Fighter of the year, starting with 1993

[D241]

I don't know about you guys but I kinda think it's bullshit to have two fighters of the year the same year.
Honestly though I racked my brain playing both sides of the nominees and tried to find an edge but I just can't.

What are ya'lls thoughts on FOTY for 2006 and 2007?

 

[ECC170]

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

In that moment that he knocked chuck out the rampage we all knew to love, died.. he fell in love with his hands and got away from his slams for thr most part...He was my favorite fighter at 1 time and I wanted to emulate my style off of him.. explosive power punches to close the distance beat them up in the clinch and slam the ever living soul out of the guy I'm fighting..Page was never the same after winning the belt.

 

[MMAHAWK]

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

Rampage has better wins
Plus Eastman was revenge for his first loss

 

[D241]

2008 Fighter of the Year=Anderson Silva(Honorable mention Frank Mir)

3-0 with 3 finishes
Wins were against Dan Henderson, James Irvin, and Patrick Cote
Anderson was the first and only person to submit Dan Henderson at 185lbs and he went up to 205lbs to annihilate James Irvin

 

[MMAHAWK]

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

Harder to seperate these 2
but how about Tim Sylvia
4-0
wins Assuerio Silva, AA x2, Monson
Won belt and defended twice

 

[D241]

Rampage has better wins
Plus Eastman was revenge for his first loss

Appreciate the input. Going to think about this one some more and welcome anyone else's input.

 

[D241]

Harder to seperate these 2
but how about Tim Sylvia
4-0
wins Assuerio Silva, AA x2, Monson
Won belt and defended twice

That actually just makes it more difficult

Seriously, any 3 of those nominees have an argument. I never checked Tim Sylvia for any year though so good on you for that line of thinking.

Sidenote I love doing what I call a 6 degrees of separation when I'm on sherdog's fight finder. For example to find Tim Sylvia I was on Anderson Silva's fight page and my goal to find a fighter is just by clicking the mouse less than 6 clicks to get to the fighter. For Anderson it only required threeclicks, Anderson fought Dan Henderson(click) who fought Antonio Nogueira(2nd click) who fought Tim Sylvia(3rd click)

 

[D241]

2009 Fighter of the Year=Lyoto The Dragon Machida

3-0 with 2 finishes including the first to finish Thiago Silva and first to finish Rashad Evans where he won the UFC LHW belt before successfully defending the belt in a close controversial match with 2005 FOTY Shogun.

 

[RaginCajun]

I don't know about you guys but I kinda think it's bullshit to have two fighters of the year the same year.
Honestly though I racked my brain playing both sides of the nominees and tried to find an edge but I just can't.

What are ya'lls thoughts on FOTY for 2006 and 2007?

2006- GSP has wins over Matt and BJ.
Liddell has wins over Tito, Babalu, and Randy.
CroCop has 4 wins including the tournament

 

[D241]

2010 Fighter of the Year=Dominick Cruz

3-0 with wins over Brian Bowles(Finish), Joseph Benavidez, and Scott Jorgensen

 

[D241]

2011 Fighter of the Year=Jon Jones(Easiest fighter of the year to pick of any years)

4-0 all wins by finish(3/4 finishes were former FOTY)
Ryan Bader
Mauricio Shogun Rua
Quinton Rampage Jackson
Lyoto Machida

 

[D241]

2012 Fighter of the Year=Benson Henderson

3-0 beating Frankie Edgar 2X and Nate Diaz

 

[D241]

I guess there's a time period limit to when you can edit your own post?

I was going to try to condense this thread and just edit the very first two post on this thread to have all fighters mentioned thus far listed, but I'm only able to edit the post I made today.

 

[D241]

2013 Fighter of the Year=Vitor Belfort

3-0 with 3 finish wins over 3 champions:Michael Bisping, Luke Rockhold, and Dan Henderson

 

[D241]

2014 Fighter of the Year=Donald Cerrone

4-0 with 3 finishes
Wins over Edson Barboza, Jim Miller, and Eddie Alvarez(dec)

 

[D241]

2015 Fighter of the Year=Conor McGregor

3-0 with 3 finishes
Denis Siver, Chad Mendes, and 13 second epic knock out of greatest FW of all time in Jose Aldo

 

[D241]

2016 Fighter of the Year=Cody Garbrandt

4-0 with 3 (first round) finishes

 

[D241]

2017 Fighter of the Year=Volkan Oezkemir

3-0 with 2 finishes

Runner Up=Max Holloway who went 2-0 tko'ing Jose Aldo two times in 2017.

