Fighter of the year, starting with 1993

[PrideRules]

2000
Kazushi "The Gracie Hunter" Sakuraba

A relative no name coming from pro wrestling, he raised eyebrows in 1998 in a stunning display of grappling, tapping a former UFC champ Carlos Newton. In 1999, he followed up with a win over Vitor Belfort that looked suspect, but went on to no just beat, but submit a member of the royal family of mma, Royler Gracie.

This setup his memorable year in 2000. Starting with questionable win where Guy Mezger left the ring after officials decided spontaneously to add a round, then after 90 minutes, undefeated mma great, Royce Gracie could take no mas. Saku went on that same night to put on a valiant effort vs the monster in Igor and ended up no mas after the first.

Saku then went on to break Renozs arm and beat Ryan, single handily dismantling of the royal family of mma, ending an era. In their own game no less. 3 Gracie's in one year when no one had beaten a single one before. Legend.

It caturpulted him into biggest star in mma and the launching pad for Japan's love with mma that would be the foundation for the golden era of mma.

They would repay him by giving him bouts with Rampage, Wand, Arona, Crocop, Randleman, Lil Nog, Melvin. A blown up welterweight by today's standards fighting much heavier monsters of the game. At least they spared him Fedor.

Fucking japs.

 

[PrideRules]

2002-2009
Fedor Emelianenko

During those years he was clearly the best heavyweight on the planet going 22-0 with wins over Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira x2, Brett Rogers, Andrei Arlovski, Tim Sylvia, Matt Lindland, Mark Hunt, Mirko Filipovic, Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, Kevin Randleman, Mark Coleman x2, Gary Goodridge, Kazuyuki Fujita, Heath Herring, Semmy Schilt, and more.

A case can be made to give 2005 to Shogun. Granted, that was the year Fedor beat Crocop in the biggest fight mma has ever seen, it was Fedors only quality win that year.

Shoguns run during final conflict against Arona (went on to beat Wand), prime Lil Nog, prime Rampage, pre horse meat Alistar, 3 KO's, those were 3 of the top 5. The only one he didn't beat was stablemate Wand.

 

[megatherium]

Agreed to a lot of extent. I mean street boxing takes some skills @Harry Rama could you give us our thoughts?

I thought Igor was the top guy in the late nineties. He was usually ranked behind Kerr but I always thought he would beat him if they ever fought. I was surprised that Pride finally booked that fight for a smaller event in Yokohama after avoiding it for so long. In fact I ranked Kerr behind his teammate Coleman, always questioned Kerr's level of competition. The DQ in the Pride 7 fight is a reminder that Pride actually had more restrictive rules than UFC in the that period, people forget about that sometimes.

 

[D241]

1998 Fighter of the Year=Igor Vovchanchyn

This was during Igor's impressive 36-0-1 win streak from 1996-2000

In 1998 Igor went 5-0 with five finishes all in the first round, 3 of his opponents Igor beat in one night.

 

[D241]

1999 Fighter of the year=Jeremy Horn

20-1(that's not his career record, that's JUST for 1999 alone!!!)

Finished 18 of his 20 wins and 1 loss via decision. In 1999, Jeremy Horn did not fight.......in the month of February.
Notable fighters beat that year-John Marsh Daiju Takase Steve Berger and Chuck Liddell. Chuck Liddell was submitted one time his entire legendary career, Jeremy Horn put him to sleep in 1999.

 

[D241]

2000 Fighter of the Year=Kazushi Sakuraba

5-1 with four Finish wins and his lone loss was to HW Legend/Icon Igor Vovchanchyn

This year Kazushi Sakuraba became the first to beat the seemingly unbeatable Royce Gracie, and did so at his own game, at his own ruleset.
Epic 90 match that to this day is the longest recorded mma fight. He beat 3 Gracies that year, two by finish and his lone loss was the same night after his epic 90 minute match where he looked good against Igor in the beginning but the energy spent fro the previous fight was gone and Sakuraba had nothing left, as he gave all he had in the ring that night.

 

[D241]

2001 Fighter of the Year=Matt Hughes

Hughes would start out the year losing via ko to the great Pele(one of the original Chute Boxe fighters), but then Hughes would go on an 8 fight win streak finishing 7 of his 8 wins

 

[D241]

2002 Fighter of the Year=Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

5-0 all finish victories
Four of the five he finished were Enson Inoue, Bob Sapp(Back when he was The Beast version), Semmy Schilt, and Dan Henderson

 

[Gay For Longo]

@D 241 2003 better be wanderlai

 

[D241]

@D 241 2003 better be wanderlai

Runner up. See if you agree or disagree with who I choose, hold tight give me 120 seconds.....

 

[Gay For Longo]

2002-2009
Fedor Emelianenko

During those years he was clearly the best heavyweight on the planet going 22-0 with wins over Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira x2, Brett Rogers, Andrei Arlovski, Tim Sylvia, Matt Lindland, Mark Hunt, Mirko Filipovic, Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, Kevin Randleman, Mark Coleman x2, Gary Goodridge, Kazuyuki Fujita, Heath Herring, Semmy Schilt, and more.

