especially where it concerns Omega and Ibushi.  They started out taking blatant disqualifications to protect one another from being pinned, but then they escalated to interfering in matches they had nothing to do with, and then to forcing a no-contest in the Omega/Young Bucks vs. Ibushi/Scurll/Owens match.  I can’t see this match ending in a draw or a double-disqualification, but the NJPW bookers clearly want the idea in your head.

Given the choice between Omega, Naito, and Ibushi to win B Block, I’d pick Ibushi just because I think that’d be more novel.  However, I’m increasingly thinking that Omega is going to pull off the big “win the G1 as reigning champion” feat.  One way or another, I think he’s going to come out on top here.

Tetsuya Naito (12 points) vs. Zack Sabre, Jr. (10 points) - Sabre is already mathematically eliminated from winning the block, and Naito will be too if Sabre wins this match.  If Naito wins, he’s still alive, but he needs Omega to lose or draw.  Even if this match goes to a time limit draw, Naito is still alive, but he needs Omega to just plain lose.  Sabre has scored some key wins to get him into the midcard title hunt, but I don’t see him beating Naito unless it’s necessary to set up a plot point in the Omega/Ibushi match.  And maybe it is, but since I’m not sure I gotta pick Naito to win.

Juice Robinson (4 points) vs. Hirooki Goto (6 points) - Robinson is the United States champion and Goto is the NEVER champion, but neither title is on the line.  Juice cannot strike with the “cast” on his left hand (more like a plastic splint wrapped in wrist tape) or he will be disqualified.

Robinson’s run this year has been interesting.  On the one hand, he’s stepped up his game since his G1 debut last year, and he’s a champion.  On the other hand, he suffered a (legit?) broken metacarpal a few weeks back, which is particularly disastrous because his specialty is his left-handed knockout punch.  Robinson gutted through the injury (and the added stip about the cast) to win the US title, but competing in the G1 is a longer, more relentless task.  After mounting losses (which translates into many future challengers), Juice started removing the cast to bring his knockout punch back into play, but that also increases his risk of aggravating the injury and prolonging his recovery time.  It’s a simple and delightfully effective storyline.

It’d be a nice feel-good moment for Juice to get one last victory to end on a high note, but this isn’t the part of the story for feel-good moments.  That will come later in the year, I think, when he has to defend the title against all the guys who beat him in this tour...but his hand will be 100% and he’ll be steamrolling through them.  (I hope.)  So for now, the right finish is for Goto to get the win.

Tomohiro Ishii (8 points) vs. SANADA (8 points) - Ishii always gets rave reviews for his G1 matches, but I can’t ever get fully invested in them because I always know he can’t actually win enough matches to constitute a push.  He does have a win over Kenny Omega and I’m sure he’ll get a title shot this fall, which will be well-received.  But I don’t believe for a second he’ll ever be IWGP champion, so it all feels kind of hollow.  Sanada is more or less in the same boat, though, so at least this match should be competitive.  It doesn’t matter who wins, really.

Tama Tonga (6 points) vs. Toru Yano (4 points) - Tama has basically stopped giving a shit about winning his matches or even trying to prevent the referee from noticing his rule-breaking.  Yano, on the other hand, has turned sneaking things past the ref into an art form.  In other words, they’ll both cheat like crazy, but Yano is more apt to get away with it, which means either Yano wins by DQ or Yano wins by sneaky pinfall or count-out.  The only thing working in Tama’s favor is that it’s a running gag that Yano acts like he’s literally a spooky demon or something.  Me too, Yano, me too.

Kazuchika Okada & YOSHI-HASHI & Gedo vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma - Okada and Tanahashi are coming off of their big match to determine the A Block, but the big story here is actually Honma, who suffered a neck injury during a March 2017 match, which nearly left him paralyzed and required surgery.  Honma returned to the ring a couple of months ago, but this is only the second match in his comeback.  This was originally going to be an eight-man tag with Elgin on the Tanahashi team and Jado on the CHAOS team, with the idea that Honma could seek revenge on Jado for the move that nearly left him paralyzed.  But Jado hurt his foot recently so he had to pulled from the tour.

I’m concerned Honma’s comeback is premature or ill-advised, and I’m not sure it’ll be much fun watching him work knowing how important it is to keep him safe.  You’d hope the other five guys can carry the match for him, but if that’s what it takes he probably shouldn’t be back in the ring yet.  Or maybe he’s really made incredible progress and he’s back to 100%. But I doubt it.  Honma should probably get the pin on Gedo, although I wouldn’t be surprised if they just have him set Gedo up for Makabe to finish him off.

