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The MMA media’s version of ant-infested fruitcake: Year-end awards

By Zach Arnold | December 23, 2010

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The Bazzie Awards (Dec 31st on HDNet at 8 PM EST), on HDNet. It’s the channel’s year-end awards. Here’s the categories and the nominees they selected.

KO (Punch of the Year)
Hector Lombard’s 6-second KO of Jay Silva (Bellator 18)
– Mike Russow finishes off Todd Duffee (UFC 114)
– Cain Velasquez pummels Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (UFC 110)
Robbie Lawler disposes of Melvin Manhoef (SF Miami)
BJ Penn gives Matt Hughes a 20-second greeting (UFC 123)
– Marlon Sandro’s 38-second KO of Masanori Kanehara (Sengoku 13)

KO (Kick of the Year – video package)
– Anthony Pettis has a special greeting for Danny Castillo (WEC 47)
– George Roop sends The Korean Zombie into a deep sleep (WEC 51)
– Maximo Blanco finishes off Chang Hyun Kim (Sengoku 12)
– Tom Watson (MFC 24) over Travis Galbraith
Cole Escovedo sends Yoshiro Maeda to get some smelling salts (DREAM 13)

Submission of the Year (video package)
– Fabricio Werdum vs. Fedor at Strikeforce last June in San Jose
Scott Jorgensen vs. Chad George (WEC 47)
– Matt Hughes vs. Ricardo Almeida (UFC 117 in Oakland)
– Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen (UFC 117 in Oakland)
Michelle Waterson with flying armbar on Rosary Califano (Extreme Beatdown)
– Shinya Aoki achilles’ hold on Crusher Kawajiri (DREAM 15)
Douglas Lima (MFC 27) triangle arm-bar on Jesse Juarez

Most Bizarre Moment (video package)
– Paul Daley’s post-fight punch on Josh Koscheck last May in Montreal
– Strikeforce Nashville post-fight brawl with Mayhem Miller and the Cesar Gracie camp on CBS
Krzyszstof Sozysnski ‘checks the oil’ at UFC 122
– Post fight celebration (V3 Fights)
– Jonathan Ivey’s rolls (USA MMA)
Robin Black vs. Matt Knysh (Aggression MMA)

Female MMA fighter of the year
Marloes Coenen
Megumi Fujii
Cris Cyborg
Zoila Frausto
Miesha Tate

MMA Fight of the Year (Best Bout – video package)
– Leonard Garcia vs. Korean Zombie (WEC 48 at Arco Arena in Sacramento)
– Chris Leben vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama (UFC 116 in Las Vegas)
– Brock Lesnar vs. Shane Carwin (UFC 116 in Las Vegas)
– Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen (UFC 117 in Oakland)
Jorge Santiago vs. Kazuo Misaki (Sengoku 14)
– Chris Lozano vs. Jason Dent (NAAFS)

MMA Fighter of the Year (MVP)
Jose Aldo
Frankie Edgar
Alistair Overeem
Anderson Silva
Cain Velasquez

2010 MMA Upset of the Year
– Frankie Edgar vs. BJ Penn (UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi)
– Fabricio Werdum vs. Fedor (Strikeforce last June in San Jose)
– Chris Leben vs. Yoshihiro AKiyama (UFC 116 in Las Vegas)
– Jake Shields vs. Dan Henderson (Strikeforce last April in Nashville)
– John Hathaway vs. Diego Sanchez (UFC 114 in Las Vegas)
– Manny Gamburyan vs. Mike Brown (WEC 48 at Arco Arena in Sacramento)

2010 MMA Fight Team of the Year
American Kickboxing Academy
American Top Team
Jackson’s MMA
Black House MMA
Golden Glory
Team Tompkins/Tapout

2010 MMA Breakthrough Fighter of the Year
Phil “Mr. Wonderful” Davis
Frankie Edgar
Jon “Bones” Jones
Rory MacDonald
George Sotiropoulos

Feel free to write in your own choices for each of these awards.

Topics: HDNet, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 17 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

17 Responses to “The MMA media’s version of ant-infested fruitcake: Year-end awards”

  1. bundt says:

    I guess I’ll probably be the only one banging this drum but I thought the stand out fight this year was Yves Jabouin v Mark Hominick. I don’t want to tear down the other fights to explain why I like this one so much, so I’m not going to compare them. But there are several ingredients I think make it the fight of the year.

    For one thing, it had the feeling that either guy could end it abruptly. For me, the fight of the year always pretty much has to have been exciting, and a fight isn’t exciting for me unless both guys show they have a chance to take the other guy out.

