Fighter of the Year
Anderson Silva
Dominating victories over Nate Marquardt, and former champ Rich Franklin, along with a vicious submission win over Travis Lutter, made Silva the best choise in my opinion.
Fight of the Year
Roger Huerta vs Leonard Garcia
Out of all of Huerta's fights this year (all of which were exciting), this one was definately my favorite. Nonstop action from start to finish, Huerta really asserted himself as the dominant fighter. But Garcia showed TONS of heart slugging it out to the bitter end. The only downfall to this one was the two of them making out after the fight
Best KO
Keith Jardine vs Houston Alexander
I absolutely loved this KO. Jardine was bouncing around like a shaved orangutan and Houston absolutely leveled him. Jardine's mouth guard bouncing across the octagon was just the candle on the cake.
Best Sub
Marcus Davis vs Paul Taylor
In an amazing fight, Davis was rocked big time by a head kick and the punches that followed. But, showing amazing heart he managed to regain composure, get mount position and transition into a beautiful armbar.
Breakout Fighter
Jon Fitch
I realize that Fitch has been fighting for the UFC for quite a while now, but it seemed that his undefeated streak had gone basically unnoticed by most fans. But his wins over Fioravanti, Roan Carneiro, and most notably Diego Sanchez have thrust Fitch into the spotlight big time, and many now think that he is the best candidate to beat GSP.
Comeback Fighter
Randy Couture
This one is easy. After his second loss to Chuck Liddell, Randy retired only to come back at the age of 43 and completely dominate Heavyweight champ Tim Sylvia for 5 rounds. He then went on to basically humiliate a fighter than many people thought would walk right though him in Gonzaga.
Best Event
Ultimate Fight Night 10
Scoff if you must, but this was a fantastic night of fights. It looked ok on paper but man did these fights develop. Thiago Tavares looked phenomenal with his grappling and BJJ, and eventually tapped out Jason Black with a triangle. Drew McFedries knocked the dog crap out of Jordan Radev; Jon Fitch put on a great display in choking out Roan Carneiro; and Stout vs Fisher II was a crazy awesome slugfest with Fisher showing some very impressive striking.
Biggest Upset
Matt Serra over Georges St. Pierre
Damn, I don't even like thinking about this fight being a huge GSP fan. So this fight was not only the biggest upset in terms of GSP being the heavy favorite, but I personally wanted to throw up when I saw it.
Biggest Bust
Melvin Guillard
LoL, talk about a bad year. After a mass of shit talking to Joe Stevenson, Melvin gets tapped out like 1 minute into the fight. He then proceeds to accuse Stevenson of roiding and then tests positive for coke himself. And if that wasn't bad enough, he comes off his suspension and escalates the shit talking, only this time to Rich Clementi, to the point that there are life threats and all kinds of crazy shit. And what does Melvin get for all his efforts? He gets completely tooled and humiliated by Clementi. Haha I'm not sure if this is even the right category for this, but any reason to bash Guillard is cool with me.
Biggest Disappointment
Mirko Cro Cop
Obviously we all had huge expectations for Cro Cop in the UFC. Heck, just look at the "Champs at the end of 2007" thread. I know I thought that Mirko was going to kick the heads off of everyone they threw at him, but instead, he got his cranium smashed by Gabriel Gonzaga. The following fight with Kongo I figured there was no way Mirko was losing this one. He is too focused and he is training too hard. Wrong again. While he did well in the opening round, he seemed to fall apart in the second and third, which some will attribute to the groin strikes. But overall Cro Cop has been a big letdown this year.
Whew I think thats all
Good stuff Matt.
2007: A year to remember
I hate losing Avatar bets.
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