 

[Rambo John J]

2009 Fighter of the Year=Lyoto The Dragon Machida

3-0 with 2 finishes including the first to finish Thiago Silva and first to finish Rashad Evans where he won the UFC LHW belt before successfully defending the belt in a close controversial match with 2005 FOTY Shogun.

Shogun cause coleman 2, liddell, machida 1 takes this one.

he won the year IMO

 

[D241]

Fucking hell that took a lot more time than I thought it would. When you look at my selections you might quickly agree and think it wouldn't take long to come to these conclusions, however I was very thorough to look at so many fighters every year to make sure none were left out.

It's also very telling that as we progress in mma, top fighters fight less and less per year. I hate that. Many Websites have Max Holloway as the fighter of the year for 2017 and he literally fought 1 guy, he fought a total of TWO TIMES IN ONE YEAR, and some people think that is remarkable enough to suggest him as the fighter of the year.

I'm glad I took the time to do this because for the longest time mma fans myself included have had very subjective "rankings" and there's been so much emphasis on champions I think we overlook top contenders who perhaps were en route to a title fight or trying to climb back up the ladder to championship again. People don't appreciate active fighters they just care about big name wins and extravagant finishes. Francis Ngannou was considered fighter of the year for winning a whopping TWO FIGHTS in 2017. Yes one was a very brutal knock out but it was two wins, both over guys far past their prime whose chins have been weakened via prior knockouts.


My next "project" is to do comparison of champions versus fighters of the year and basically just look at a champions work of art for fights just before earning a title shot, fights as champion, and fights just after being champion. I will compare them to other top contenders to see if there are guys like Donald Cerrone who may not have been a champion but were more active and have wins against top guys compared to champions in the same weight class.

 

[D241]

Shogun cause coleman 2, liddell, machida 1 takes this one.

he won the year IMO

Could you rephrase this? I want to understand what you said but I can't :/

 

[D241]

Could you rephrase this? I want to understand what you said but I can't :/

Ok I think I know what you're saying. You're suggesting Shogun as FOTY for 2009 instead of Lyoto for Shogun beating Coleman and Liddell.

Coleman and Liddell I think we all agree are bigger names than Thiago Silva and Rashad Evans.

HOWEVER

When Lyoto beat Thiago Silva, Thiago was undefeated. When Lyoto beat Rashad, Rashad was one of the few undefeated UFC Champions.
When Shogun beat Coleman, Coleman was 42 years old, hadn't had an mma fight in 3 years.
When Shogun beat Liddell, Chuck was 39 and was 1-3 going into his fight with Shogun.


I stand by my choice in this one. I like Shogun as a fighter far more than Lyoto, but if I'm being honest(and I am) I think what Lyoto did in 2009 was more impressive than what Shogun did. I also feel their fight was bullshit and should've been a draw, but even if that was the case Lyoto had two better wins than Shogun did.

 

[Rambo John J]

Could you rephrase this? I want to understand what you said but I can't :/

that year was Shogun cause Machida v shogun 1 was a rob job....never seen a more beaten champ survive the bell...legs and body were shot and Rua was fresh

that is all I was getting at....love the thread....was just giving feedback

thanks

 

[Rambo John J]

Ok I think I know what you're saying. You're suggesting Shogun as FOTY for 2009 instead of Lyoto for Shogun beating Coleman and Liddell.

Coleman and Liddell I think we all agree are bigger names than Thiago Silva and Rashad Evans.

HOWEVER

When Lyoto beat Thiago Silva, Thiago was undefeated. When Lyoto beat Rashad, Rashad was one of the few undefeated UFC Champions.
When Shogun beat Coleman, Coleman was 42 years old, hadn't had an mma fight in 3 years.
When Shogun beat Liddell, Chuck was 39 and was 1-3 going into his fight with Shogun.


I stand by my choice in this one. I like Shogun as a fighter far more than Lyoto, but if I'm being honest(and I am) I think what Lyoto did in 2009 was more impressive than what Shogun did. I also feel their fight was bullshit and should've been a draw, but even if that was the case Lyoto had two better wins than Shogun did.

Ok some fair points

good argument

but Lyoto Era ended v shogun in the first fight IMO

 

[Disciplined Galt]

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

Shit, I've got to go with Igor. One hell of a tourney though.