The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) "of the Year Awards" 2008 - Who Won What?

2008 was an absolutely brilliant year for the UFC. Great events, great fights, amazing submissions, vicious knockouts, and shocking upsets. 2008 had everything, but certain fights and fighters stand out as the tops of 2008, read on to find out who won what and why.

Event of the Year:
UFC 92: The Ultimate 2008. UFC 92 was the best MMA event of the year, not just UFC, but worldwide. All 7 fights shown on the PPV were amazing; it wasn't just the knockouts and upsets, but the atmosphere and production value that made this the greatest event of the year. UFC 92 was simply spectacular.

Honorable mention goes to UFC: Fight for the Troops and UFC 80: Rapid Fire. Both events featured great fights and unbelievable knock outs.

Fight of the Year:
In the UFC, there were a lot of great fights in 2008, but the one fight that stands out in my mind as fight of the year is Georges "Rush" St. Pierre vs. Jon Fitch at UFC 87. This is a personal opinion, as a hardcore GSP fan, watching him put on a 5 round clinic on his way to a unanimous decision was beautiful.

Honorable mention goes to Brock Lesnar and Randy Couture at UFC 91, Forrest Griffin and Quinton Jackson at UFC 86, and Sean Sherk vs. Tyson Griffin at UFC 90. I'm sure there are fights that I'm missing, but those are the ones that stand out in my mind.

Round of the Year:
It's tough to remember rounds, but there was one round in the GSP/Fitch fight that I'll never forget. The third round of the fight was simply amazing. An amazing show of skill on GSP's part, and an inspiring show of heart on Fitch's part. Fitch was completely dominated and dropped twice and he still kept fighting. Watching GSP move was spectacular, he was quick and precise, it was as if he was floating. While Round One was one of the most exciting rounds I've seen, Round Three was the best round of MMA I saw in the UFC in 2008.

Comeback of the Year (in a single fight):
The man known for his epic comebacks wins this one hands down. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueria's come from behind submission victory against Tim Sylvia at UFC 81 was what MMA is all about. Nogueria was rocked early and often by Sylvia and it seemed that Sylvia was going to jab his way to a unanimous decision. Nogueria was hurt bad early in Round Three but used his brilliant Jiu-Jitsu skills to catch Sylvia in a guillotine choke.

KO of the year:
There are three KO's that happened very recently in the UFC that come to mind for KO of the Year; Rashad Evans on Chuck Liddell at UFC 88, Josh Koscheck on Yoshiyuki Yoshida at UFN for the Troops, and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson on Wanderlei Silva at UFC 92.

All of them deserve the honor, but I have to choose one and I'm going with Koscheck on Yoshida. While the other two were shocking and vicious, the Koscheck KO is essentially two KO's for the price of one. Koscheck KOed Yoshida and he fell back against the cage, he hit the cage, bounced forward and Koscheck gave him one more for good luck sending him crashing to the canvas as the ref stepped in to stop the fight.

Submission of the year:
We saw a lot of great submissions in the UFC this year, but one that really sticks out in my mind is Dustin Hazelett's flying armbar on Josh Burkman at The Ultimate Fighter 7 finale, it was a thing of beauty.

Honorable mention goes to C.B. Dollaway's Peruvian necktie on Jesse Taylor at Silva vs. Irvin, Rousimar Palhares' slick armbar on Ivan Salaverry at UFC 84, and Anderson Silva's rear naked choke win over Dan Henderson at UFC 82.

Upset of the year:
The year of the upset is over, but 2008 featured several shocking upsets. Rashad Evans over Chuck Liddell, Forrest Griffin over Quinton Jackson, Frank Mir over Antonio Rodrigo Nogueria, and countless others.

But the biggest upset for me was seeing Rob Emerson (yes, that Rob Emerson) knock Manny Gamburyan silly at UFC 87. Not only was it a huge upset considering the success Manny had on TUF compared to the success Emerson had on TUF, but it was simply the greatest 12 seconds I've ever seen.

Most improved Fighter:
There's no competition here, Kenny Florian is the most improved fighter of 2008. Kenny went 3-0 in 2007, he also went 3-0 in 2008. How can he be considered the "most improved fighter of 2008" then? There was a huge jump in competition and a massive leap in talent shown by Florian in 2008. He disposed of Joe Lauzon with ease at UFN 13, he outclassed Roger Huerta at UFC 87, and he absolutely demolished Joe Stevenson in the first round at UFC 91. Kenny Florian has gone from mid-carder to headliner in just under a year.

Honorable mention goes to Josh Koscheck (see fighter of the year for more info on Koscheck)

Breakthrough fighter:
Brock Lesnar. Lesnar went 2-1 in 2008, and considering the competition he faced, that's about the same as going 7-0 against cans. At UFC 81 he lost to former UFC Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir after a controversial stoppage by referee Steve Mazzagatti. Brock then went on to dominate Heath Herring for three rounds on his way to a unanimous decision. Lesnar finished the year winning the heavyweight title in the biggest fight of the year at UFC 91. Lesnar finished Randy Couture midway through round two silencing many critics.

Fighter of Year:
When considering fighter of the year I came up with this list; Anderson Silva, Brock Lesnar, Frank Mir, Thiago Alves, Kenny Florian, Georges St. Pierre, BJ Penn, Josh Koscheck, Rashad Evans, and Michael Bisping.

While many will disagree with me, my vote for UFC Fighter of the Year goes to Josh Koscheck. Koscheck ended 2007 losing to Georges St. Pierre. Koscheck opened 2008 with a vicious TKO win over Dustin Hazelett at UFC 82, he completely dominated Chris Lytle at UFC 86, Koscheck then took a fight with the incredibly dangerous Thiago Alves at UFC 90 in October. Koscheck lost the fight by unanimous decision, but it should be noted that Koscheck took the fight on two weeks notice and showed incredible heart and will in the loss. Koscheck rounded out his 2008 year with the KO of the Year.

In 2008, Koscheck knocked out two tough guys, won a dominating decision over another tough guy, and took a fight against one of the top welterweight fighters in the world on two weeks notice. For those reasons, Josh Koscheck is the UFC Fighter of the Year for 2008.

The UFC really stepped up in 2008, showing more fights per card, airing more fights on PPV, and putting on awesome fight cards all year long. Here's hoping 2009 can continue to deliver the high quality MMA that 2008 has accustomed us to.

Do you agree or disagree? Have a different choice for fighter of the year? Did I miss a knock out or submission that deserves to be on the list? Come discuss the UFC "of the year awards" 2008 with me at http://www.stickfiguremma.com

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