For too long, our writers’ hyper-specific arguments have been confined to the private corridors of the Internet. Welcome to The List, where we take their instant message bickerings, add a little polish, and make them public.

Today, with Christmas Day upon us, which MMA notables find themselves on Santa’s nice list?

(ALSO SEE: The List: Who’s on Santa’s naughty list for this Christmas?)

* * * *

Max Holloway, the champion we don’t deserve

Fernanda Prates: At a time when it seems so tricky to get a UFC title run  right, you’d be hard-pressed to find anything that featherweight champion Max Holloway did wrong.

From his way to the top to his future plans now that he’s there, Holloway’s career evolution has been as by-the-book as they come. While many opt for aggressive social-media beefs or just some good ol’ trashing of entire nations, Holloway’s scenic route to the title shot was paved by one main ingredient: wins.

Ten of them, to be more precise.

For a lot of it, Holloway was quiet. But when he decided to speak up, backed up by what he’d already done in the cage, he did it with some swagger. Even his taunts came with a dash of respect, offering just enough to capture our attention (and maybe piss off his grandma a little bit) but not enough to trigger angry YouTube comments.

Well, actually, anything is enough to trigger angry YouTube comments. But I digress.

Then, in order for Holloway to effectively become king, he had to venture into Aldo’s kingdom. No problem, Holloway said, before knocking Aldo out. Surely, after all of that, Holloway had to be eyeing a super fight, right? Nah. He wanted to fight the rightful contender. And when Frankie Edgar couldn’t make it, Holloway didn’t hesitate to extend Aldo the courtesy of a rematch.

By the time he beat Aldo again, Holloway had earned enough bragging rights to be at least a little bit of an A-hole. But he still declined that role, first reassuring his commitment to the novelty concept of actually defending his belt and then making sure everyone remembered just how big of a badass the champion he dethroned actually was.

The “Blessed Era” is indeed upon us – and it was about damn time.

The wholesome post-fight interviewees

Rose Namajunas

Dann Stupp: So, you’ve won an MMA fight – perhaps it came after some nasty pre-fight trash-talk from your opponent – and now’s your chance to rub a little salt in the wound, right?

Not necessarily.

This year, we saw some downright wholesome post-fight interviews.

Take for instance new UFC women’s strawweight champion Rose Namajunas, who dethroned Joanna Jedrzejczyk after some contentious pre-fight smack talk that sometimes bordered on cruel.

“You are mentally unstable, and you are broken already, and I will break you in the fight,” Jedrzejczyk said before their title bout.

When Namajunas pulled off the upset with a first-round stoppage – delivering “Joanna Champion” the first loss of her career – “Thug” went the opposite direction.

“There’s just been a lot of trash-talking,” Namajunas said after UFC 217. “People aren’t really being true to themselves or honest. Maybe that’s just what they feel they need to do to entertain, but I’m kind of sick of it. I’m sick of all the hate and anger. I feel like we have a duty as fighters to try to be a better example. Martial arts is about honor and respect. It takes a lot of courage to get in that cage no matter who you are. I just want to try to set an example in that way.”

Namajunas wasn’t alone, though. After beating Artem Lobov at UFC Fight Night 118, Andre Fili put MMA on the back burner to discuss bigger issues.

“To be honest, I don’t even want to talk about fighting right now,” he said after his story. “I want to say something real quick: The whole two months I was in my fight camp, all I saw on the news was mass shootings and bombings and tsunamis and hurricanes, and there are forest fires all up and down California.

“You guys, we’ve got to start treating each other like human beings. We’ve got to show each other a little love. There’s only one race, and it’s the human race. We got to start giving a sh*t about each other and giving a sh*t about this planet we inherited, and our kids and our grandkids are going to inherit.”

Brian Ortega also got in the mix after beating Cub Swanson in UFC Fight Night 123’s headliner. With his post-fight interview, he praised Swanson and spoke of the virtues of charity work (via YouTube):

The world – especially the MMA world – could use a little more of this wholesomeness.

Those efficient UFC Fight Pass events

Ben Fowlkes: Right off I’ll admit it, I was not an instant fan of the UFC’s Fight Pass-only fight cards from far-flung locales. It seemed like a way to introduce a new, lower tier of UFC programming, while also cramming even more events into an already packed schedule, thereby diluting the overall product.

And, sure, both those things are still true. But if I’m going to wake up at three o’clock in the morning to watch a bunch of MMA neophytes do battle in Shanghai, I have to at least appreciate the pacing of these shows for reminding me that MMA doesn’t have to be a marathon slog.

That’s easy to forgot when sitting through more than six hours of fights and commercials (mostly commercials) on FOX Sports 1. Compared to that, the Fight Pass events practically breeze by, giving us all the action without all the filler – plus that international commentary team that’s just as classy as a rented tux.

Granted, it’s still the lowest level of UFC programming, just in terms of which fighters get added to those events. And the UFC has not-so subtly tried to sneak some commercials in there lately (don’t have me up at four a.m. watching some ad for tires on what is already a paid streaming service, UFC).

But still, it’s as close to a no-frills product as you’re going to get from the UFC these days. And there’s something about having my MMA with my (extremely) early morning coffee that I can really get into. You know, as long as I can grab a nap later.

Artem Lobov, Friday morning MVP

John Morgan: Listen, I’m going to let you in on a little-known secret: Friday used to be the easiest day of fight week for MMA journalists.

Sure, Wednesday and Thursday are generally packed with interviews and appointments and racing to be the first to get your content on the Internet, but Friday used to be a day to sleep in, recover, roll in to the fan Q&A at about 2 p.m., cover the fighters hitting the scale at 4 p.m. and then call it a day. There’s a reason we decided to record “The MMA Road Show” on Thursday nights – because we could have all the frosty beverages we wanted, talk some MMA, and then sleep in the next morning!

No more.

With early weigh-ins now the norm, the alarm generally goes off at about 7 a.m., making Friday just another long work day. And believe me, sitting in a room for two hours waiting for guys to show up in their underwear isn’t always the most exciting process, especially if you’re slightly hungover.

(Oh, by the way – heavyweights, you don’t get until 11 a.m. anymore. We know you’re not cutting weight. You’re just sleeping. Get down to the room and get your weight set. Your new cutoff is 10 a.m., OK? Thanks.)

But then, thankfully, there’s Artem Lobov.

I get it. It’s easy to hate on Artem. His career record isn’t that impressive. He’s probably received a favor or two that can be directly attributed to his friendship with Conor McGregor. But for my money, this guy should stay in the UFC as long as he wants to compete. Win or lose, he’s going to get into the cage and give you a fight, every time out. And even more importantly, on Friday morning, when the head is still a little foggy and all you want to do is crawl back in bed, he’s going to give you this:

‘Nuff said.

Filed under: Featured, News, UFC