Annual roundup: May Edition

Roundup?

"What on earth is an annual roundup?" you may be asking yourself, and you are fair to do so, as it is a new, never done before concept.

The annual roundup will effectively be a compilation of mini articles written by several members of the BirksMMA.com staff team, that will release on the first of every month.

We hope you enjoy, if you have any questions feel free to DM the official BirksMMA.com account and we may have a question corner section in the near future.

If you would like to jump to a specific article feel free below,e njoy the roundup.


Top 7 problematic MMA fighers
Written by mmaconscience

Recently, fellow journalists have been calling for the ufc to hold some of their more “problematic” fighters accountable, I am one of these journalists. Let’s take a look at some of the most problematic fighters in the ufc!


1- Shane Young

He tried to scare Dan… that’s not cool Dana could have been very scared


2- Melon

he knows he will fall every time he fights yet he fights anyway 💔 (Editors note- Moraes has since retired, so he is no longer problematic)


3 - Leech

why is he asking so many questions? What does he want to know? there’s something fishy going on


4- Crubis Blades

he took down bigi boy, did you ever consider that maybe Jairzinho doesn’t want to be taken down? And that your actions have consequences Curtis? Next time ask Bigi if he would like to be taken down first.


5- Jon Anik

this guy hasn’t fought in years yet I see him at every ufc event, stop clogging up the division and take a fight already Jon

6- Robert Whittaker

This guy is just a straight up scumbag, I like a bit of trash talkings but this guy takes it way too far, there’s is a line and he crosses it


7- Khabib

weight Bully

cheers con

UFC Champs Top 5
Written by sandhagenszn

For the majority of its existence, the Ultimate Fighting Championship has been the premiere MMA organisation; the best fighters putting on the best fights. As much as we as MMA fans love the Harry Hunsuckers and Houston Alexanders of the world, there is nothing better than seeing a championship fighter putting it all on the line for a chance at £12 of gold. As such, we’re counting down the top 5 greatest champions the uFC has ever seen”



5- Germaine De Randemie

As frequent indulgers of BirksMMA.com are aware, there is not greater stain on the sport of mixed martials than the womens featherweight division. A weight class playing host to legends of the fight game such as king of bitches paulo borrachina costa nd arman nunes, 14£5 women has provided some interesting shampions. None of these belt-strapping woman are as divisive and forgettable than Kick Dutchboxer Jermainde Randmei. GD R ‘s title reign was short and sweet. Jermaine Jenas captured the belt before starting up a religious cult in Namibia. German is most known for her sumission win of #MomChamp JulianPen!

4- Georges St Pierre

Former Canadian and current 170 and one hundred and eighty five pound champion George St Rush Pierre was a force in the mixedultimatechampion. The semi/frenchman defeated formidable challengers such as anti-vax libtard assassin jake shields and train conductor/wife beater hugh matts. GPS is a UFC great and advocate for bald men- we are big fans

3- Paulo Costa

King of bitches, king of the middleweight division; Paulo Borrachina Costa is the undefeated brazilian heartbreaker who is taking heads and earning money. paulo chose to get a hair transplant and is a strong contender for the sandhagenszn paul of the year award.



2- Dave Menne

Who the fuck is Dave Menne? You’ve never heard of him and neither have I. Dave won the first 185 pound title in 2001 and dropped the strap in his next fight. He’s in the list but he remains a mystery. Davids £158 lb title now resides with the afformentioned king of bitches

1- Jairzinho Rozenstruik

Bigi Boy champ. thr Suriname born fiter known for his thrilling bouts and lack of hair captchad the UF heavyweight title in 2005, defeating tough veteran Jairzinho bigi boy Rozenstruik by devastating knockout. Since defeating bigi BOY, jair has been on a vicious streak, 5 knockouts in 4 defences and a global fan bass of 3 million! Mr Rozenbigijairzin has proved himself many times and will continue to do so. The consensus among fans is the Bigi struik stands atop the mountain of UFC champions from suriName- Jair is top of our list today’

BirksMMA breathtaking Bingo Breakdown bonanza
Written by BirksMMA

If you will cast your mind back to january first you will remember the first birksmma tweetof the year, the official birksmma bingo board, today we will be breaking down all of the tiles and discussing if it has hit yet, and if not the probability of it doing so.

