The Speed Bag: What do we want out of these fighters, anyway?

When the MMAjunkie staff convenes via email at the end of each month to dole out our monthly awards, there usually isn’t a ton of major debate.

But for the April “Knockout of the Month,” we ran into a doozy. It’s hard to forget that insane elbow Mike Perry (10-1 MMA, 3-1 UFC) dropped on Jake Ellenberger (31-13 MMA, 10-9 UFC) at UFC Fight Night 108 – especially given it was an elbow that probably made Ellenberger stop remembering things for a while.

But Sabina Mazo (3-0) had a gorgeous head-kick finish of Jamie Thornton (4-3) at LFA 9 that put her in the running.

Ultimately, the votes fell Perry’s way, but it was close. And during the staff’s conversation, the reason it was close was interesting. It wasn’t because one side believed Mazo’s finish was that much better than Perry’s. Instead, some had trouble handing out honors to someone with a sketchy past of racist and homophobic commentary on social media – so all things being equal, believing both finishes were deserving, they’d rather see Mazo take the prize.

In the latest edition of The Speed Bag, Ben Fowlkes explores the conundrum that arises in the age of modern media and tries to get after the answer.

Check it out above.

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