The Best of 2016: Sports Categories

a best of list by La Kifo

First of all, I would like to thank Android for making this sticker looking image. If it were not for the graphic design department over at Android, I would still be searching for an image to post with this blog. 

The list to make all other lists jealous is here. Just a few scrolls below, find you will a list of the best 2016 gave me in sports. Notice we are focusing on the positive aspects of the past year. Many of you may know, the shear mass amounts of awful, overused 2016 jokes, memes, or whatever you want to call it. There were, are, and will be too many to create more. 

A couple of rules: 

1. These lists are in no particular order. I am not ranking the top five in each category, I am simply listing the best in each category.
2. Ultimately, every list is created from my imagination, and since it comes from my mind, you can be sure that is 100% accurate. 
3. Postive Vibes Only

To understand this category you might need to know how to read. The best fight cards of the year. The best fight cards, are not the most hyped/talked about but the cards that actually delivered some awesome fights, from the preliminaries to the main event.

*If the Main event sucked, then it probably won't make it on the list.

1. UFC 205:

• Despite what I said earlier, this was the best card of the year and that is why I listed it first. There was not a boring fight at Madison Square Garden. Even the very first preliminary fight Vincente Luque v. Belal Muhammad ended in a KO. I honestly don't remember that fight and it is because Tim Boetsch beat down Rafael Natal with scary power in the fight following that. The next fight was even more exciting but for different reasons. Khabib Nurmagomedov v. Michael Johnson had implications for the next Lightweight championship fight. Michael Johnson a legit top 10 lightwieght on the UFC roster against a Russian Sambo specialist with an undefeated record. Khabib is a grappling beast and while Michael Johnson found success early in the first round, the fight might as well have ended once Johnson was put on his back. Nurmagomedov dominated Johnson from the top in a way that seems impossible due to the close proxitimity of the two fighters weights. Nurmagomedov could be one of the strongest fighters on the UFCs roster, but that did not excuse him from getting stung by Michael Johnson once. Michael Johnson may have not had the skills to deal with Khabib on the ground but he can absolutely throw hands. What is more intriuging about Johnsons early success and big time connection to Khabibs face, if Michael Johnson could find an opening, what could better strikers do to Khabib? Anyway, I could talk about MMA all day. This card also featured a gritty 3 round brawl between Jeremy Stephens and Frankie Edgar. It was the pure power of Jeremy Stephens against the tenacious grind that is Frankie Edgar. Then you had the final fight in the illustrious career of Miesha Tate. Tate ended her fighting career after losing to Raquel Pennington, a women she had coached on the Ultimate Fighter, reality series. Tate attempted a daring escape from a tight Pennington guillotine by frantically using her lower body to climb up the fence. It was something worth seeing at least once in your life.
  
  Those early fights really set the tone for the rest of the card. Yoel Romero v. Chris Wiedman was a tense nail bitter, as was the remaining three fights. They kept me on the edge of my seat, like a good movie. If you have not seen Tyron Woodley v. Stephen Wonderboy Thompson, I suggest you do so. A five round title fight that has serious considerations for Fight of the Year. The womens Strawweight Championship was also an exciting five round bout, worth viewing. Finally, the moment we were all waiting for, Conor McGregor not only challenging the Lightweight champion but history. UFC 205 marked an attempt by the promotions burning infero of a star to capture multiple division titles at one time. If he was victorious, The Notorious would be the first the do so in the UFC.

2. UFC 199:

• Now I am going in no particular order, but if I were, UFC 199 would be seriously considered as the second best card of 2016. One that featured two title fights, the middleweight championship pitting Luke Rockhold against Michael Bisping. Bisping took the fight on two weeks notice to save the main event and replace former middlewieght champion Chris Wiedman. Then the bantamweight championship featuring Dominick Cruz v. Urijiah Faber 3. One of the biggest rivarlies in MMA was the one between WEC as well as UFC champion Dominick Cruz and Team Alpha Male leader, former WEC champion Urijiah Faber. The two brought the best out of each other, verbally and physically. The two traded for a full five rounds, in what was a competitive affair and Fabers final UFC title shot. Before I get to the main event, the preliminaries were nice as punching people in the face gets. Three of the four preliminary fights were stopped. Jessica Andrade, Brian Ortega, and Beneil Dariush earned those finishes, each in a different round. Now, the main card did not slouch either. Dan Henderson put on a dashing display of heart, desire, and toughness as he came back in his fight against Hector Lombard.

