Bleacher Report's MMA Writer's Tournament

I was looking at the wrestling section of B/R several weeks ago and I came upon an article that caught my eye. An article in which writers from the wrestling section were put into brackets and competed in a tournament.

I liked the idea and decided to change several things and make my own version, after the original writer told me he would be pleased if I used his concept. So a very special thanks to wrestling writer Shane Howard.

The following article will involve 16 of the best MMA writers in a single elimination tournament. Brian Oswald helped me a lot in putting up the article so special thanks to him as well. The 16 writers were not necessarily chosen depending on their B/R ranking but who we saw as the leaders of the community. Consistency and talent in writing good articles also helped a lot when came time to ranking the writers.

If you haven’t been active for more than a month, you’re out. If you have only been on Bleacher for one month, it’s still not enough, so you’re out too. We tried to take the 16 writers that represented the community the best.

Writers were separated into four brackets and in those four brackets, writers were ranked from one to four. The four writers that were ranked number first in each bracket are not necessarily the top-four rankings on Bleacher, but rather the four writers that are the most consistent and the writers seen as leaders in our community.

Like any tournament, the No. 1 ranked writer will battle No. 4, and No. 2 vs. No. 3. One winner will emerge in all four brackets and then the elite four will collide in the semi-finals until only one writer is left standing.

This article is not to create any rivalries or animosity between writers, but, if anything, it will push different writers to write better articles.

This will work out a little like my interactive tournament, in the way that you will leave comments with your votes. I don’t care who your best friends are, I want you all to vote for who you think writes the best articles overall not who you like the most.

With all that said, here are the first round battles of the B/R MMA writer’s tournament.

Bracket 1

Dorothy Willis (No. 1) vs. Robert Desroches (No. 4)

There’s probably nobody more respected on B/R than Dorothy. She has been around for one year and has written a lot of articles. She has encouraged young writers and she is one of our community leaders.

Link to Dorothy’s article: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/136261-ufc-what-price-friendship

Robert has been on Bleacher for 10 months. Although he hasn’t written many articles, he knows what he talks about and leaves many comments on different articles. He let’s his voice be heard and gives smart opinions on MMA subjects.

Link to Robert’s article: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/91496-the-war-report-volume-1-wanderlei-will-beat-rampage

Josh Nason (No. 2) vs. Nate Double (No. 3)

Josh Nason has written for many different magazines and brings a solid 206 articles to B/R. He doesn’t leave many comments, but let’s us know what he thinks in his articles. Josh has a lot of articles for someone who has been around for only seven months but unfortunately, his articles haven’t received a lot of comments.

Link to Josh’s article: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/135853-ufc-96-results-rampage-jackson-victorious-earns-title-shot-at-ufc-98

Nate has also been around for seven months. Although he hasn’t written half the number of articles that Josh did, he is active by leaving a lot of comments in the other’s articles. Nate will forever be known for his Tim Wakefield picture.

Link to Nate’s article: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/135962-evans-machida-at-ufc-98-was-almost-a-reality

Bracket 2

Stoker Dafire (No. 1) vs. Jason Cottier (No. 4)

Stoker is seen as a leader on B/R. He has been around for eight months and passes his time writing about MMA and boxing. Although he may have had more success with his boxing articles where he picked up most of his POTD, he is still very active in the MMA community.

Link to Stoker’s article: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/135887-ufc-heavyweight-brick-thrower-shane-carwin

Jason is an active writer who has been on Bleacher for nine months now. Jason leaves a lot of comments and let’s his opinion known on the site. Jason writes about many different aspects of MMA, which makes it interesting.

Link to Jason’s article: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/131900-bj-penn-and-georges-st-pierre-need-to-fight-again-and-soon

Mike Leanza (No. 2) vs. Rear Naked (No. 3)

Mike Leanza is probably our youngest writer in the MMA community, but one thing is for sure, he’s a very talented writer. Mike has been here for six months and has been very active. He still hasn’t had a POTD, but I think it’s only a matter of time.

Link to Mike’s article: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/136551-rashad-evans-vs-rampage-jackson-a-battle-for-supremacy/poll_results#poll

Rear Naked has written more articles than any other writer in our community. He is keeping the MMA community informed with a lot of informative articles. Like Mike, he’s been around for six months. Plus, he has a hot girl on his profile picture loll.

Link to Rear’s article: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/133869-ufc-98-might-cause-chaos

Bracket 3

Brian Oswald (No. 1) vs. Jaime Moreno (No. 4)

Brian Oswald is a leader on Bleacher, always willing to lend a hand to any writer. He has only been around for five months and has an impressive 77 articles so far. Brian is very active within the community by leaving a ton of comments. Brian is also one of the few to have an article of the day in our MMA section.

Link to Brian’s article: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/133893-the-evolution-of-mma-team-training-camps

Jaime has been around on Bleacher report for seven months. Being very occupied with family, Jaime hasn’t written a lot, but he still writes good quality articles. Jaime is a class act that has the respect of all the writers from Bleacher.

Link to Jaime’s article: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/130152-the-ever-improving-middleweight-division

Todd Jackson (No. 2) vs. Flyin’ Hawaiin (No. 3)

Todd has been around for six months and writes about MMA and the New York Yankees. Although he’s not as active as he was three months ago, Todd leaves a lot of comments and writes good articles.

Link to Todd’s article: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/130404-demian-maia-a-familiar-look-with-a-dangerous-twist

Flyin’ Hawaiin has been on Bleacher for only five months and already has an article of the day. Although he doesn’t write a lot of articles, he leaves a ton of comments and stays active within the community. Oh and he’s the biggest BJ fan I know.

Link to Flyin’s article: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/109873-ultimate-fighting-championship-crunching-the-numbers-updated

Bracket 4

Derek Bolender (No. 1) vs. Nick Colon (No. 4)

Derek is one of our community leaders and has been on B/R for one year. He has a very impressive four articles of the day with only 69 articles written. He hasn’t always been consistent as far as writing often, but his material has always been good.

Link to Derek’s article: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/131090-keith-jardine-the-sheep-in-wolfs-clothing

Nick Colon has also been around for a while, eight months to be precise. He writes mostly about MMA and hockey but seems to love every sport. He hasn’t been as active in the MMA community lately but he’s still apart of the family. He has a smart look on the subject of MMA overall.

Link to Nick’s article: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/136559-ufc-100-to-host-three-title-fights-the-man-that-can-make-it-all-happen

Jessy Morris (No. 2) vs. Sean Schimling (No. 3)

Jessy has been around for nine months and has worked hard to make it to the top ten of the MMA rankings. He has an article of the day that he earned after his second article, which is an impressive accomplishment. Jessy is responsible for bringing the popular Interactive Tournament concept to B/R.

Link to Jessy’s article: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/122909-kenny-florian-the-anatomy-of-a-champion

Sean Schimling is also a hard worker who has been around for only four months. Although he has never had an article of the day, Sean brought us the very popular “What to expect” articles. Sean is an active writer that leaves a lot of comments on the articles.

Link to Sean’s article: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/131448-my-top-5-fighters-of-the-future

Like I said on the top of this article, this is not to create any animosity within the community. It may help us to elevate the MMA section to the top of the Bleacher Report site. Leave your votes in the comment section please. For those who would rather not reveal their votes, you can vote by e-mail at: [e-mail]. Thank you.