    Now that’s applicable to a lot of fights, but this had more. Not only COULD both guys hurt the other, and change the flow of the fight, they both did, and kept doing it right up until the end of the match.

    And even more rare, it wasn’t a sloppy wrestle boxing bullshit fest, or lame ass wrestling on the ground like neither guy ever learned jiu jitsu. No, actually both these guys were sharp strikers with speed, power and good technique, and they were doing more than awful brawling; they were trying to size the other guys defense and offense up.

    I feel like that was really one of the best fights I’ve seen in awhile.

    my other choice would be Faber/Assuncao but that’s only because I remember back in 2005 dreaming on that fight

  2. edub says:

    “I guess I’ll probably be the only one banging this drum but I thought the stand out fight this year was Yves Jabouin v Mark Hominick.”

    I agree I wrote that in to the MMA awards that were on versus, but it didn’t make the final cut.

    However now, I think the FOTY for 2010 is Henderson vs. Pettis. I figured that this show was put together before they saw the fight.

  3. KO: Lawler/Manhoef. There wasn’t a stoppage among the big fights that came from strikes which was really a WOAH moment in my mind, so this is an award that I’ve never been upset about going to smaller or less important events. So – Lawler getting massacred and then laying out Manhoef is definitely my pick.

    Fight: Sonnen/Silva. Remember how people flipped out over Couture/Sylvia? That fight sucks if you watch it now because the context of the live event is gone. Sonnen/Silva is a lot like that, but much better.

    Submission: I dunno. Nothing stands out.

    Upset is Penn/Edgar 2 for me personally. It was one thing for Penn to lose to Edgar, which I flat out couldn’t believe would happen. But for Penn to lose again was shocking to me.

    Team: Jackson MMA. Look at the results.

    Breakthrough: Edgar. Came into the year an also ran, left the world champion.

  4. 45 Huddle says:

    No problems with seeing Fight of the Year or KO/Submission of the year.

    I have always found “Fighter of the Year” to be a weird award. Fighters compete like 2 to 3 times a year. It’s such a small sample size.

  5. EJ says:

    KO (Punch of the Year)-
    Robbie Lawler disposes of Melvin Manhoef (SF Miami)

    “Love this KO because it was set up so beautifully by Lawler. Some people got so caught up in the leg kicks by Melvin that they missed out on how Robbie set the whole thing up.”

    KO (Kick of the Year)-
    George Roop sends The Korean Zombie into a deep sleep (WEC 51)

    “I picked this because it came out of nowhere Roop’s striking seemed off at first, like he coulnd’t find his range and then boom lights out.”

    Submission of the Year-
    Fabricio Werdum vs. Fedor at Strikeforce last June in San Jose

    “Nuff said.”

    Most Bizarre Moment-
    Strikeforce Nashville post-fight brawl with Mayhem Miller and the Cesar Gracie camp on CBS

    “I was just left shaking my head in disgust when this happened, it’s like SF was trying to kill mma for everyone.”

    Female MMA fighter of the year-
    Cris Cyborg

    “Could go either way but i’ll pick Cyborg this was the toughest one for me personally.”

    MMA Fight of the Year (Best Bout)-
    Leonard Garcia vs. Korean Zombie (WEC 48 at Arco Arena in Sacramento)

    “People can complain all they want about the sloppyness or the decision. But me I got flashbacks to Forrest & Bonnar when I saw it and that’s the only other time I was on the edge of my seat like that.”

    MMA Fighter of the Year (MVP)-
    Frankie Edgar

    “Frankie made the biggest statement of any fighter by beating not only BJ Penn twice but stampingh himself as the best LW on the planet”

    2010 MMA Upset of the Year-
    Fabricio Werdum vs. Fedor (Strikeforce last June in San Jose)

    “This was clearly set up as another fight to prop up Fedor but Werdum had other plans. Best thing about it all was the sheer shock and dismay of Fedor fans. Who still can’t come to grasp that he was beaten pretty simply by a debatable top 10 HW in the span of less than 2 minutes.”

    2010 MMA Fight Team of the Year-
    Jackson’s MMA

    “Best overall camp in mma.”

    2010 MMA Breakthrough Fighter of the Year-
    Frankie Edgar

    “Frankie really broke through and made not 1 but 2 big statements as to where he stood and just how good he is by handling BJ twice.”

    • Nepal says:

      “Love this KO because it was set up so beautifully by Lawler. Some people got so caught up in the leg kicks by Melvin that they missed out on how Robbie set the whole thing up.”

      I think everyone in the world but you missed how he set that “whole thing up”.

