On this the sweetest, warmest day of the year, it only makes sense to talk about fighting. Sam Sheridan explains why, in his great “A Fighter’s Heart.” The passage below in turn borrows from Nobel Laureate Conrad Lorenz.

“Those that fight each other harder do better. 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.”

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Our sport, finally the world’s fastest growing, it’s all about love. So I want to send you all love.

From Dana and Lorenzo to the guys on the mat who had the choice between paying for health insurance or being on the mat, you have my love, and respect.

From Conor McGregor, to the great, green sea of amateurs competing every weekend, 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, no charge. Ho ho ho.

From those of us in the comfortable West to shootfighter Eddie Gombye in the Democratic Republic of the Congo , who has so many compatriots about who it can be lamented “Do they know its Christmas time at all?” You have my love.

From those of us so far from danger, to my countrymen and women who served or are serving in combat, so far from home, you have my love.

So have a Merry Christmas (or Wanderlei Silva will go all Pride rules on you 🙂