February 26, 2020
By Ryan Porzl
Another year has come to a close which means it's time I give my year end awards for what I considered both the best and worst in Mixed Martial Arts. Keep in mind, I didn't focus on MMA as much as I wanted so I won't have as many categories this year.
Fighter of the Year: Israel Adesanya (UFC)- Originally, I thought of giving this to Douglas Lima who did have a great year but I gotta join the choir. Adesanya had showed a lot of potential before 2019 but he rose to the occasion and by years end, went from prospect to champion. Adesanya began the year with a win over the legend Anderson Silva and while Silva has been in a slump for years, it's still a big deal to score a win over him. Adesanya then followed it up with a win over former Ultimate Fighter winner Kelvin Gastelum to win the UFC Interim Middleweight Championship in a fight of the year candidate. He capped off the year by unifying the titles by defeating Middleweight Champion Robert Whittaker to become the undisputed Middleweight Champion. Adesanya has not only had a great 2019 but the sky's the limit in 2020.
Female Fighter of the Year: Amanda Nunes (UFC)- An obvious choice as the Lioness continues her dominant run. Nunes spent 2019 in the bantamweight division making two successful title defenses against two big names. In her first defense, she not only defeated former champion Holly Holm but TKOed the former boxing and kickboxing champion. In her second defense, she defeated first ever Women's Featherweight Champion Germaine de Randamie. She also continued to hold both the Women's Bantamweight and Women's Featherweight Championship which is also impressive though she didn't defend the Featherweight Championship.
Knockout of the Year: Jorge Masvidal flying knee over Ben Askren (UFC 239, 7/6)- I did consider the Cosmo Alexandre knockout over Sage Northcutt from ONE Championship but I decided to go with this one. Channeling the late, great Kid Yamamoto, Masvidal nailed a picture perfect flying knee as Askren was shooting for a takedown, ending the fight and Askren's undefeated streak all in five seconds.
Submission of the Year: Brent Primus gogoplata over Tim Wilde (Bellator Birmingham: Primus vs. Wilde, 5/4)- I couldn't think of any other choice and gogplatas are usually tough to pull off so I went with this. After attempting a kick and getting dropped with a punch after losing his balance, Primus had Wilde on top of him but he remained calm and within seconds locked in a hard to apply gogoplata and scored the submission win.
Upset of the Year: Kai Asakura over Kyoji Horiguchi (Rizin 18, 8/18)- This is an upset in many ways despite Asakura showing he's capable of being a future star in Mixed Martial Arts. First was the fact Horiguchi was the poster boy for Rizin and their biggest native star. Second was the fact Horiguchi was streaking as he not only was the Rizin Bantamweight Champion but had just won the Bellator Bantamweight Championship. Third, Horiguchi was riding a 13 fight win streak with his last loss being in his UFC Flyweight Title fight against Demetrious Johnson. Meanwhile, Asakura had potential but wasn't someone that was considered to be in Horiguchi's league and the thought was he be the latest to fall victim. Not only did that not happen, Asakura scored the huge upset in only 1:08 into the fight. Given not only the win but where both fighters were at the time and how quick it ended, this makes it my pick.
Breakthrough Fighter of the Year: Manel Kape (Rizin)- I did consider picking the surging Kai Asakura but giving what happened New Year's Eve, I chose Kape instead. Since arriving in Rizin, Kape has shown great potential but 2019 saw him take it to the next level going 3-0. Throughout the year, he climbed the mountain before finally reaching the top. He first defeated former ZST Flyweight Champion Seiichiro Ito at Rizin 15 in April then defeated former UFC fighter Takuya Mizugaki at Rizin 18 in August and finally, replaced an injured Kyoji Horiguchi to upset the streaking Kai Asakura at Rizin 20 on New Year's Eve. The latter win saw Kape become the new Rizin Bantamweight Champion (due to the injury to Horiguchi) and avenge a close loss against Asakura from 2018.
Comeback Fighter of the Year: Demetrious Johnson (ONE)- For several years, the man most considered the best fighter in the world was Demetrious Johnson. From 2012-2018, Mighty Mouse dominated UFC's flyweight division with an iron fist not only putting on spectacular performances but making elite opponents come off inferior as they had no answer for his speed. Well, all good things must come to an end and that end occurred in August 2018 when Johnson lost a close split decision to Henry Cejudo and lost his flyweight championship. If that wasn't enough, Johnson would also find himself out of the UFC and into ONE Championship due to a trade for Ben Askren. After leaving 2018 with an uncertain future, Johnson bounced back in a big way in 2019, going 3-0, and winning ONE's flyweight grand prix which will grant him a shot at Adriano Moraes in 2020. After suffering some devastating setbacks in 2018, Johnson rebuilt in 2019 and looks to once again be a flyweight kingpin in 2020.
Announcer of the Year: "Big" John McCarthy (Bellator)- McCarthy again gets the award for the same reasons as before. He's knowledgeable, he doesn't come off biased, and he's not annoying or over the top. MMA's most famous referee continues to show he's got more to offer the sport than reffing and more to say than "Let's Get It On!".
Worst Fighter of the Year: Rampage Jackson (Bellator)- The legendary Rampage is one of MMA's greats and may have only fought once but I pick him because of that lousy performance. It's been documented for at least a decade that Jackson has been accused of not being motivated and trying his hardest during fights. This seemed to be confirmed when the natural light heavyweight made the jump to heavyweight because he doesn't want to cut weight anymore. The end result is a bloated and out of shape Rampage putting on mostly mediocre performances over the years. However, he hit rock bottom when he took on Fedor Emelianenko at Bellator's Japan show on December 29th. Despite fighting at 205 lbs during his peak and likely walking around at 220-230 pounds when not cutting weight, Jackson came in to this fight at 265 lbs which the limit for heavyweights. Jackson looked embarrassingly overweight and put on a pathetic performance in what should've been a dream fight but instead, he was finished off in a little over two minutes and given his first TKO loss since Mauricio "Shogun" Rua back in 2005 in PRIDE. The performance and his physique were so bad that even Jackson admitted to being ashamed and vows to get back to light heavyweight. Whether he does or not remains to be seen but 2019 was not a banner year for Rampage Jackson.
Worst Announcer of the Year: Joe Rogan (UFC)- Again, anybody who knows me knows I'm not the biggest Rogan fan. Yes, the man is knowledgeable in MMA but his commentary has bugged me a lot of the time. Rogan has always been accused of being biased in fights and at times he just sounds annoying to listen to. What's even worse is he now says "woo" after every major strike thrown which makes you want to knock his ass out with a punch.
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