Issue 169

August 2018

Awarded to the fighters who have made the most impressive progress in 2017

MARTIN NGUYEN

Few fighters had a year as prolific and successful as Australia’s Martin Nguyen in 2017. Starting in January, taking on Japanese veteran Kazunori Yokota, the Sydney-based battler scored his first of three knockouts. This earned him a rematch with the only man to have beaten him, and he settled the score with Marat Gafurov by knocking out the Russian, and taking the ONE Championship featherweight title. Not content with one belt, he then went on to KO Eduard Folayang for the promotion’s lightweight title too, holding them simultaneously at the year’s end.

VOLKAN "NO TIME" OEZDEMIR

Former kickboxer Volkan “No Time” Oezdemir was drafted in at short notice to face Ovince Saint Preux in his UFC debut in February 2017. Putting in a career-best performance right when he needed it, Oezdemir defeated “OSP” over the distance, vindicating the UFC’s decision to bring him in. From there, he scored back-to-back knockouts over Misha Cirkunov and Jimi Manuwa, putting him in title contention after just three UFC bouts.

BRIAN "T-CITY" ORTEGA

Former RFA champion, Brian “T-City” Ortega already had an unblemished record coming into 2017 and had begun to add marquee names to his resume. He added a submission over Renato Moicano, along with Fight of the Night honours, to that, before acquiring his best scalp to date. He topped the bill against Cub Swanson, and submitted the veteran in round two.

DARREN TILL

Hard-hitting Scouser Darren Till stormed the UFC’s welterweight division in 2017, after 18 months out of action. He’d already been in the Octagon twice, with one win and one draw, but he returned with a vengeance by defeating Jessin Ayari and Bojan Velickovic with dominant striking performances. Uninjured, he was promoted to main event against Donald Cerrone in October, and claimed easily his biggest victory with a first round TKO over the top-level Jackson-Wink athlete.

FRANCIS NGANNOU

Cameroonian-French behemoth Francis Ngannou bookmarked his year with huge wins – in every possible sense of the term – in January and December. The first came against former heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski, as Ngannou needed just 92 seconds to finish the Belarusian. Then in December he took on Alistair Overeem and landed that knockout; the one that nearly separated the Dutchman’s head from his shoulders and put Ngannou firmly in the heavyweight title picture.