Jones at HW

Jones say a lot but do little, could but couldnt,

Likelihood: 35%

Lewis round 1 KO

wouldve had this higher at the start of the year but currently unsure if Lewis will fight again this year after his alleged dive against Tai Tuivasa,

Likelihood: 10%

Darren Till wins a fight

Darren suck, but in a good way, so who knows

Likelihood: 50%

Conor crashes his car

he got arrested for dangerous driving in March so i am going to count this and if you disagree thats your problem not mine.

Likelihood: Completed

Val loses the belt

Val bad but division worse, cant see anyone beating her, she could perhaps vacate and move up but idk if that would even be classed as losing (i would probably count it anyway)

Likelihood: 4%

Diaz McGregor 3

Conor Cant walk and Nate cant get a fight, yet I am still kinda hopeful for some reason

Likelihood: 25%

Pereira does something silly

Already happened in January, I am mystic

Likelihood: Completed

Herb does a Herb

Already had a few minor herbages but nothing big or memeworthy, still dont trust him to go another 8 months without doing so

Likelihood: 85%

Rob beats Izzy

Rob 48-47 sadly

Likelihood: Completed

Cody gets KO'ed

Really depends if he fights, if the Cody that fought Cruz shows up I would pick him to beat anyone below 170, but that Cody is a relic of that past, think he could probably win a fight at bw right now with some selective matchmaking, but I am not hopeful for him

Likelihood: 55%

Marlon gets cut

Marlon? More like marl gone (he has retired, which is effectively cut imo)

LIkelihood: Completed

Rockhold returns, dies

Rockhold has stated he would like to fight the Paulo, which would be a very bad experience for the Skylar, so the probability of this happening is basically just the probability he fights Paulo, which itself is a challenge

Likelihood: 40%

Womens FW Division closes

do not care, probably shouldnt have put as middle tile, probably antos fault

Burgos wins FOTN

Shane is a king, all he needs to do is fight on a non Gaethje card

Likelihood: 65%

Ngannou leaves UFC

Contractually this one probably not happening sadly, would love for Francis to go to boxing and take the bag though

Likelihood: 3%

Khamzat Champ

could happen but he’d need to beat another top guy and beat Usman before the end of the year, and I favour Usman over him

Likelihood: 5%

Holland defends a takedwown
(only took me 5 months to realise takedown was spelled wrong)

already happened #ResignCowboyOliveira

Likelihood: Completed

Fighter snaps arm/leg

Weird one to predict, not sure how to analyse this

Likelihood: 15%

Jones arrested

sometimes jon go awhile without getting arrested and sometimes he gets arrested like 9 times in the span of a day, think he may stay well for the rest of the year but you never know with the bone man

Likelihood: 38.43%

TJ pops again

Would be pretty incredible if he beat Aljo then popped and is forced to vacate, but I have faith in the clean juice man

Likelihood: 15%

Hill "loses" a decision

Angela Hill is embarrassing and I dont want to discuss her fights more than I have to

Likelihood: 25%

Poirier retires

feel like one more loss and hes done, depends who he faces next, says he wants to go to 170 which could be the end of him, but I dont see many at 155 who id be confident beating him

Likelihood: 30%

Colby fights twice

He fought 3 months into the year so this is likely right? Right?

Likelihood: 70%

Tony Ferguson

Tony Ferguson

Likelihood: Tony Ferguson

Zabit fights

Heard the other day that he was going down the Johnny Sins route and becoming a well respected doctor, so seeing him back in the octagon is slim

Likelihood: 5%

Not terribly confident in getting a bingo, but its not about the bingo, its about the experience

Genophage Hit-Piece
Written by ChaelGoat and Jack🚼

INTRODUCTION

The Genophage is a very hot topic in the community. Is it just? Is it genocide? Is it for the best or is it too far? This article aims to give all the backstory and current ongoings of the genophage. To understand the genophage, we first need to understand what the genophage is, how it came about, and what impact it has on the galactic community. Most of this article will consist of Mass Effect lore and not contain spoilers for the Mass Effect trilogy. I will attempt to notify my audience when spoilers are ahead.


