Issue 085
February 2012
4
Greg Jackson and his team at Jackson’s MMA bagged four awards, including ‘Coach of the Year,’ ‘Fighter of the Year,’ ‘Breakthrough Fighter of the Year’ and ‘Submission of the Year’ (although Leonard Garcia was on the receiving end).
83.9%
As usual, the voting was dominated by males, with a total of 83.9% of the votes being cast by men and the other 16.1% by women, of course. The fairer sex are increasing their interest, however, as this is a step up from last year’s 12.2% of female voting.
82%
The biggest landslide came in the Promotion of the Year’ category, in which the UFC ran away with 82% of the total votes. President Dana White wasn’t too far behind either, bagging 72% of all the votes cast in the ‘Leading Man’ category.
31
Votes came in from no fewer than 31 countries for this year’s awards, that’s an increase from the 22 in 2010. More evidence than ever that this mixed martial arts thing really is contagious.
7
A record number of nominations in 2011 for Alliance MMA, who have previously never even been shortlisted. And, while they may have left The Palms empty handed, coach Eric Del Fierro and co. are surely the team to look out for in 2012.
2
Two winners from 2010 returned to the stage but to collect prizes in different categories. Jon Jones progressed from ‘Breakthrough Fighter of the Year’ in 2010 to collect the big one, ‘Fighter of the Year,’ while Anderson Silva added a ‘Knockout of the Year’ award to his 2010 ‘Fight of the Year.’
426,219
Exactly 426,219 votes were cast in total for the 2011 awards. That’s an increase of 10% from 2010, 252% up from 2009 and a whopping 1,930% up on 2008.
704
Just 704 votes separated leading contenders Jon Jones and Anderson Silva in the ‘Fighter of the Year’ category.
12
An incredible 12 statues stayed in the same hands, as a record number of awards were retained in 2011. ‘Mayhem’ Miller, Arianny Celeste, Dana White, Greg Jackson, Alistair Overeem, Herb Dean, TapouT, Bad Boy, Everlast, UFC, MMA Junkie and Ariel Helwani all went home with the same prizes they left with in 2010.
3
Anderson Silva has now completed an Awards treble, with this year’s ‘Knockout of the Year’ statue destined to stand alongside his ‘Fight of the Year’ prize from 2010 and his ‘Fighter of the Year’ award from 2008.
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