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Post by K1power on Dec 27, 2022 10:00:05 GMT 1
 It's that time again! Before I share my own picks I'd like to know what you guys thought. Here are some categories to help you get started: - Fight(s) Of The Year- Upset(s) Of The Year- Fighter(s) Of The Year- Breakout Fighter(s) Of The Year- Knockout(s) Of The Year- Comeback(s) Of The Year- Controversy(s) Of The Year- Event(s) Of The Year- Story(s) Of The YearYou can name a single favorite, do rankings or just share something that stood out to you in 2022. We'll be doing this for kickboxing, MMA and boxing. Let's kick this off! PS: Of course there's still Inoki Bom-Bam-Ye and Rizin's NYE event coming up, which may contain some good stuff. |
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Post by K1power on Jan 30, 2023 15:39:13 GMT 1
I feel like in 2022 I did an okay~ish job keeping up with MMA. Probably somewhere inbetween 2020 and 2021. And with that, on to my picks:
- Fight(s) Of The Year
Calvin Kattar vs. Giga Chikadze - Just a great brawl.
I also really enjoyed Francis Ngannou vs. Ciryl Gane, mostly because Gane really surprised me.
- Upset(s) Of The Year
Leon Edwards vs. Kamaru Usman - Usman was a favorite going into this, dominated the majority of the fight and then got blasted by that high kick right at the end.
Johnny Walker vs. Jamahal Hill - Walker was looking great until he walked into Hill.
- Fighter(s) Of The Year
Alex Pereira - He came into the UFC in late 2021 and within 4 fights he's the champion.
- Breakout Fighter(s) Of The Year
I'd probably have to go with Alex Pereira again.
- Knockout(s) Of The Year
Leon Edwards vs. Kamaru Usman - This one's just hitting multiple categories for me.
- Submission(s) Of The Year
Islam Makhachev vs. Charles Oliveira
- Comeback(s) Of The Year
Leon Edwards vs. Kamaru Usman - Without that late finish Edwards would have lost the fight.
- Controversy(s) Of The Year
- Petr Yan vs. Sean O’Malley
- Paddy Pimblett vs. Jared Gordon
Many people feel O'Malley and Pimblett were unfairly given the nods in their respective fights.
I've only seen clips of both fights so I don't feel strongly either way, but it was hard to miss the amount of backlash those decisions attracted.
One that I was more invested in personally was Khalil Rountree getting the nod over Dustin Jacoby.
When I finally watched that fight I felt Jacoby had done more than enough to win.
The whole Francis Ngannou contract negotiation wasn't a good look either, especially since it ended with him leaving the promotion in early 2023.
- Event(s) Of The Year
UFC on ESPN: Kattar vs. Chikadze - I realized I haven't reall watched any MMA events start to finish. It was mostly just clips, single fights or portions of the card. For that reason I'm going with the event that had my Fight of the Year pick on it.
I'd also like to at least mention the Japan NYE events of (INOKI BOM-BA-YE x Ganryujima and Rizin). I just saw clips of both, but I always enjoy the sheer craziness of J-MMA / NYE cards.
- Story(s) Of The Year
The sheer amount of legends of the sport we've lost the past year is just scary:
Gene LeBell, Stephan Bonnar, Anthony Johnson, Elias Theodorou, Antonio Inoki, Kitamura Katsuya.
And I feel that list is still missing a few. Not to mention the amount of Ukrainian fighters that fell victim to the war. Just a very unfortunate year and RIP to all.
We also had Cain Velasquez getting arrested for attempted murder, which was crazy.
Then Melvin Manhoef chased down some burglars that tried to break in his house, retired and then unretired from the sport all within a few months lol.
Then - and this is more of a Netherlands/Europe thing - there was the UFC moving away from Veronica to Discovery+/EuroSport, which was also a pretty big deal. Cool to see EuroSport becoming a presence in fightsports again, even if it's only for MMA at the moment.
And this one is not a big story in the grand scheme of things, but I enjoyed seeing JLB winning multiple MMA fights - at 50!
Finally, a feel good story to cap things off:
Gary Goodridge getting inducted in the Barrie Sports Hall Of Fame was great to see.
So what are your MMA picks?
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Post by K1power on Jan 30, 2023 15:43:12 GMT 1
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