You Mad? – The Best in MMA Drama from 2011

I really love those retrospective stories where the best something of the year is chosen. So, I have decided to choose my favorite little squabbles and beefs of 2011 to sum up the past (partial) year of 'You Mad?'. I'm also lazy and no one was really arguing this past week (peace on earth, FTW!) so here is a recap of the Recaps of The Past Year's Beefs, Twitter Beefs, Squabbles, Rants, Wars of Words and Other Assorted Drama in MMA Story. Cheers!

1. Chael Sonnen vs. Anderson Silva

This one was pretty epic. So much happened with it this past year. Chael came back after suspension and immediately starting calling Silva out. Then Silva questioned Yushin Okami's choice in training partners, Chael made fun of Anderson Silva's Old Spice endorsement and Chael called out Silva in the best post-fight interview ever at UFC 136 . This was followed up by Ed Soares saying Chael doesn't deserve another shot at Silva, Matt Lindland saying Silva is ducking Chael, and Chael talking about Silva's wife making him a medium rare steak. Gosh, that was enjoyable.

Next, we heard that Chael was meeting with Silva in Anaheim even though Silva still reportedly had an injured shoulder. Even Dana White was saying the fight would likely happen at some point. Dan Henderson weighed in on the matter indicating that he feels like Silva is ducking not only Chael but himself, too. Now, we know that Mark Munoz will face Chael Sonnen at UFC on Fox 2 and Chael says he has moved his focus off of Anderson Silva and on to more important fights.

More memories of 2011 after the jump.

2. Nick Diaz vs. Georges St. Pierre

This one was all kinds of crazy fun this past year! It started with Nick Diaz not making it to two press conference for his scheduled UFC 137 fight against Georges St. Pierre. When he missed the second one, in Las Vegas, Dana White had had enough and announced that Diaz was out of the fight against GSP and that Carlos Condit was now in. Whoa! And, Dana answered a call from Cesar Gracie in the middle of the presser and GSP was mad and no one could find Nick Diaz. Then, we did find Nick Diaz via a YouTube video he posted where he yelled at cars and apologized for not making it to the beauty pageant. It was fan-freakin-tastic. Everyone wondered about Diaz's future with the UFC but then, just a few days later, we learned that Diaz was not fired but would be facing B. J. Penn at UFC 137 in a little switcheroo kinda thing.

Shortly after that, Diaz gave an interview where he explained what happened and also ripped on GSP. A few weeks later, it turned out that GSP had a knee injury and would be sidelined for a while so the UFC 137 main event was changed to a fight between Nick Diaz and B.J. Penn, and GSP was set to face Carlos Condit in February. Then, after Diaz beat B.J. Penn at UFC 137, Diaz called out GSP in his post-fight interview and said he didn't think Georges was really hurt but was just scared . This apparently fired GSP up enough to specifically request a fight with Diaz so he could give him a hefty beat-down, so GSP's fight with Condit was off and he was set to face Diaz in February. And, Cesar Gracie called GSP a "little star guy". Unfortunately, GSP got hurt even more severely so now we'll have a main event in February of Nick Diaz vs. Carlos Condit at UFC 143.

3. Miesha Tate vs. Ronda Rousey

This went on for what seemed to be a really long time and it all started with Ronday Rousey ripping Julia Budd's arm off and then saying that she wanted to drop to 135 pounds and get a title shot at Miesha Tate. Miesha didn't like this because she said Rousey didn't deserve a title shot and took to Twitter, getting back up from some other Strikeforce women . Rousey went on the MMA Hour to talk about it and Miesha was still mad. Both Tate and Rousey went on the MMA Hour together shortly thereafter and Marloes Coenen also weighed in on the matter. Scott Coker said he was open to a Tate-Rousey fight and Strikeforce renewed its Showtime deal and we haven't heard too much about it all since then.

4. Rashad Evans vs. Jon Jones

Remember when these two were teammates? Yeah, it's been a while. But, Rashad Evans and Jon Jones seemed like they were fairly tight when they were both training with Greg Jackson. Since they both trained at Jackson's, there was apparently an assumption between them that they wouldn't fight each other even though they were in the same weight class. Well, after beating Mauricio Rua, Jones said that he would fight Rashad and Rashad got mad. They had a lot of back and forth and a heated exchange in a Las Vegas night club after the UFC fighter summit, Rashad texted Jones and called him a "fake ass white boy", Rashad ruined Jones's special moment twice and Rashad thinks Jones ducked him because of his scheduled thumb surgery which ended up not happening. It did look like the two would fight at UFC 140 but then Rashad got injured and had to pull out (he was replaced by Lyoto Machida).

If Rashad wins his fight against Phil Davis at UFC on Fox 2, this little beef could pick right back up again (how lucky for us!).

5. Chael Sonnen vs. The Nogueiras

Chael said that he saw the Nogueiras try to feed a carrot to a bus. Is there really anything more to say about it?

6. Matt Mitrione vs. Tito Ortiz

This one is a favorite of mine just because it was so silly and because Roy Nelson videotaped it. At the UFC fighter summit back in May, Mitrione (according to him) approached Tito Ortiz to say "Hello" and introduce himself. Because of things Mitrione had uttered about the mother of Tito's children, Jenna Jameson, Tito was none too happy to see Mitrione in his face. After the incident, Mitrione even said that he would drop weight so he could fight Tito but then Tito beat Ryan Bader and people sort of forgot about their little run-in. And, Mitrione even gave Tito Twitter props for the win. Also, remember when we saw Tito naked? Good times.

7. Chael Sonnen vs. Brazil

I was terribly amused when Chael Sonnen traveled to Brazil with Yushon Okami to train prior to Okami's fight against Anderson Silva. Chael had already been saying less than kind things about the country so when he showed up there and started tweeting about it, he got some reaction. It seems that they were all idle threats but it was still fun to read the tweets. After Chael's first trip to Brazil, there was a Facebook uprising of sorts against Chael with threats about what would happen to him if he returned to Brazil for Okami's fight. Chael then tricked everyone by saying he was heading to Brazil and that the Facebook nerds didn't scare him, but it turns out he didn't attempt the trip and Okami had to face Anderson Silva ll on his own.

What a fun year! I hope that we have just as much fun in 2012!