• Dan Henderson is a boss. The next fight was just as exciting, Max Holloway v. Ricardo Lamas. This fight was a pretty affair of punches, in the waining seconds of the fight the two featherweights met at the center of the octagon and proceeded to wing punches with no regard for defense or the consequences of eating a wild looping hook. Finally, the main event of the evening which saw Michael Bisping steal the belt from a very talented Luke Rockhold with a looping left hook. Not only is the fight a crazy display of what can and will happen in the octagon but the press leading up to and after this fight was top of the line. 

3. UFC 196:

• When we talk about great cards, we can not forget Nate Diaz, Conor McGregor 1. This card featured Diego Sanchez on the exclusive UFC Fight Pass Prelims, and I can guarantee Diego Sanchez has never been in a boring fight. When we look at preliminary bouts, nothing really stands out, even name wise, there was not much on the undercard at this event. At the same time, those prelims were more entertaining than the average PPV prelims. A couple knockouts and a submission on the relatively known name Brandon Thatch. But the card goes from luke warm to boiling once the main card began. The very first bout was Valentina Shevchenko v. Amanda Nunes. Nunes put on a dominant performance against the Bullet whom many thought had the striking talent to keep Amanda from putting her on her back. After the future womens bantamwieght champion dominated the Eastern European fighter, came Corey Anderson v. Tom Lawlor. A unanimous decision victory for Anderson was overshadowed by the large cloud of the co-main event and the main event. Like all of the cards on this list, this pair of co-main and main event has the chops to be the most exciting/best of the year. I don't even want to ruin either fight if you happened to miss them. Both Miesha Tate v. Holly Holm, and Conor McGregor v. Nate Diaz are fights that even casual MMA fans have to see. 

4. UFC 202:

• The rematch, between two newly bitter foes, Conor McGregor, Nate Diaz. I don't think the final two fights had the same firepower as UFC 196, when the two first faced off. But the overall quality could be debated as immeasurably better. The problem with this card was Joe Silva, Dana White, or just the UFC decided to pit McGregors training partner against Diaz's in an attempt to create a bigger explosion of egos and emotion. It was a great idea, I don't fault them for trying, and I would like to see them try it again but Artem Lobov (McGregors teammate) v. Chris Avilia (Diaz's teammate) was the worst fight of the night. It was slow and the striking/attacking volume was extremely low, not just for a Fox preliminary bout but a UFC bout in general. Despite that fight, this card had serious star power. Donald 'Cowboy' Cerrone, Anthony Johnson, Glover Texiera, Mike Perry, Cody Garbrandt, Lorenz Larkin, Niel Magny, Raquel Pennington, Tim Means, Rick Story, and of course the two big stars. Just watching Conor McGregor, Nate Diaz 2 made this card good enough for consumption, but when you add up the vicious performances from Cowboy Cerrone and Anthony 'Rumble' Johnson. Multiply that by knockouts from Cody Garbrandt, Tim Means, and Mike Perry, you may just get CTE from watching all the knockouts in one night. 

5. UFC 207:

• The last card of the list just so happens to be the last card of 2016. I already talked about this card recently, so you should just take my word as law, watch this fight card. Ronda Rousey, two bantamweights that hate each other and their respective teams(Dominick Cruz and Cody Garbrandt). Ronda Rousey people, but the thing is you've probably seen the 48 seconds of destruction already. My solution, watch all the promotion, all those dramatic tv spots, listen to Amanda do interviews then watch the fight. It might leave a completely different taste in your mouth.

