2008 Writer's Draft Review

In 2008, some of the top writers in the sport sat down to draft their ideal MMA organization. Owners had to fill as many divisions as they liked; some filled 6, some had a women's division, some stuck to the traditional five. I return to the draft now, and rate each drafters performance.

Acosta

Hits: Hazelett in round 15 and Cerrone late were definitely Acosta's shining moments in the draft.

Misses: Acosta missed a ton, trying to find prospects over current talent. Penn with the first pick in the draft now seems like a waste. Nick Diaz with his second pick didn't help much either...Diaz probably would have fallen to the 4th or 5th round. Even Velasquez in round 4 seems premature.

Grade: D+. Nothing too good to say here...Acosta took some risks and hasn't seen the return, at least not at this point in 2009.

Zeidler

Hits: It's not really fair for me to evaluate myself, but here goes. GSP was a great first pick, although Lesnar in round 13 has to be the pick of the draft. Maia in 16, Carwin in 24, Cane in 35, and Wilson in 39 make me look like a genius.

Misses: Early on, I relied a little bit too heavily on past performance. I would call the Liddell pick a miss, along with Huerta in 7, Sokoudjou in 11, and good 'ol Kimbo Slice in 15. Hey, at least he'll sell tickets.

Grade: B+. Despite some misses in the first ten rounds, I cleaned up the rest of the draft. If I could split up my grades, I'd take a B- for rounds 1-10 and an A for the remainder of the draft. However, I do think I did a good job at creating compelling fights. I've got Arlovski-Barnett-Lesnar at 225, Liddell-Silva at 205, Henderson-Bisping at 185, GSP-Sanchez at 170 (or so I thought), and Huerta-Melendez at 155. Now that's a night of fights.

McCray

Hits: Alvarez with his 12th and Mousasi with his 16th was brilliant. Clearly, McCray was the only one watching DREAM at the time. Mir in 19 was a steal and the Miller brothers don't hurt either.

Misses: Torres in the 2nd round is a mistake (not marketable enough) and so is Rua in 3 (injury issues). McCray's problem is that he started the draft by picking one guy from each position. By the time he got around to picking opponents, the quality had dropped off. Picking in weight pairs would have helped him here.

Grade: B-. A nice draft overall, but not enough compelling matches.

Kutler

Hits: You can't go wrong with Fedor at 1. Evans in round 10 and Hamill in 17 were steals.

Misses: I might take some beatings for this, but I think Machida at 3 is wrong. How can you market this guy? I also think picking Randy Couture at 4 was a mistake...how many meaningful fights can he have left, at the most? Five?

Grade: C+. Just an average draft here. Some good picks, some flops, nothing mind blowing.

Arnold

Hits: Getting both Jackson and Griffin was a huge move here. Florian with the 8th pick was a nice draft and some late picks (like Danny Lauzon) show that Arnold's head was in the game even in the 47th round.

Misses: Faber appears to be a miss, partly because he lost since the draft and partly because of his division. Gomi with the third pick is a waste too. And then Filho is round 10? It's like the parade of ex-legends.

Grade: B-. Arnold's strength lies in the good matches he set up. He has enough for a really strong card. He didn't get enough of these up and comers, however, to warrant a better grade.