  6. Woz says:

    KO Punch – Lawler (vs Manhoef)
    KO Kick – Escovedo (vs Maeda)
    Submission – Anderson Silva (vs Sonnen)
    Upset – Werdum (vs Fedor)
    FOTY – Santiago/Misaki #2
    Breakthrough – Sotiropoulous

  7. edub says:

    KO punch- Ruthless

    KO kick- Roop

    KO anything (made this up)- Sarah Kauffman’s slam

    Upset of the year- Werdum

    Fighter of the year- Edgar (not much tops beating BJ 2x at 155)

    Female fighter of the year- Miesha Tate

    Fight team/camp- AKA (strictly because I don’t consider GSP a Jackson MMA guy)

    Breakthrough fighter of the year- Jonny Bones

  8. David M says:

    worst decisions of the year: every fight involving Leonard Garcia that did not have him losing every round.

    • edub says:

      But he tries so hard…

    • The Gaijin says:

      and he’s “active” and “tries to finish”!!

    • David M says:

      I was fooling around on the NSAC site and I found out that in subsection 501.321(A)(3) there is a set of scoring criterion specific to Leonard Garcia fights. I copied and pasted the criterion because I assumed it was an error that such information would be online, and lo and behold, it was gone an hour later.

      501.321(A)(3)Leonard Garcia fights scoring criterion:
      i. Hard swings are to be scored more than landed punches.
      ii. Being punched in the face but not falling down scores more than landed punches.
      iii. Walking straight forward with your hands at your sides due to exhaustion is the only kind of ring generalship.
      iv. Moving at diagonals in and out, effective counterpunching, and accuracy are to be disregarded when scoring a fight.
      v. Whichever fighter appears to be more tired should be rewarded for fighting in such a manner as to make him tired; a fighter who still seems fresh at the end of a round did not do enough to win the round.

  9. Dave says:

    I love seeing Golden Glory represented here.

  10. robthom says:

    KO (Punch of the Year)

    – Mike Russow finishes off Todd Duffee (UFC 114)
    A good prospect gets bizarrely cut after a loss to a justified vet?!
    Drama +10

    – Cain Velasquez pummels Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
    The beginning of the end for Bigwon.
    But I was mostly impressed by never seeing those hands off of cain before. +5

    – Robbie Lawler disposes of Melvin Manhoef.
    I expected that.
    Although it seems unfair, +0 because Robbie is already a pimp.

    – BJ Penn gives Matt Hughes a 20-second greeting (UFC 123)
    +10, -5.

    BJ is bad when he wants to be/ when it suits him.
    Against Hughes or Diego he’s huffing and chomping at the bit.
    Against someone else, not so focused.

    KO (Kick of the Year – video package)
    – Anthony Pettis has a special greeting for Danny Castillo (WEC 47)
    Wins for popularity, like murikan idol.
    Honestly I haven’t seen most of the rest of those guys.

    Submission of the Year (video package)
    – Fabricio Werdum vs. Fedor at Strikeforce last June in San Jose
    One of the most important fights this year.
    The only thing to trump that would be that weird reversed upright thing from bellator last year.

    Most Bizarre Moment (video package)
    – Paul Daley’s post-fight punch on Josh Koscheck last May in Montreal
    Once again not familiar with a few of those.

    But Semtex’ lack of commonly agreed to rules of social decency would be hard to trump.

    Female MMA fighter of the year
    – Miesha Tate
    Yumm!

    MMA Fight of the Year (Best Bout – video package)

    – Brock Lesnar vs. Shane Carwin (UFC 116 in Las Vegas)
    ^^
    The most important.

    – Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen (UFC 117 in Oakland)
    ^^
    The most influential!

    MMA Fighter of the Year (MVP)
    – Jose Aldo

    Carwin a VERY close #2

    2010 MMA Upset of the Year
    – Frankie Edgar vs. BJ Penn (UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi)
    I keep forgetting what a flake bj can be when we want to!

    – Fabricio Werdum vs. Fedor (Strikeforce last June in San Jose)
    ^^
    I much more expected this!

    More influential, but not as surprising IMO.

    2010 MMA Fight Team of the Year

    Thats a hard one.
    Across a whole team there are many failures and many Achievements.

    Maybe blackhouse percentage wise.
    Because there are fewer of them.

    But Jacksons and AKA’s seem to have more variables in the game.

    2010 MMA Breakthrough Fighter of the Year
    – George Sotiropoulos

    Bones is the future, but it seems like we’ve known that for more than a year.

  11. MMA Fan Ohio says:

    war NAAFS! Dent and Lozano for FOTY and Mr Wonderful gets Fighter of the year nod here. Glad to see the Midwest fight scene getting some respect nationaly

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