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 take a look at which men and women had the best 2018.
Josh Hall
Men: Daniel Cormier: We are nearing the end of his great career, but 2018 might have been the best work yet from DC. He successfully defended his 205lb title against the dangerous Volkan Oezdemir in January, and followed that with a massive knockout of Stipe Miocic to win the UFC Heavyweight Title. This win made DC the only fighter ever to simultaneously hold the light heavyweight and heavyweight titles in the UFC. He finished the year off with a tactical decimation of Houston legend Derrick Lewis. None of his opponents made it out of the second round, an impressive feat against top tier competition. This was a no-brainer for me until UFC 232 happened…
Women: Amanda Nunes: I only planned on including one fighter in the top spot for the year, but that changed last weekend when Amanda Nunes established herself as the greatest female fighter in MMA history. Her 1st round KO over Cyborg at UFC 232 was one of the most shocking results I have ever seen in the sport, and she now holds the women’s bantamweight and featherweight titles. She is the first woman to win UFC titles in more than one weight class, and she also holds 2 decision wins over the women’s flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko. She only had two fights in 2018, but she certainly made them count.
Luke Irwin
3. Amanda Nunes: Made a great UFC Women’s Bantamweight title defense against a very game Rocky Pennington, and was able to get a finish in the fifth round. Good year for Nunes. OH, DID I FORGET TO MENTION WHEN SHE TRADED HAYMAKERS WITH THE MOST TERRIFYING FEMALE FIGHTER OF ALL-TIME, WALKED HER DOWN, AND PUT HER ON HER FACE IN 51 SECONDS, BECOMING THE FIRST-EVER TWO-DIVISION CHAMPION IN UFC WOMEN’S HISTORY AND LIKELY BECAME THE GREATEST FEMALE FIGHTER OF ALL-TIME.
2. Oleksandr Usyk: It doesn’t usually happen that you can clear out an entire division in a calendar year. Alas, the 2012 Olympic gold-medalist did just that. He won the Cruiserweight World Boxing Super Series, defeating Mairis Breidis and Murat Gassiev, two of the biggest dogs at cruiserweight, then, for good measure, knocked out Tony Bellew, who came down from heavyweight to come at Usyk. An outstanding year, and now there are many calls for him to move up to heavyweight in 2019 and take on the big dogs.
1. Daniel Cormier: Well, let’s see here. In 2018, he defended his UFC Light Heavyweight title against Volkan Oezdemir, a fighter coming off of a 28-and-42-second knockout of Misha Cirkunov and Jimi Manuwa, respectively, and TKO’d him in the second round. From there, he challenged Stipe Miocic for the heavyweight title that he held for over two years, starched him in the first round, became the second fighter in UFC history to simultaneously hold two championships, and the first to successfully defend one when he did just that against Derrick Lewis, submitting him in the second-round after an absolute pantsing. An absolutely astounding 2018 for the man they call DC.
Nolan Howell
3. Amanda Nunes: She just snuck on the list in the last week, but boy, did she ever make it count. An expected, but rather meh defense of her bantamweight title against Raquel Pennington in May led to a superfight against Cris Cyborg at featherweight and Nunes took advantage by stopping the most feared striker in women’s MMA, taking both the title and reputation from Cyborg in the process. With names like Rousey, Tate, and Shevchenko on the ledger, Nunes flipped what looked like a respectable career as a fringe contender to an impressive, but rather improbable champion. With the Cyborg victory, she now stands with perhaps the strongest claim to the title of greatest women’s MMA fighter of all-time. Oh, how one win can change so much.
2. Daniel Cormier: Cormier’s year started with reestablishing his standing at light heavyweight, retaining his title and widening the gulf behind him (and Jon Jones) with a TKO over Volkan Oezdemir. His stunning win in a superfight at heavyweight over Stipe Miocic netted him the heavyweight title and certified all-timer status and a win over Derrick Lewis was simply icing on the cake. Whereas Usyk had a dominant establishing year, Cormier managed to rehabilitate his image after the Jones loss and take it to another level by becoming double champion for a time.
1. Oleksandr Usyk: The top fighter of the year goes to someone who has potential to be in these lists for years to come in his breakout year. Oleksandr Usyk went through the World Boxing Super Series and collected just about all the hardware at cruiserweight in defeating Mairis Briedis and Murat Gassiev. But, he didn’t stop there as he went into the UK to knockout a red-hot Tony Bellew. Already establishing himself as the top cruiserweight by leaps and bounds and putting names like Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury, and Deontay Wilder on the tip of his tongue in a rumored move to heavyweight after clearing out the competition, you can’t do more than Usyk this year.
-Nolan can be reached at [email protected], Josh can be reached @jhall282.
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