Merry Christmas 2018 UnderGround and OtherGround

Christmas is the greatest celebration of love and friendship each year. And wishes for love and friendship belong on a fighting forum because love and friendship are born from aggression and fighting, and would not exist without them.

Best-selling author and UGer Sam Sheridan explains, based on research from Conrad Lorenz, winner of the 1973 Nobel Prize in Medicine.

“Those that fight each other harder do better,” writes Sheridan. “Lorenz takes interspecies aggression several steps further. He talks about geese and says that two furiously aggressive animals must bond and live together in a small space, all without weakening intra-species aggression. They have evolved inhibitors, behavior-changing devices, that turns the aggression they normally feel toward others of their species into something else when they mate. The same thing, although in a more complex way takes place among men and women of the same tribe of family, bound together for increased success against the outside world. Lorenz writes that friendship is found only in animals with “highly developed intra-species aggression,” and goes on to say that the more aggressive the animal, the deeper the friendship. The ability to love and form bonds has evolved as a way to temper aggression, to turn it into something more powerful when defending hearth and home. Friendship and love are essentially evolutionary by-products of aggression. Men and women who form these deep bonds – who evolved ways to mitigate interspecies aggression – have great success in passing along their genes.

“That’s the secret, it’s all about love.”

No fighting, no love. So this is a perfect day to send love and good wishes to the fight world.

Merry Christmas Underground, from ESPN newbs to the 2001ers.

Merry Christmas to all, from those of us in the comfortable West, to shootfighter Eddie Gombye in Uganda.

Merry Christmas regulators – everyone talks about doing it for the good of the sport, but you actually do.

Merry Christmas Khabib Nurmagomedov; I know you don’t celebrate Christmas, but going from beating Conor McGregor and then flying straight to Nigeria to dig well for the improverished is a great Christmas lesson.

Merry Christmas Conor McGregor, and thanks for fighting three times in 2015 and three times in 2016. No thanks for fighting 0 times in 2017. And thanks for fighting at least once this year.

A Merry Merry Christmas Christmas to the champ champ Daniel Cormier.

Merry Christmas Campbell McLaren. It is a gift to watch you do it twice.

Merry Christmas Justin The Big Pygmy Wren, who gives up his gifts for others, today and for now many years.

Merry Christmas Yair Rodriguez and Chan Sung Jung, that KO you guys made was the very definition of the heart of the sport – HOLY F@$%ING $#!@.

Merry Christmas Cowboy – breaking the UFC record for most wins and most finishes with that armbar was a great gift. And then you held your newborn in the Octagon. Add in that pic of Platinum Mike tapping and the drama with Winkeljohn and it a gift for the ages.

Eku Odun Keresimesi breakthrough fighter Israel Adesanya. It’s been a while, but I think I got that right.

Merry Christmas FOX of Christmases and past, and ESPN of Christmases to come; thanks for all the free tv.

Merry Christmas to those of you who had the choice between paying for health insurance or being on the mat, and getting ground into the ground won.

Merry Christmas professional fighters and Merry Christmas ammys. You are in my heart. And you are in my records. If your official record is wrong, email stats@mixedmartialarts.com and we are on it.

Merry Christmas to the trolls, new and old. DonBreakYourArmi where is your original self?

Merry Christmas to everyone genuinely working to solve our sports issues: CTE, the culture of extreme weight cutting, PEDs, the high injury rate, and an equitable distribution of revenue across the sport.

Have a Merry Christmas all (or Wanderlei Silva will stomp you 🙂