THE RACHNI WARS

Before the Krogan rose to prominence in the milky way galaxy, galactic politics were handled by the Asari and the Salarians. Each race has a representative on the council, who operated out of the citadel (The ultimate government space station). These were the two most intelligent and technologically advanced species in the galaxy at the time.

All was well until the Rachni came into the picture. The Rachni are a race that look similar to lobsters that are human sized. They are incredibly dangerous and communicate with each other telepathically. This caused great trouble when the rachni invaded and came after all species of the galaxy. This began what is known as the Rachni war. The rachni showed no quarter and no mercy to the other races of the galaxy. The difficulty of this war is that due to the Rachni’s mode of communication, the Asari and Salarians could not communicate with the Rachni. They could not figure out why the Rachni were doing this and could not negotiate peace. Another constricting factor going against the galaxy is the Rachni homeworld. The atmosphere and toxins present on the planet made it difficult for other species to survive. For almost a century, the Citadel Council was in a losing battle against the Rachni and needed answers. They eventually found an answer, and that answer was the Krogan.



The Krogan are a terrifying race. They are known for being incredibly strong, resilient, and aggressive. The Krogan have back up organs and multiple nervous systems, so they can be nearly killed multiple times and recover almost instantly. Also, they fuck ALOT. Their breeding rate is insane. Combine this with the fact that they live for 1,000+ years and reach full maturity at the age of 10, they are an overwhelming force. But with their aggressiveness and shere numbers, peace did not even last on their own planet.

The Krogan’s homeworld of Tuchanka was riddled with nuclear fallout due to their civil war. The Salarians assisted the Krogan by giving them advanced technology and moving them to another planet to avoid the radiation. But this was no act of kindness by the Salarians, the Salarians were using the Krogan as backup for the Rachni Wars. The Krogan’s could handle the harsh conditions of the Rachni homeworld and also had the #’s to contest the Rachni in a war. Krogan’s are also known as one of the most fierce races in the galaxy. The Krogan’s eventually defeated the Rachni by planting bombs in the their underground nests and blowing the place to smithereens.


THE KROGAN REBELLIONS

At this point the Krogan, the Krogan were the heroes of the galaxy. They saved the galaxy from certain death and defeated the Rachni. For their efforts, they rewarded an embassy on the citadel, a Krogan memorial statue, and 10 planets to colonize.

All was well for some time, but peace did not last. Due to the previously mating breeding rate, the Krogan quickly overpopulated all of their colonies. They requested more colonies from the council, but were declined. After being denied colonies, the enraged Krogan decided to take these colonies by force. This caused another full scale war. This time instead of the Krogan being the saviors, they were the enemy.





The council recruited the Turian’s into this war. The turian are a very militarized race that look similar to birds, they also possess the largest fleet in the galaxy. Even with their inclusion, the combined forces of the galaxy were no match for the Krogan. No matter how many they lost, the Krogan were able to just birth more and more soldiers. The Krogan even went as far as to use asteroids as weapons and launch them at enemy planets. The Krogan were winning, and the galaxy did not have many options.


THE GENOPHAGE

The salarians were always the nerds of the galaxy. Socially awkward, get no bitches, but are damn smart. They realized that the Krogan could never be defeated because they will never surrender and will never decrease in numbers. To combat this, they developed a super biological weapon labeled “the genophage”. The genophage would alter Krogan physiology to reduce their birth rate. It would make it so that only 1 in 2,000 Krogan conceptions actually result in a live Krogan fetus. Although the Salarian developed it, they were hesitant to deploy it. They believed the genophage would be “one step above genocide”. The Turians however, were not so sympathetic. With no other options in a nearly lost war, the Turians stepped in and dispersed the genophage on the Krogan homeworld of Tuchanka.

This immediately caused a sharp decrease in Krogan birth rate, which decreased their overall number. Knowing this, the Turian and citadel forces pressed them back and turned the tide. Eventually, the Krogan had no choice but to surrender.
ended if you have not yet played the games.







The aftermath of the genophage was brutal and left the Krogan’s facing a lot of questions. They are a relatively stupid species that acts on emotion instead of logic so finding a cure has been difficult for them. Lack of Krogan doctors and help from other species has left them helpless in finding this genetic cure. This has forced them to get creative causing some Krogan to buy their species’ testicles off the black market thinking a transplant could disinfect them from the effects of the genophage. This has obviously shown to be ineffective and unsuccessful. I did say they weren’t the sharpest tool in the shed.

