Greetings and Happy New Year!
With there being absolutely nothing on the immediate horizon in the fight business, Luke, Nolan, and a couple of old friends give out our awards for the best and worst of 2018.
Today, we’re looking at which fights across the combat landscape made you rise off of your couch, spill your beer, and scream your face off.
Luke Irwin
3. NCAA Division I Heavyweight Finals: Adam Coon vs. Kyle Snyder: This was an ugly, grinding, exhausting matchup, and the exact kind of fight that Snyder is trying to get away from, but it was Snyder trying to avenge his only collegiate loss since he was a freshman against Coon, a monster that had seven inches and sixty pounds on him. It was a clash of the titans and perhaps the greatest wrestler in the world against maybe the next greatest wrestler in the world. Snyder got his revenge, but Coon has surely learned from it.
2. Lightweight Bout: Dustin Poirier vs. Justin Gaethje: If ever there was a dream matchup for an entertaining fight, it’s these two. Gaethje battered his way to a 17-0 record before he came to the UFC, and put on an absolute barn-burner against Mihael Johnson before finishing him with knees and fists. After dying by the sword to Eddie Alvarez, The Diamond was on deck. Poirier was maybe the most entertaining fighter on the roster, and they had five rounds to sort it out. After both gents threw everything they had in every reserve, Poirier got the stop in the fourth round in an absolute masterpiece.
1. WBC World Middleweight Championship/WBA Super World Middleweight Championship: Gennady Golovkin vs. Saul Alvarez II: This is the fight that cemented Canelo as not only a “true Mexican fighter”, but an all-timer. If he played it safe in the first fight, he came out swinging against maybe the hardest puncher in the world in the rematch. GGG took a few rounds to adjust, since he clearly didn’t expect Canelo to come out swinging, and once he did, it was an absolute masterpiece. There’s really nothing like a world championship boxing match to captivate an audience, and at my humble abode, nobody said anything over the last three rounds, we just watched and yelled.
Nolan Howell
2. Non-Title Middleweight Bout: Robert Whittaker vs. Yoel Romero
1. Lightweight Bout: Dustin Poirier vs. Justin Gaethje
Ben Kohn
Honorable Mention: Thiago Santos: Take your pick of the litter here, Santos/Manuwa, Santos/Anders, and Santos/Smith. All were contenders for FOTY and he truly is one of the best action fighter’s we’ve ever seen in this sport. While none of them were able to crack the top 3 for me individually, as a conglomerate they absolutely deserve mention.
3. Lightweight Bout: Dustin Poirier vs. Justin Gaethje: Dustin being among my top 5 favorite fighters is not the reason he’s here. The war these two put on was incredible, and it’s a fight you can show anyone with a passing interest in fighting to make them a fan. To throw almost 600 strikes between them in just over 4 rounds of action is absurd to even think about. The damage inflicted and incurred will be life changing for both at some point and they deserve the recognition of putting on one of the best fights of the year.
2. Non-Title Middleweight Bout: Robert Whittaker vs. Yoel Romero: Despite Romero missing weight, we saw a true battle for the ages as Whittaker just barely defended his title by the skin of his teeth. Whittaker had to fend off Romero’s massive shots, multiple knockdowns, and defend takedowns all while getting in shots of his own. This fight was absolute hell for him and every fan was better off having seen it.
1. Featherweight Bout: Chan Sung Jung vs. Yair Rodriguez: What a war, what an absolute war. The Korean Zombie was returning from another long layoff and he looked good. Yair was apparently getting off the couch due to an injury himself. So we get the FOTY from that? Imagine if they were both 100% right? KZ was putting a whooping on Yair who was doing some whooping back himself. Yet clearly down on the cards, with 1 second left, he pulls off the most batshit insane elbow I’ve ever seen (and it’s going to be my KO of the year btw) to win the fight. He’s still shown he has what to work on but to put on a performance like that with an injury is remarkable. Respect to both of them.
-Nolan can be reached @uwuinnitm8, Ben can be reached at @agentbenten and his podcast can be reached at @MmangstP.
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