Issue 045

January 2009

In keeping with this very special World Mixed Martial Arts Awards issue, this month’s ‘Top 5’ is a little different. Instead of looking to the past, we look to the future with predictions for the winners across a handful of categories for next year’s awards.

1 Promotion of the Year: the UFC

This one is about as safe a prediction as confidently announcing the sun will rise tomorrow morning, or that Barack Obama will be a more eloquent president than George Bush. With their dominant position entrenched due to their own hard work and talent, and with a little help from the buffoonery of many of those seeking to challenge them, 2009 should be another great year for the UFC. With no new viable competition on the horizon (and plenty more who have tried and failed lying dead in a ditch behind them) bet your house on Zuffa’s boys once again being the cat’s pyjamas this time next year.

2 Fight of the Year: Georges St Pierre vs BJ Penn II

You never really know which fights will deliver the greatest action from bell to bell but you can sometimes tell when something is going to be, at the very least, a memorable occasion. Almost two years since GSP took a painfully close split decision victory over BJ they meet again for the French Canadian’s UFC welterweight title on January 31, 2009. With a full five rounds to fight it out, the sport’s best welterweight faces its best lightweight, and both men are in exceptional form. In 2008 St Pierre laid waste to Matt Serra and brutalised Jon Fitch, while Penn destroyed Joe Stevenson and thoroughly outclassed Sean Sherk. Expect something truly special when they clash in Las Vegas.  

3 Breakthrough Fighter of the Year: Cain Velasquez

At 6’2”, 245lb and 26 years old, he is a two-time All-American wrestler from the highly-regarded Arizona State University. With a perfect 4-0 MMA record (all first round stoppages), Velasquez sounds like a hot prospect. Throw in his already near-mythical status at California’s American Kickboxing Academy (where everyone raves about his ability and work ethic) and the fact he’s a brutal ground ‘n pounder with more aggression than some small armies, and you have a near-certainty for this award. Look for Velasquez to smash his way to the upper reaches of the UFC heavyweight division by the end of 2009.  

4 Best European Fighter: Michael Bisping and company

Entertaining, charismatic, a genuine UFC star, and edging ever closer to a middleweight title shot, Britain’s most popular fighter, Michael Bisping, was always likely to win this award in 2008. But next year ‘The Count’ may have some serious competition. Europe is on the rise and 2009 should see Goran Reljic, Gegard Mousasi, Martin Kampmann, Dan Hardy, Paul Daley, Paul Taylor, David Bielkheden, Terry Etim, Per Eklund and plenty more, ready and waiting to really give Bisping a run for his money.  

5 Best Media Coverage: Dave Meltzer / Yahoo! Sports

While it’s doubtful he’ll win, the Yahoo! Sports and Los Angeles Times columnist (and owner / editor / everything else of the long-running Wrestling Observer Newsletter) richly deserves this one. Having covered MMA in detail since the first Pancrase show in October 1993, Meltzer is one of the best-connected, most insightful minds on the sport (and the business) of mixed martial arts. Highly acclaimed sportswriters who primarily cover a fake sport (pro wrestling) are few and far between, and the California-based Meltzer’s coverage of MMA is genuinely outstanding thanks to his nuanced, insider approach.