Best of 2014: Yahoo Sports MMA awards
Click image to see this year's award winners in photos.
Mixed martial arts news often seemed more bad than good in 2014. From drug test failures to fights canceled by injury to complaints about oversaturation to legal issues, the sport was shrouded in negativity.
But that didn’t stop truly memorable highlights from happening. From transcendent fighters to thrilling fights that will be remembered for years to come, 2014 also had a fair share of standouts. So let’s take a look at the best the year had to offer.
Fighter of the Year: Robbie Lawler. It’s rare that a fighter claims this award if he or she lost a fight over the course of the year. But then, 2014 wasn’t an ordinary 12-month period and Lawler isn’t an ordinary fighter. Lawler dropped a razor-thin decision to Johny Hendricks at UFC 171 in March. Then he returned two months later to finish Jake Ellenberger at UFC 173. In July, he bested Matt Brown in a grueling five-round bout in San Jose. On Dec. 6, Lawler capped his year by avenging his loss to Hendricks and claiming the UFC welterweight title. In a year in which so many of the sport’s biggest names fought only once or twice, Lawler’s accomplishments truly stood out.
Runner up: Ronda Rousey. Two fights, two knockouts in a combined 1 minute, 22 seconds. No champion is more dominant in their division than the undefeated UFC women’s bantamweight champ.
Fight of the Year: Johny Hendricks vs. Robbie Lawler, UFC 171, Dallas, March 15. This is how they might script a climactic fight scene in a movie: A vacant championship in the balance. The guy in his adopted hometown gets off to a solid start and wins the first two rounds. His opponent roars back to claim rounds three and four. Then the hometown guy rallies in the final round to seal the decision and the title in the final five minutes. That’s what happened on March 15, when Hendricks endured Lawler’s standup at its most ruthless, then went back to his wrestling base in round five to claim the UFC welterweight title.
Runner up: Jose Aldo vs. Chad Mendes, UFC 179, Rio de Janeiro, Oct. 25. Featherweight champion Aldo and top contender Mendes went tooth-and-nail in a 25-minute, foul-filled brawl before Aldo emerged a unanimous-decision winner.
Finish of the Year: Josh Samman KOs Eddie Gordon, UFC 181, Las Vegas, Dec. 6. In and of itself, Samman’s head-kick knockout of Gordon in the second round of their middleweight bout earns this spot on its merits. Samman feinted one way, Gordon fell for it, and Samman cracked him with a picture-perfect, fight-ending kick which will appear on highlight reels for years to come. Now add in the fact that Samman specifically requested the UFC place him on the Dec. 6 card because it was the anniversary of his girlfriend’s death, and that enabled him to win a fight he had been losing up until that point, and it was one of the sport’s most memorable moments of the year, period.
Runner up: Ovince St. Preux’s submission of Nikita Krylov, UFC 171, March 15, Dallas. If you’ve never seen a Von Flue choke, you’re not alone, as the opportunity to maneuver into position for this advanced hold doesn’t often present itself in MMA action. But OSP did just that in submitting Krylov.
Story of the Year: Schedule expansion/injuries. The tone for the UFC’s 2014 was set late in the previous year, when longtime champions and top drawing cards Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva both exited the picture. This happened as the UFC expanded its schedule to more than 40 events, and as injuries seemed to force the company to re-arrange their events on a regular basis at a time they were already short on sellable headliners. Low points included the cancellation of UFC 176 in Los Angeles after headliner Aldo pulled out with an injury; and a UFC 177 main event of bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw vs. Joe Soto, who had fought three weeks prior on a small casino show, after Renan Barao needed to drop out of the bout. At UFC 178, a giant night was expected after Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier got into a press-conference brawl, but Jones soon thereafter injured his knee in training and the bout was postponed. The UFC is planning a similar number of shows in 2015 (beginning with the rescheduled Jones-Cormier fight on Jan. 3), so we’ll get an idea whether 2014’s injuries were an anomaly soon enough.
Runner up: TRT eliminated; out-of-competition drug testing stepped up. Nevada banned the controversial testosterone replacement therapy early in the year, and other major commissions followed suit. The commission also upped out-of-competition drug testing. While many fighters were affected by these decisions, the results were tragicomic at middleweight, where headliners Vitor Belfort (who temporarily lost out on a title shot), Chael Sonnen (who retired after flunking two tests) and Wanderlei Silva (who was suspended after fleeing the country rather than take a test) all ran afoul of the Silver State.
Event of the Year: UFC Fight Night 46, July 19, Dublin, Ireland: Sometimes, a raucous environment can make all the difference between a good night at the fights and a great one. This was rarely more clear than during the UFC’s first event in the Republic of Ireland in five years. A festive sellout crowd cheered Irish fighters on to a 4-0 mark on the evening and were treated to a string of entertaining bouts. The night was capped with hometown hero Conor McGregor’s first-round TKO over Diego Brandao in a matchup which propelled McGregor’s hype train into the next gear.
Runner up: UFC Fight Night 55, Nov. 8, Sydney, Australia: Luke Rockhold’s second-round finish of Michael Bisping was predictable. What wasn’t, though, was that all 11 fights on the card ended in finishes (four submissions, seven finishes), a UFC record for a single card.
Follow Dave Doyle on Twitter @DaveDoyleMMA
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