When breaking this down, it was between two teams. The Patriots and the Red Sox. The Bruins did not make the playoffs, the Celtics season just started so technically last season is what counts for 2016 and they got rocked in the first round of the playoffs without winning the division or being a top seed. The Patriots got to the AFC championship but lost in embarrassing fashion to the Denver Broncos. The Red Sox had their best regular season in a long time. Mookie Betts, David Ortiz, Rick Porcello, and Hanley Ramirez all had stellar seasons that won them the American League East title. However, they did lose in the division series. 

I could go the easy way and give it to the best team Boston has had for past 17 years or I could give it up to a team that has pulled themselves out of the gutter. Hard choice, but the Best Boston Team of 2016 was the Boston Red Sox. 

Before I get some less than encouraging feed back on this one, understand Ortiz last season has no overwhelming effect on my decision. The real swaying factors were how bad the Red Sox have been recently, how young the team is, and wishful thinking that if I give them this, Dave Dombrowski will stop selling away our farm system for pennies on the dollar. 

So I had quite a few candidates for this one here, but I doubt it will be that hard to pick. Here are the candidates, David Ortiz retiring from professional baseball, Ronda Rouseys return, Chicago Cubs win the World Series, Cleveland Cavaliers win NBA championship, Conor McGregor 2 division champion, watching Peyton Manning play his final season. 

Contradicting what I said earlier, this choice is hard as funk. The last second addition of watching Peyton Manning embarrass himself is really throwing a wrench made for a monkey into the situation. I can think of this two different ways. What was objectively the best moment in sports? or Fuck objectivity, fuck what the consensus of the people is, the people are the ones posting youtubes trying to tell me to harness and act on my emotions. Fuck you, I will chose this category by myself and I will swallow down every last feeling my above chest area provides me. How fucking dare you try and tell me that I should reflect and contimplate my emotions and beleifs. I will proudly walk the roads, paved or not, ignoring my problems and fighting any emotion that dare even think of escaping the depths of my unconcious mind. 

That being said, watching Peyton Manning do some of the worst things we've ever seen at the quarterback position was nothing less than magical and mesmerizing. It was like all my hopes and dreams had come true. SANTA IS REAL PEOPLE. HE'S REAL. Or god, one of those bros had my back on this one. They brought the weak, the poor, the unathletic, the post steriod body of Peyton Manning to my eyes and made him play one more season of football. 

HAHA, I guess technically this shouldn't really count as a 2016 moment since it happened in 2015 but I don't give a shits. Any moment to take a shot at Peyton Manning is a moment I will take. 

I'm sorry I don't have takes on the Cubs winning the World Series except that I don't know how everyone else feels but I don't think the Cubs winning the World Series is that great of an accomplishment considering you could and would confuse their payrole with the New York Yankees. All that Cubs team had was a bunch of overpaid snitches. Jon Lester, overpaid. Anthony Rizzo, overpaid. Jason Heyward, a ring chaser but surprisingly he has a good deal. Kris Bryant, totally overpaid. David Ross, overpaid. John Madden, overpaid. Madden, the video game franchise is over priced. Theo Epstien, the largest overpayment of all. 

I guess I should apologize for lack of Cavs takes as well. The one thing I can say about the Cavs, the NBA, and LeBron is we should have given LeBron a couple rings awhile ago. If you are living a life outside of sports, you probably don't know that every NBA game, especially the playoffs are rigged. Okay? What does that have to do with anything? Well, my point is: I hate LeBron, he is the worst at everything besides making money and playing basketball. But, it could have been different for Lebron and I. Early in his career, not so much in the latter part of his career, all you would see is his bitch face crying about how Delonte West fucked his mom and how he can't win a ring. He was all over ESPN, 24/7, crying about his mom getting fucked by Delonte and his lack of rings compared to Jordan. So, maybe we give Bron a ring or two, early in his career. That way we don't have to subject ourselves to the insisent crying of a young LeBron. Boom, if that happens, I don't hate him. If I don't hate him then either four or four million people also don't hate him. 

Here you are, your winners for Best of 2016, Sports Categories.

We have more categories coming out ranging from candidates competing for the title of Best Song I heard in 2016 to Month of my Best Shits. The next edition will hit blogs tomorrow, have a good night and good start to your New Year.