EVIL & BUSHI vs. Minoru Suzuki & El Desperado - Just a random undercard tag match, doesn’t matter what happens.

Nick Jackson & Matt Jackson & Marty Scurll vs. Jay White & SHO & YOH - Scurll and the Young Bucks are the NEVER trios champions, but that title is not on the line here.  (Neither are all the other championships the Bucks currently have.)  This could get interesting since White has been teaming with Yoh, and treating him like shit, throughout this tour, but now he’s also teaming with Yoh’s regular partner Sho.  Also, Yoh and Sho’s coach, Rocky Romero, has been losing his fucking mind about White’s shenanigans on English commentary.  In theory a win for White’s team would put them in line for a trios title shot, but I can’t believe this trio can coexist for more than ten seconds.  That won’t stop White from trying to direct traffic, I would imagine.  The Bucks will probably pin Sho or Yoh after slapping their thighs a lot.

Bad Luck Fale & Tanga Loa vs. Hangman Page & Chase Owens - Page and Owens have been regular partners on this tour, but they’re kinda fucked against two of the Bullet Club OG group.  This is either gonna be a win for the Tongans or a DQ loss preceded by a savage mugging.

Michael Elgin & David Finlay vs. Toa Henare & Shota Umino - This was originally going to be Finlay vs. Henare, but Jado’s injury caused Elgin to get bumped from his match, so here we are.  If you’ve been listening to English commentary you’ll recall that there was some ironic hype about Finlay/Henare--which had been the one and only non-tournament singles match on the schedule--which was jokingly referred to as “C Block.”  So Kevin Kelly and Rocky Romero might be unusually jazzed for this one.  I’m pretty sure Finlay will just pin Umino, but watch the announcers treat it like Wrestlemania.

[thesportssoundoff]

“When In Doubt, Use Lightweights”  A UFC 216 Preview

Joey

October 2nd

Before I begin with the usual, I suppose I have to start by addressing the atrocities that occurred last night/this morning in Las Vegas. I lack a really eloquent way to simply say that this shit, every bit of it, really needs to stop. No matter your political beliefs, interpretation of the constitution, opinion on firearms or whatever, nobody should have to go to a place of entertainment with a cloud of "Am I going to survive tonight?" hanging over their heads. We should all be better than this shit. We should demand more from our representatives and one another. Thoughts and prayers are nice but some action in the other direction would be nice. Let's make this place a tolerable place to live in for a little while.

The UFC returns to Las Vegas and this is a very peculiar card. The buyrate, the true be all and end all which determines the success of a show, will probably not be through the roof. At the same time, the UFC is giving two new guys the opportunity to headline a PPV with a really solid developed undercard beneath it. Beyond that, there are guys who CAN be bigger stars sprinkled throughout the show. It's a really good show as of right now with potentially one more fight to get added for some good old fashioned depth. It's survived a few knocks which speaks to its depth thus far although we still have THE DREADED MID WEEK FIGHT CANCELLATION to worry ourselves about. If you've got some money laying around to spend on a show, one with two title fights, a shot at history, a HW fight for people who like big people and a very pivotal 155 lb fight is the sort of show you should be into.

Fights: 12

Debuts:  1 (Poliana Botelho)

Fight Changes/Injury Cancellations: 3 (Paige Van Zant vs Jessica Eye cancelled, Andrea Lee vs Kalindra Faria cancelled, Abel Trujillo OUT, Bobby Green IN vs Lando Vannata)

Headliners (fighters who have either main evented or co-main evented shows in the UFC): 12 (Tony Ferguson, Kevin Lee, Demetrious Johnson, Fabricio Werdum, Derrick Lewis, Evan Dunham, Beneil Dariush, Will Brooks, Lando Vannata, Bobby Green, John Moraga, Thales Leites)

Fighters On Losing Streaks in the UFC:   3 (Will Brooks, Matt Schnell, Marco Beltran)

Fighters On Winning Streaks in the UFC:  7 (Tony Ferguson, Kevin Lee, Evan Dunham, Demetrious Johnson, Ray Borg, Walt Harris, Brad Tavares)

Stat Monitor for 2017:

