I’ve said many times before that one of the real benefits of using an underlying rating to establish rankings is that it provides for all kinds of additional metrics. Since I see a lot of other places doing assorted year end awards I figured I’d see how several categories played out from an mma-elo perspective.
As a bit of a disclaimer please realize that using a fixed time period such a ‘year’ to measure a sport that doesn’t have a real ‘season’ is an inherently flawed system. Also keep in mind that the results remain unbias, but the the criteria is certainly subject to discussion. The great thing about this approach though is that new numbers can easily be generated based upon adjusted guidelines. Additionally, I only took the categories I’d seen people specifically request or inquire about. If there are other categories please feel free to ask and we’ll see how things shape up.
Stacked Card
The criteria for this category was to simply look at the card with the highest average fighter ratings. Obviously high ratings don’t guarantee great fights, but it’s a great start.
3)UFC 85 Bedlam
From back on June 7th this card featured a lot of big names and numerous great fighters that seem to somehow fly just below the radar. A fight between Thiago Alves and Matt Hughes got a lot of attention, but the card also contained amazing fighters like:
Nathan Marquardt, Jorge Rivera, Fabricio Werdum, Thales Leites, Michael Bisping, Mike Swick, and Luis Arthur Cane.
2)Affliction – Banned
A very stacked card that featured half of the top 10 heavyweights at the time. Not only did the card contain Fedor, Josh Barnett, Andrei Arlovski, Tim Sylvia, and Ben Rothwell, but it also had it’s share of top 15 fighters from other classes including: Matt Lindland, Renato Sobral, and lil’ Nog.
Some are skeptical if Affliction will be able to survive as an organization, but I’d have to hope that with a card like this for their first showing many fans are pulling for them.
1)UFC 90
This card from October featured the return of fighters like Werdum, Alves and Leites from UFC 85 (see above) and stacked on Anderson Silva, Josh Koscheck, Patrick Cote, Sean Sherk and Tyson Griffin.
As was said at the beginning high fighter rankings don’t guarantee great fights and certainly the main event was annoying for many. However, there were numerous other great fights on the card.
Honorable Mention
As silly as it may sound an Honorable Mention goes out to the UFC for having almost every stacked event for 2008. Not only did they have #1 and #3 on the list, but they also had #4-#11 with Sengoku having an event finish at #12.
On the rise
For this award we wanted to take a look at the fighters that increased their rating the most during 2008.
3)Wilson Reis
Reis went 4-0 in 2008 with 2 Unanimous Decision victories and 2 Choke Submissions. Now that EliteXC is gone it’ll be interesting to see where Reis shows up in 2009.
2)Shane Roller
Also going 4-0 in 2008 was Shane Roller. However, none of Shane’s fights went to the judges as he finished 3 opponents via choke and scored a TKO over the other. Shane’s last two fights have been in the WEC, so it’ll be interesting to see who they put in front of him in the coming year and if he can continue his climb up the rankings.
1)Jon Jones
It’s kind of crazy to sit back and realize that Jon Jones’ entire professional career happened during 2008. Not only did Jon go 6-0 during the year (with only one fight going the distance), but he didn’t have his first fight until April~!! That’s right from April 12th to August 9th Jon had 6 fights, and his last came in the UFC. A truly amazing start to a career and hopefully his sophomore season will be equally impressive.
Comeback Fighter of the Year
MMA is a very volatile sport with very fickle fans. A fighter can easily go from ‘the greatest’ to ‘washed up’ in the span of a fight or two. In order to offset this a bit I thought it’d be interesting to take a look at some of the fighters who had a rough 2007, but came back strong in 2008.
3)Kazuo Misaki
Following a 2007 that saw Misaki lose to Frank Trigg (his second straight loss following a late 2006 loss to Paulo Filho) and a NC against Yoshihiro Akiyama, Misaki came back strong in 2008. He went 3 – 0 against solid competition and got the cycle by winning by Unanimous Decision, Sub (Guillotine) and a TKO (over Joe Riggs).
(Editor’s Note: It now appears that Misaki is already building a case for comeback fighter of the year in 2010)
2)Jaime Jara
Following a 2007 that saw Jaime beat several lower ranked opponents before dropping their last 2 of the year Jaime came back strong in 2008. They went a perfect 4-0 with only a single decision(split).
