This year we'll be doing the "Best Of" picks in similar fashion to last year. Before starting off with my own picks I'd like to see what you guys thought of the year.
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)/Submission(s) Of The Year
- Comeback(s) Of The Year
- Controversy(s) Of The Year
- Event(s) Of The Year
- Story(s) Of The Year
You can name a single favorite or do rankings, just let us know what your picks for 2016 are!
We'll be doing this for kickboxing, MMA and boxing!
fight of the year choi vs swanson fighter of the year could go to mcgregor for becoming a dual champ. cody garbrandt had a great year and knocked off an unbeatable cruz the king of 135 and made it look easy.
i forget too much stuff as the year goes on. lol. lando vanatta. ko of the year. remembered that one just now.
Had to watch some stuff before doing these, that's why these took the longest:
- Fight(s) Of The Year Cub Swanson vs Doo Ho Choi - I have only watched it just now, but man what a crazy entertaining scrap. Nate Diaz vs Conor McGregor - Both fights. I don't know how real their hatred for each other is, but the trashtalk really helped sell the fights and they were out to kill each other in both fights.
- Upset(s) Of The Year Nate Diaz vs Conor McGregor I - I don't think many picked Diaz over McGregor, but man was that an impressive performance by Diaz. Turned me from a Diaz brothers skeptic into a fan.
- Fighter(s) Of The Year Conor McGregor - Starting the year with a surprising loss only to come back, take revenge AND win a second belt within the same year. Hate him or love him that deserves acknowledgement. Mirko CroCop - At age 42 written off by most, but damn it he went through 2016 with 4 straight finishes against decent opponents and ends his career on a high note, winning the 2016 Rizin OWGP Championship.
- Breakout Fighter(s) Of The Year Cody Garbrandt - He's had a great year and solidified it by taking the bantamweight belt by dethroning Dominick Cruz. Amanda Nunes - She pretty much came out of nowhere and both won and defended the title by destroying Tate and Rousey inside a single round.
- Knockout(s)/Submission(s) Of The Year Ryan Bader vs Ilir Latifi
That's one scary KO
Anthony Johnson vs Glover Teixeira - Pure brutality and great display of scary power. Nate Diaz vs Conor McGregor I - Just a great submission finish in an upset over one of the biggest names in MMA.
- Comeback(s) Of The Year Gegard Mousasi - Mousasi is one of those fighters who is talented and tends to talk big, but has been very inconsistent throughout the majority of his career. He's been solid in 2016 though, with 4 straight victories over Thales Leites, Thiago Santos, Vitor Belfort and Uriah Hall. Conor McGregor - McGregor's loss to Diaz must have been a huge mental blow to him, but he came back to take revenge on Diaz and pulverize Eddie Alvarez and took his second belt all within the same year. Jose Aldo - His loss to McGregor was absolutely devastating, but after Aldo took some time off he came back with a very impressive 5 round clinic against Frankie Edgar that won him the Interim Featherweight belt.
- Controversy(s) Of The Year The Brock Lesnar / Mark Hunt situation - After their fight it was revealed that Lesnar tested positive for PEDs and ever since Hunt has been on a crusade about how he should be better compensated for risking his life against 'roided freaks'. The whole thing came off as incredibly insincere and it just seems like Hunt has been trying to push the envelope with the UFC's new owners. What really rubbed me the wrong way though was when on Facebook Hunt started lashing out at fans calling out his shenanigans, profanities and everything. Great way to make yourself look like an idiot.
The continuation of huge fights consistently falling through in the UFC. This was probably most notable in UFC 200 where huge names like Jones and McGregor were suddenly out and the whole thing ended up being somewhat disappointing for such a marquee event.
Roy Nelson getting in trouble for playfully kicking ref John McCarthy for stepping in too late in Nelson's fight against Silva, but Fabricio Werdum getting off scot-free after kicking Travis Browne's coach Edmond Tarverdyan. Don't get me wrong, Tarverdyan probably deserves way more than a kick, but you can't have these double standards. Both incidents should have been addressed.
The whole Anderson Silva VS Michael Bisping flying knee situation.
- Event(s) Of The Year UFC 196 - Mostly because of Diaz upsetting McGregor. UFC 202 - I was rooting for Diaz, but we still ended up with a great fight and very solid event overall. Rizin December 29th & 31st shows - As far as quality of the fights and fighters go it can't match the UFC's better events, but damn these shows are entertaining. WARRR J-Events!!
- Story(s) Of The Year The UFC changing ownership - Leaked rumors and a lot of denial early on probably caused more coverage than this should have gotten, but the result of the change in ownership was that within a very short amount of time numerous fighters were "quitting the UFC" or "retiring from MMA" just to secure themselves a better deal.
Like in the kickboxing and boxing subforums I'm not going to make a morbid category for this, but we also lost some MMA fighters in 2016: Kevin Ferguson aka Kimbo Slice Kevin Randleman This goes out to all those that we lost.
So last, but not least these are my picks for MMA. With 40+ UFC events alone in 2016 it's needless to say I missed a ton of stuff, but I do feel like I watched the biggest fights and caught most of what was happening on the grand scale of all things MMA.