Debuting Fighters (Current number: 28-26)- Poliana Botelho

Short Notice Fighters (Current number: 17-28)- Bobby Green

Second Fight (Current number: 23-30)-  Tom Duquesnoy, Pearl Gonzales, Magomed Bibulatov

Cage Corrosion (16-8)- Evan Dunham

Twelve Precarious Ponderings

1- Looking at this main event, it's a pretty perplexing challenge to determine just what this interim title means. Despite his talk this weekend, you can't help but get the feeling that McGregor vs Diaz III is more likely than not going to be the fight that comes next for Conor. The actual title will likely be held up with a money fight, a fight that revolves around getting the most dollars possible which is absolutely fine from a business sense. It does little though to prevent the UFC from taking on the bad smell of boxing's mistakes; ya know where you'd have the "actual" champ, an "interim" champion and then a champion emeritus in case a guy decides to retire then unretire. It doesn't even help that to SOME (not all but some) Kevin Lee is just a guy filling in a spot best reserved for Khabib Nurmagomedov. That's unfair given that Lee has been fighting top competition for a while while Khabib has been injured or incapable to take the call to fight but you can't change narratives once they're formed. It's not easy to rewire the already formed opinion/mind of fans. It also isn't entirely out of the realm of possibility that the interim champ defends his title AT LEAST ONCE before the actual champ fights and no, not due to injury either. The reality is that this is a great fight but discovering its worth is complicated.

2- How confident should the UFC be in Ray Borg making "the walk" as some would say. He had a bad weight cut which either did or didn't lead to the illness which got him yanked (given how it happened vs Ian McCall in a similar situation, I'm going with yeah there) and is opting to go SANS nutritionist on this one. Some of you fellas might need to go back and watch some Magomed Bibulatov just in case.

3- Is Mighty Mouse done until the spring if he wins? Pettis vs Cejudo in December means the winner is probably the #1 contender barring Joe B getting healthy and getting a title shot in the winter.  Could be the last time we see the P4P best for a while.

4- Similarly I think there's ample pressure on Werdum and Derrick Lewis here to do something big. Miocic may be out for however long this contractual snafu takes to fix up and so the winner might need to be really impressive to keep pace with Ngannou, Overeem and Alexander Volkov.

5- The last time Tony Ferguson REALLY struggled, not counting a first round vs a replacement guy with a funky style, was Danny Castillo. Castillo was able to take advantage of Ferguson's wacky submission game and basically try to grind out a decision win. I'd argue Ferguson has improved ten fold since then BUT Kevin Lee has some Castillo in his game. He's very good at getting a fight to where it needs to be, he's determined and relentless and his submission game is way better than Danny Castillo's ever was. I'm not saying I'm picking Lee to win BUT I think stylistically he's got a fair shot to pull off something here.

6- Tom Duquesnoy is getting a very moderate step up in competition as the UFC pits him vs Cody Stamman as THE featured prelim bout for UFC 216. It's a winnable fight for Mr. Duquesnoy and a good showcase of whether or not his wrestling is up to par to compete vs a big physical 135er. Stamman had no problems taking Terrion Ware down so this is one to keep an eye out for.

7- Kevin Lee has scrambled with some very good grapplers so I don't expect him to be overwhelmed in that regard. What I am curious to see is whether Lee's propensity to panic in exchanges will come out. Going way back to the Jesse Ronson fight, there were moments where as soon as things got a little hectic, he'd shoot in for a takedown and just try to muscle people around. That's great against guys who aren't expert neck grabbers but if/when Ferguson senses a panic TD, he's going to snatch a neck, give up the takedown and force Lee to defend against his d'arce. Hard to do for 25 minutes.

8- Do not forget Ferguson had a 25 minute fight at high altitude where he was so bored he decided to salsa dance----anybody suggesting Lee has any sort of cardio advantage is someone who you shouldn't listen to.

