2016 Yahoo Sports MMA Fighter of the Year
Because there are so many legitimate candidates, there are going to be passionate arguments about who is most deserving of being named the 2016 MMA Fighter of the Year. In my estimation, there are at least five mixed martial artists who have done enough to warrant consideration.
Those five – UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping, UFC bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt, UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic, UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor and UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes – all won titles in 2016.
My five candidates compiled a 15-1 record in 2016 with nine knockouts and one submission.
No less an authority than UFC president Dana White believes McGregor is a slam-dunk choice. McGregor was 2-1 in 2016, losing by second-round submission to Nate Diaz in a welterweight bout on March 5 at UFC 196, before gaining revenge with a majority decision over Diaz on Aug. 20 at UFC 202.
And then, on Nov. 12 at the historic UFC 205 in New York, McGregor stopped Eddie Alvarez in the second round to win the lightweight title, in the process becoming the first fighter to hold belts in two weight classes in the UFC simultaneously.
McGregor entered the year as the featherweight champion, though he did not fight at featherweight in 2016 and gave up the belt not long after he won the lightweight title.
White’s argument for McGregor is the historic nature of the win over Alvarez and his willingness to jump in weight to fight Diaz. At a media scrum last week prior to UFC 207, White referred to Diaz as “a huge” lightweight and said he was much bigger than McGregor.
Diaz entered 2016 with 28 fights, a record of 18-10 and 16 finishes. But of those, only two were at welterweight before he fought McGregor and he was 0-2, having lost to both Dong Hyun “Stun Gun” Kim and Rory MacDonald by decision in 2011.
A point to ponder is how much significance the loss to Diaz at UFC 196 should be given in assessing McGregor’s Fighter of the Year candidacy and whether the weight they competed at put “The Notorious” at any kind of significant disadvantage.
There are no such issues to consider regarding the other finalists, as they won all of their fights and stayed within their own weight class.
Miocic has the look of a dominant champion, which the heavyweight division has long lacked. He opened 2016 with an impressive, and one-sided, knockout of Andrei Arlovski at UFC 195. It took him only 54 seconds and the fight was all Miocic beginning to end.
He won the belt in the next fight, defeating then-champion Fabricio Werdum at UFC 198 on May 14 by landing a punch while going backward. That was evidence of both his great athletic ability as well as his amazing punching power.
Significantly for Miocic, his win over Werdum came at a time when the “Fedor killer” was gaining support as perhaps the best heavyweight in UFC history.
And he capped his year at home in Cleveland at UFC 203 by stopping Alistair Overeem.
Miocic would be a slam-dunk choice in most years.
But 2016 was not most years. Michael Bisping became the UFC’s all-time leader in wins, slipping past Georges St-Pierre and Donald Cerrone by recording his 20th victory in UFC competition. St-Pierre and Cerrone have 19 UFC wins apiece.
Bisping opened his year with a victory in an outstanding bout against the legendary Anderson Silva. He followed that up with what is clearly the Upset of the Year when he knocked out Luke Rockhold on June 4 at UFC 199. And then he overcame his personal demons from a devastating loss to Dan Henderson to defeat the MMA icon in Bisping’s first title defense.
It doesn’t get much better than beating Silva, Rockhold and Henderson in the same calendar year.
Garbrandt had the most wins of any of my contenders and defeated the highest-ranked opponent in Cruz, who was No. 2 or No. 3 on the pound-for-pound list at various points in the year.
Garbrandt began the year unranked, but forced his way into the title picture by knocking out Augusto Mendes, Thomas Almeida and Takeya Mizugaki in the first round.
He was a big underdog against Cruz, but he clearly outfought the man most believe to be the best bantamweight in the sport’s history.
Nunes had a spectacular year. She began it with a decision at UFC 196 over Valentina Shevchenko. Though Shevchenko didn’t have a big name coming into the year, she went on to defeat former champion Holly Holm in her bout after losing to Nunes.
Nunes then demolished Miesha Tate at UFC 200 to win the women’s bantamweight title. Nunes overwhelmed Tate with strikes, and when Tate went down, she locked in the rear-naked choke to force a submission on one of the most iconic stars of the women’s game.
Tate wasn’t the same after that beating she took from Nunes and retired following a loss to Raquel Pennington in her next fight.
And then on Friday at UFC 207, Nunes blew out Rousey in just 48 seconds to retain her title. The fight was no contest from the start, as Nunes landed a right-left combination seconds in that had Rousey badly hurt.
Nunes put a beating on the ex-champion, ruthlessly and mercilessly stalking her around the cage until referee Herb Dean jumped in to save Rousey.
I went into UFC 207 leaning toward Bisping as my choice. He defeated two legends and left no doubt in his vicious knockout of Rockhold, who was gaining momentum himself as a contender for pound-for-pound best.
But Nunes’ dominant win over Rousey swayed me and made her the 2016 Yahoo Sports MMA Fighter of the Year. She defeated the two biggest names in the women’s game in back-to-back bouts, taking them apart with precision. The win over Shevchenko didn’t get much recognition at the time, but Shevchenko is now the No. 1 contender.
That means that Nunes defeated a current champion, a former champion and the No. 1 ranked contender.
That’s more than enough to give her the edge against a loaded field.
Amanda Nunes is the Yahoo Sports 2016 MMA Fighter of the Year.