Early in his career Jaime had a couple of loses to Scott Smith and also has a loss to Rashad Evans. With EliteXC now gone it’ll be interesting to see what level of competition Jaime faces and if they’ll be able to keep their win streak going.
1)Antoni Hardonk
Antoni Hardonk’s career is a textbook example of a rollercoaster ride. Win, Loss, Win, Loss, Win 3, Lose 2, Win 3. Those 2 losses in a row came in 2007 via Decision to Justin McCully and Sub to Frank Mir. In 2008 Hardonk came roaring back scoring TKOs over Eddie Sanchez, Colin Robinson and Mike Wessel.
As Hardonk again rests on the verge of becoming a legit contender in the UFC it’ll be important to see if he continues to win or again slips back down the rankings. For now though, lets give him some credit for continuing to work hard and coming back strong after a rough 2007.
Rookie of the Year
This category was one of the hardest to nail down criteria for. Some fighters had only a single fight or two in 2007 and some fighters had great wins with a single loss. Since the category is rookie of the year it was decided to go with an approach that granted a fair amount of leeway.
3)Jon Jones
No real surprise to see Jon show up on this list. Having fought twice as much as the average fighter in his first year, going undefeated, and getting their first UFC victory, it was definitely a huge year for Jon. I think lots look forward to seeing what 2009 holds for him (No pressure~!!!)
2)Muhammed Lawal
‘King Mo’ is a fighter that burst on the scene very late in 2008. In September they made their pro debut against Travis Wuiff at Sengoku 5. Scoring a TKO victory over a highly rated and very seasoned fighter like Wuiff is a heck of a first fight. His Majesty came right back at Sengoku 6 in November and scored another TKO over Fabio Silva.
To start 2009 Lawal scored his third straight TKO victory at Sengoku No Ran 2009 over Yukiya Naito. With his ability to finish fights and flare for ring entrances I’m honestly not sure how ‘King Mo’ hasn’t gotten lots more attention yet.
1)Brock Lesner
A choice that lies somewhere between ‘foolish’ and ‘no brainer’ for Rookie of the year. Brock did have a single fight in 2007, and actually did have a loss to start 2008. In addition to that he posted a painfully dominating victory over seasoned heavy weight Heath Herring and claimed the UFC heavyweight belt when he defeated Randy Couture.
2009 is already set to see Brock get a chance to avenge his only loss. He seems driven and sticking to the mantra ‘you can’t each size’ it’ll be interesting to see how much Brock has improved since his first fight against Frank.
Fighter of the Year
Another difficult category to weigh. Ultimately, the approach taken was to reward not only consistency, but also strength of schedule.
Honorable Mention
BJ Penn – Since he only fought 2 times in 2008 he was not included in the list. His first win was in January and his last in May, but he went the last 7 months of the year without another fight. Allowing for only 2 fights in 2008 BJ would have been top 3.
Rashad Evans – Much like BJ he only fought 2 times in 2008. Those two fights saw a highlight reel KO of Chuck Liddell and Rashad claim the UFC LHW title from Forrest Griffin. Sadly, Rashad did not have his first fight in 2008 until September. As with BJ if you want to look at fighters with only 2 fights, he’s top 3 as well.
Gegard Mousasi – On the other side of things we have Gegard who had an amazing 2008 that saw him go 6-0 and win the dream MW Grand Prix. Hurting Gegard’s case were several wins over lower rated fighters. Gegard is a perfect example of how personal opinion and criteria selection can drastically impact the results.
Ok so who really did get top 3?
3)Anderson Silva
Although not as impressive as a 2007 that saw Anderson finish Travis Lutter, Nathan Marquardt and Rich Franklin (again), 2008 was still a solid year for ‘The Spider’.
2)Kenny Florian
2008 saw Kenny (no I will not use his nickname) start with a decisive TKO victory over Joe Lauzon in April. He followed that up with a decision win to end Roger Huerta’s 18 fight win streak, and finished the year in November by Subbing Joe Stevenson.
1)Thiago Alves
After TKO’n Karo Parisyan at a UFN in April Alves returned at UFC 85 to TKO Future Hall of Famer Matt Hughes. He then finished the year out with a unanimous decision victory over Josh Koscheck (who filled in for Diego Sanchez). With three solid wins against three very high ranked fighters Thiago Alves earns Fighter of the Year Honors for 2008.
Tags: stats