9- A tale of two completely different stuttering hype trains on the UFC 216 prelims. We can begin with "Groovy" Lando Vannata who is better than he's shown thus far. Lando is 1-2 in the UFC but I'd caution that David Teymur is low key really great and losing to Tony Ferguson on a week's notice is nothing to be ashamed of. Vannata is just one of those guys who has this overly relaxed malaise to his game which costs him when he's going one strike for every four landed vs composed strikers. You can maybe win that way at 185 or 205 lbs where power > skill but not so at 155 lbs. Lando gets Bobby Green in what SHOULD be a showcase for Vannata given how Green is not the kind of guy who overwhelms you with pressure and isn't going to give you a lot of things to be concerned about. He does everything well but never well enough, at least since he hurt his knee, to give you reason for pause. On the other hand you have WIll Brooks who came into the UFC with a ton of fanfare straight out of Bellator. The results? 1-2 with a caveat. His first loss was Alex "Cowboy" Oliveira in a fight where Oliveira missed by like six lbs. That one you can wrap up and discard. The loss vs Carlos Oliveira? A lot harder to discard and much differ to wash away. Brooks is struggling and the UFC seems to have recognized that because Nik Lentz is like THE easiest touch for him. It's a guy who does everything Brooks does except not as well, not as athletically gifted and without the power to give Brooks cause for concern. This is as close to a gift wrapped win as it gets.

10- This main card is currently lacking a fight by the by. So who gets bumped up? They've already advertised Will Harris vs Mark Godbeer and Thales Leites vs Brad Tavares as the main fights of note for the FP portion. Do they bump up Moraga vs Bibulatov? How about maybe sneaking up the card the fight between Brooks/Lentz?

11- Brad Tavares is under 30, he's on a winning streak, he's one of the longer tenured UFC middleweights in the world and he's on the prelims. Why? The last time he finished a fight was in early 2011 against PHIL BARONI. Dude needs a finish in the worst way.

12- Walt Harris vs Mark Godbeer is the tipping point for this card. If it sucks, run for the hills. IF it's good? Haboy.

Must Wins

Kevin Lee

There's no doubt in my heart of hearts that Kevin Lee would not get another opportunity for this shot outside of a collection of circumstances like this. Look at the 155 lb landscape as it currently stands; McGregor vs Diaz III is coming. Eddie Alvarez/Justin Gaethje likely gives you a back up option off of that. Dustin Poirier and Anthony Pettis is a really great fight between two really great exciting fighters people wanna see. Russian LWs like Khabib Nurmagomedov and the smashing machine Mairbek Taisumov exist. Kevin Lee is a great fighter but if he wants to keep the public's attention, he pretty much HAS to win.

Derrick Lewis

Any UFC HW from ages 35 to 45 will always be given ample opportunities to redeem themselves. Look at Andrei Arlovski. Look at Travis Browne. Look at Overeem. Look at etc etc etc forever until the end of time. HWs are an ageless commodity for some people---so if Werdum loses? NBD. Sometimes good fighters lose am I right? Now Derrick Lewis is a different story. For some people, Lewis has always been sort of a "when the bubble bursts" guy. His wins while violent aren't always impressive. His focus and cardio can come and go in stops and starts. More often than not, a fight ends with him literally crying. Still he's fun in a division that needs fun and he's one of the more amusing guys out there. So a win for Derrick Lewis would be cool.

Mighty Mouse

HISTORY Is on the line, dudes!

Five Can't Miss Fights

1- Kevin Lee vs Tony Ferguson

Even if the title wasn't on the line, this would be the best fight on almost any card (outside of some combination of Ferguson, Alvarez, Gaethje or Poirier). It's a genuinely great LW fight.

2- Mighty Mouse vs Ray Borg

I feel like your feelings on Mighty Mouse say a lot about you as an MMA fan. For me, we should all band together and watch as our marvel of joy and bundle of asswhoop goes out there to do his deed. <3 Mighty Mouse.

3- Lando Vannata vs Bobby Green

Lando is must see entertainment, the sort of fighter who fights fearlessly and does shit that should cost him a fight every time he fights. Bobby Green is a similar minded fighter. Assuming it's not a staring/jaw jack contest, this should be good.

4- Tom Duquesnoy vs Cody Stamman

Duquesnoy is VERY similar to Lando Vannata in the sense that each and every fight he has, he's so careless (in a good way) that he seems to welcome an element of danger. He's really fun to watch and Stamman showed me a lot vs Terrion Ware. It's a great test for Duquesnoy because if he's going to make it at 135 lbs, the top of that division has a lot of dudes who can wrestle their ass off.

5- Magomed Bibulatov vs John Moraga

I've seen glimpses of Bibulatov and wasn't overly impressed BUT Moraga seemed to rediscover the tricks which made John Moraga a #1 contender once. He gave a limited opponent all kinds of fits in New Zealand and looked to bee back to his old ways. Great test for Bibulatov and Moraga, when he feels like it and is on, is a fun dude to watch.