MMA: The year in review

[Snail Shell]

Personal Stats:

Final score: 61/85 (71.8%)
Best card of the year: TUF 9 Finale (5/5) and Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Rogers (4/4) - 100%
Worst card of the year: UFC 106 (1/4) - 25%

Year in Review:

Fight of the Year
These are the fights that had us cheering our lungs out from bell to bell.

Diego Sanchez vs. Clay Guida
This fight was ugly from the stare down onward. All kinds of energy and action on behalf of both fighters and a credit to the sport.

Honourable mentions:
Dan Henderson vs. Rich Franklin
Rampage Jackson vs. Keith Jardine
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Randy Couture
Nate Quarry vs. Tim Creduer


Knockout of the Year
This is hard to call just because there were so many amazing KO's and TKO's this year. Striking has been re-invented in MMA and this is proof.

Anderson Silva vs. Forrest Griffin
Anderson Silva knocked out Forrest Griffin while walking backwards with a jab. It wasn't the flashiest KO or most unexpected, but far and away, it was the most impressive.

Honourable Mentions:
Paulo Thiago vs. Josh Koschek (upset of the year)
Shane Carwin vs. Gabriel Gonzaga
Shogun Rua vs. Chuck Liddell
Lyoto Machida vs. Rashad Evans
Dan Henderson vs. Michael Bisping (close second)
Nate Marquardt vs. Damien Maia (close second)
Todd Duffee vs. Tim Hague
Vitor Belfort vs. Rich Franklin
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Luiz Cane


Submissions of the Year
Sadly, there weren't many amazing submissions this year. There were good submissions, don't get me wrong. But I miss Dustin Hazelett's flying armbar on Josh Burkman. 😛

BJ Penn vs. Kenny Florian
This wasn't just a great submission victory, it was a statement amde by BJ Penn that he is one of the best in the world for a damn good reason.

Honourable Mentions:
Krzysztof Soszynski vs. Brian Stann
James Wilks vs. Damarques Johnson
Tom Lawlor vs. CB Dolloway
Jake Rosholt vs. Chris Leben
Nate Diaz vs. Melvin Guillard
Josh Koschek vs. Anthony Johnson
Frank Mir vs. Cheick Kongo



Beatdowns of the Year
These are the fights that are just painful to watch. The kind where you take a before and after photo of one fighter and swear they're two different guys.

Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir
When Mir left the cage, he looked like he'd been hit by a bus. It was just painful to watch that second round.

Honourable Mentions:
Georges St. Pierre vs. BJ Penn
Cain Velasquez vs. Cheick Kongo
Joe Stevenson vs. Spenser Fisher
Matt Brown vs. James Wilks
Cyborg Santos vs. Gina Carano
BJ Penn vs. Diego Sanchez (close second)



Fighters of the Year
To clarify, these are not the fighters with the biggest wins or even the best records this year. These are fighters that performed in 2009 to the point where I would make it a point to see them fight again in 2010.

Shogun Rua
After a horrid fight in January with Mark Coleman, Rua re-tooled his training and conditioning to the point where he KO'd Chuck Liddell badly and went the distance with Lyoto Machida. The bottom line is the Shogun that terrorized PRIDE three years ago is back. Expect a belt around his waist before the end of next year.

Honourable Mentions:
Jon Jones
Cain Velasquez
Joe Stevenson
Jake Rosholt



Worst Fight of the Year
Fights that were painful to watch because, for whatever reason, they just fell apart, didn't meet the hype or were otherwise lousy.

Anderson Silva vs. Thales Leites
Silva has nothing to apologize for on this one. Whenever he came in to finish the fight like a champion, Leites laid on his back and waited for the ref to stand them up again. If you can't handle getting KO'd, get out of MMA and go back to BJJ competitions.

Honourable Mentions:
Shogun Rua vs. Mark Coleman
Forrest Griffin vs. Tito Ortiz



Worst Decision of the Year
AKA: the What Were The Judges Watching?!?! Award

Lyoto Machida vs. Shogun Rua
Every pundit, analyst, fan and fighter called this fight 4 round to 1 for Rua, except for 4 people: Dana White and the three judges. Shogun should be the LHW champion going into 2010.

Honourable Mentions:
Rich Franklin vs. Wanderlei Silva (should have been at least a split decision)
Forrest Griffin vs. Tito Ortiz (should have been unanimous for Griffin, just like the first fight should have been unanimous for Ortiz)
Matt Brown vs. Chris Lytle (should have been stopped much earlier. Lytle took a lot of unnecessary punishment)



Worst Fighters of the Year
These are the fighters that I'm just not excited about going into 2010.

Fedor Emelianenko
Yeah, I said it. If Fedor is going to interest the sport any more, he has to fight competitors at his level. With all due respect, Strikeforce just doesn't have the talent pool to give Fedor a real challenge. After he takes the belt from Alistair Overeem, who's left? Maybe a rematch with Arlovski? If Fedor wants to interest the fight world, he still has Couture, Lesnar, Carwin, Mir, Kongo, Barnett and Velasquez to fight. Sadly, those fights all seem unlikely at this point.