Once the heroes of the galaxy, the Krogan have been demoted to a mere afterthought in the galaxy. Most either sit and dwell on the home plant of Tuchanka or sell themselves out as mercenaries or bodyguards. With continued selfishness and in-fighting, the Krogan would be on the brink of extinction 1,000 years later.


The next section will contain spoilers for Mass Effect 1, 2, and 3. So if you don’t wish to see spoilers scroll down to the conclusion. Skipping this next section is highly recommnded if you have not yet played the games.

THE GENOPHAGE IN MASS EFFECT *SPOILER WARNING*

Seriously, don’t read this part if you haven’t played the games. It is an unbelievable series and I recommend people of all shapes and sizes play the mass effect legendary edition.

So in Mass Effect 1, Wrex is against the plan to destroy the genophage cure on Virmire. I can understand where he is coming from, but if Saren got a Krogan army the galaxy was doomed. Sovereign would have activated the relay and the Reapers would’ve harvested the galaxy. I imagine most people got Wrex killed here on the 1st playthrough. Fuck Ashley, I had it under control she didn’t need to shoot him for fuck sakes. Anyway, if Wrex dies here Wreav leads the Krogan for the rest of the game; and Wreav is retarded.

After not appearing much in Mass Effect 2, Wrex or Wreav will return to cure the genophage. If you ask Wrex about his plans in a post-genophage galaxy, he says he will not look for revenge. He understands the mistakes of the Krogan and will aim to show the council that not all Krogan’s are meatheads. However, Wreav wants revenge and says he’s going to take over the galaxy.

The salarians are obviously against the cure, and offer Shepard a deal. If Shepard sabotages the cure, the Salarian will offer their support in the reaper war. So the player then has to decide whether to cure the genophage at the cost of uncertainty and Salarian rejection, or sabotage the cure and hope the Krogan don’t find out


So what’s the right move? I think it’s quite simple. If Wrex is alive, curing the genophage is the right call. Wrex is smart and a good leader who can lead the new era of Krogan. Under him, I believe the Krogan can co-exist in society. Plus, if you sabotage the cure Wrex finds out and pulls Krogan support for the war. He also tries to kill Shepard, which leads to Wrex’s death. If Wreav is the leader, I personally think sabotaging the cure is the call. Wreav is an idiot and a horrible leader. He would lead the Krogan into an all out war which would most likely lead to complete Krogan extinction. Also, Wreav is too dumb to figure out that the cure was sabotaged and the Krogan remain loyal in the war. I believe the Krogan deserve a cure, but they need the leader.

CONCLUSION (NO MORE SPOILERS)

Now that we know what the genophage is and how it came about, was it just? Did the Krogan deserve it? Do they deserve a cure now? There are loads of moral questions involved in this topic. 1,000 years have passed but the Krogan still hate everyone in the galaxy for the genophage.

I believe that the genophage was originally the right move. The only other option that would have led to peace is a bioweapon that caused the complete extinction of the Krogan. There was no way the galaxy could defeat the Krogan conventionally. The Krogan literally left the galaxy with no other choice. They wouldn’t listen to reason and would not back down. Crippling their birthrate was the only way the war could be won.



Do the Krogan now deserve a cure? I would say they do. It’s been 1,000 years and they are nearly extinct. The only reason they made the genophage so that they could still reproduce is to avoid commiting genocide. But if the Krogan eventually go extinct because of the genophage, is that not genocide? The Krogan have learned their lesson, it’s time for a cure. If it makes the council feel better, they can threaten to wipe out the Krogan completely if they try something after the cure.

In conclusion, the genophage was just. It ended the Krogan rebellions without committing genocide. Skip forward 1,000 years, and the genophage has brought the Krogan to the brink of extinction. Now, it looks like the council did commit genocide. Should the Krogan go extinct because of the mistakes of their ancestors? No, the Krogan needed the genophage to learn that they can’t just take anything they want to with brute force. Some Krogan learned to be reasonable and to not rely on aggression. It is time to lift them from this disease and give them a shot to regain a respectful place in the galactic community.