Honestly id take nog in 2002 and wanderlai in 2003
Up till then fedor was still making his name
I'm rewatching all the prides and finished bushido 1 and final conflict 2003 last night
It was after this that fedor became a legend

 

[D241]

2003 Fighter of the Year=Fedor Emelianenko

5-0 with 4 finishes and beat the man to become the baddest man on the planet

 

[Gay For Longo]

2003 Fighter of the Year=Fedor Emelianenko

5-0 with 4 finishes and beat the man to become the baddest man on the planet

I think I still take wanderlai for being dominante and winning the tournament but fedor was absolutely making his name at this point

I didn't realize he beat nog in 03, thought it was 04 for some reason

This changes things and ya ok, I can't argue with fedor being #1 either

Good call @D 241 and @RaginCajun

 

[Gay For Longo]

Damn, I just watched that fight a couple weeks ago lol, only 3 events before bushido 1

Fuck my memory is horrible lol

 

[D241]

2004 Fighter of the Year=Mirko Filipovic

7-1 with 6 finishes
Ron Waterman, Aleksander Emelianenko, and avenged his loss from earlier that year by finishing Kevin Randleman

 

[D241]

I think I still take wanderlai for being dominante and winning the tournament but fedor was absolutely making his name at this point

I didn't realize he beat nog in 03, thought it was 04 for some reason

This changes things and ya ok, I can't argue with fedor being #1 either

Good call @D 241 and @RaginCajun

If it makes you feel any better I have a few tabs open for purposes serving this thread, and one tab has remained on Wanderlei Silva's record because SURELY he HAS to win FOTY one of those Pride years. I'm doing this on the fly so I don't know what's next until I research but I have sherdog's fight finder tab open and a UFC list of champions tab, and a Pride list of champions tab to remind me of who was on top those years.
I click on fighters who were on top and then look at who they fought around that time and then click on their opponents so that I try to not leave any stone unturned.

Seems bad I don't have Mark Coleman or Frank Shamrock or Tito or Chuck on the list, but it's hard to argue against the guys I put instead of them. Also, I get distracted because I'll see shit like Pat Miletich lost to Matt Hume so now I have a tap open so I can re-watch that fight as it's been so long I can't even remember how it played out.

 

[D241]

2005 Fighter of the Year=Mauricio "Shogun" Rua (Honorable mention to Takanori Gomi)

5-0 with four finishes
Finishing Rampage Jackson(In Brutal Fashion), Alistair Overeem, and Ricardo Arona with a super exciting bout with Rogerio Nogueira

 

[Gay For Longo]

2004 Fighter of the Year=Mirko Filipovic

7-1 with 6 finishes
Ron Waterman, Aleksander Emelianenko, and avenged his loss from earlier that year by finishing Kevin Randleman

At least I can remember that picture is feom 03 since I watched it last night lol

 

[Gay For Longo]

If it makes you feel any better I have a few tabs open for purposes serving this thread, and one tab has remained on Wanderlei Silva's record because SURELY he HAS to win FOTY one of those Pride years. I'm doing this on the fly so I don't know what's next until I research but I have sherdog's fight finder tab open and a UFC list of champions tab, and a Pride list of champions tab to remind me of who was on top those years.
I click on fighters who were on top and then look at who they fought around that time and then click on their opponents so that I try to not leave any stone unturned.

Seems bad I don't have Mark Coleman or Frank Shamrock or Tito or Chuck on the list, but it's hard to argue against the guys I put instead of them. Also, I get distracted because I'll see shit like Pat Miletich lost to Matt Hume so now I have a tap open so I can re-watch that fight as it's been so long I can't even remember how it played out.

Haven't found one yet I can make a legit argument against man
Good job

 

[D241]

Haven't found one yet I can make a legit argument against man
Good job

Hey man thanks for trying to! This is a group effort and I'm made this thread on tmmac exclusively because I feel the members here are more knowledgable per capita than any other mma forum. It's a hard thing to do because there are years where fighters have really good years but they get beat out by someone who had a better year that maybe isn't as accomplished overall, but going stricktly by what happened in the fiscal years I think I'm being as accurate as one can.

For example I like these guys but not as big of a fan as most mma fans, such as Ken Shamrock, Shogun, and Mirko, but I had to include them for FOTY b/c those years they really were the best in my honest opinion. Always loved Jeremy Horn but never would have thought he would've made FOTY but sure enough, he did.

 

[D241]

2006 Fighter of the Year=Josh Barnett. Originally, I had it between him and Big Nog. RaginCajun chimed in with GSP, Chuck Liddell, or Mirko Cro Cop. After further dissection(see page 4), I came to the conclusion that Josh Barnett should be the sole winner.

5-2 finishing 4 of the five opponents

 

[BeardOfKnowledge]

when no one had beaten a single one before.

You know that was never true, right?

 

[ECC170]

Sadly, I think poorly. He was imo the proto type of the sprawl and brawl style and he did it at nhb against huge guys. Now we're seeing more and more of a return to"civilized" That will also pass and soon there shall be toling. Toking. Fuck mosquito.

Latifi reminds me of igor...Prime Chuck,Igor,Manhoef and shogun in a 4 man bracket....who you got? 1..2..3...gooooo..

 

[ECC170]

2006 Fighter of the Year=Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira AND Josh Barnett

Big Nog went 4-1 with two finishes with his 1 loss being to Josh Barnett via decision
Josh Barnett went 5-2 with 4 finishes with 1 loss being to Big Nog and one to Mirko

That kneebah Barnett slapped on had Nog squeelin iirc lol

 

[D241]

2007 Fighter of the Year=Quinton Rampage Jackson AND Anderson The Spider Silva

Rampage Jackson went 3-0 with 2 finishes
His wins were Marvin Eastman, Chuck Liddell, and Dan Henderson

Anderson Silva went 3-0 with 3 finishes
His wins were Travis Lutter, Rich Franklin, and Nate Marquardt