Honourable Mentions:
Stephan Bonnar (The Marty Jannetty of MMA, lol)
Thales Leites
Mark Coleman
Chris Leben

What to expect next year:

155
-BJ Penn will stay champ for a long time
-title shots for Tyson Griffin and Frank Edgar

170
-Georgers St. Pierre stays champion
-Dan Hardy and Josh Koschek get title shots
-If GSP beats Hardy, we may see Anderson Silva vs. GSP as early as the summer
-Paul Daley becomes a top contender

185
-Vitor Belfort vs. Nate Marquardt for #1 contender while Silva is injured
-Dan Henderson dominates Strikeforce
-Michael Bisping vs. Wanderlei Silva is already signed
-Anderson Silva stays champ and ultimately retires that way near the start of 2011

205
-Shogun Rua defeats Lyoto Machida in a rematch early in the year
-Rampage Jackson comes out of retirement to fight Rashad Evans
-Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz are set to coach TUF 11. The subsequent match between them is for show only. Neither will get a serious run at the belt
-Randy Couture vs. Mark Coleman already announced

265
-Brock Lesnar is stripped of the belt as a result of his illness
-Cain Velasquez and Frank Mir get title shots
-Todd Duffee becomes title contender
-Fedor becomes Strikeforce HW champion and stays there

See you next year!

Snail Shell

 

[Bizkit]

Nice post Snail.

I still have yet to tally up my picks.Partly because I'm lazy but also I don't want to be faced with the utter failure of my predictions.😛 I'll do it later tonight and post em.

2009 was a very defining year.We saw the p4p best really further their legacies with dominance in their repsective divisions.While it's great to see such high level skill that is clearly above and beyond,at the same time,it's frusterating to make appealing fights within the divisions.

I think that's most apparent now in the lw division after BJ's performance last night.While I don't see GSP even coming close to losing his belt,for me at least there a few semi-intriguing fights at ww for him.I can't think of one fight at lw that interests me for BJ.There are a few fighters beyond the walls of Zuffa that interest me for BJ in Alvarez and Kawajiri.I'll even go as far to say Aoki as well.Even though I wouldn't take Aoki and his stand up is far inferior to BJ's,the ground aspect at least has some intrigue.

For Anderson Silva,I have no interest in seeing him at 185.I would prefer to see him challenge himself at 205 on a regular basis.

I was disappointed to only see Minotauro fight once this year.His fight with Couture was very entertaining and that is for sure one of my favorite fights of the year.Him and Cain should match up well and I like that fight a lot.

Shogun definately deserves props for fighter of the year.He's never in a boring fight and always brings it.I even enjoyed the Coleman bout at 93.The fact that both fighters completely ran out of steam added a certain element of interest for me.Despite both fighters being gassed,they still pushed it just seemed to be in slow motion. 🙂

We're finally seeing the UFC's HW division build some momentum.Even bringing in guys like Buentello and Yvel spice it up a little.I think the HW title will be changing hands quite a bit down the line.

As far as Fedor,I'm always psyched to see him fight.It'll be interesting to see what moves he makes if he cleans out Strikeforce's HW division that is decent but lacking great depth.I like the Overeem fight.I can't remember Fedor fighting a tall,rangy muay thai guy with somewhat well rounded skills.He fought Semmy but that was a little different.Overeem's KO in his first fight of the K-1 GP proved that he is dangerous.With that said,Alistair getting wobbled in his second fight showed that his chin is questionable.
I hope we'll see him in the UFC if Strikeforce fails to bring in more quality HW's.I still like the Barnett fight but I'd rather see Josh get a fight with a top contender before he gets a shot at Fedor.He's created such an aura about himself without even being an over the top personality.I find some people overly critical when it comes to Fedor.I'll be reading an article and they make a huge deal about him getting hit.It's almost like people expectations are so high that he's not allowed to make even the smallest mistake.It seems some critics are on the edge of the seats waiting for the opportunity to discredit him.

I won't ramble on all day but I look forward to seeing what 2010 brings.Hopefully my predictions will improve for the coming year.I have a hard time picturing them being any worse.LOL.I hope to see Fedor continue his winning ways.I would like to see Minotauro and Shogun both become title holders in 2010.Shogun/Minotoro 2 hopefully comes to be.And I still hold out hope for the checkered hero from Croatia to rise from the ashes even if it's only slightly.

Edit: I got a score of 19/41.The actual count seems lower than I thought it would be.I know I missed a bunch in the beginning of the year but I still thought I made predictions for more fights.The consistancy seems to be correct though.My picks were absolutely disgusting.

 

[travtick]

Personal Stats:

Worst Fighters of the Year

Honourable Mentions:
Stephan Bonnar (The Marty Jannetty of MMA, lol)

Snail Shell

The Marty Jannetty of MMA - genius!

 

[Snail Shell]

The Marty Jannetty of MMA - genius!

Sadly, unless Bonnar steps up his game and starts winning winable fights (Coleman, Jones), that's exactly what he'll become.

Snail Shell

 

[embomb]

I know this is an old post but man you predicted pretty accurately, koscheck and hardy got title shots.... Daley got his chance then screwed it with that cheap shot and rampage and rashad are fighting very soon! nice job!