By Ariel Helwani
October 30, 2009
Back to Nominees
The World MMA Awards will air live on Versus.com on Dec. 30, and leading up to that date, we will be breaking down each category.
Today: Knockout of the Year
Another category, another tough decision to make. With that said, the moment I saw the nominees, I knew right away who deserved to win.
But before I unveil my choice for MMA knockout of the year, I think it’s important to recognize those who didn’t make the cut, because there were a lot that deserved to be in the mix for this award:
* Jose Aldo’s flying knee against Cub Swanson at WEC 41.
* Vitor Belfort’s stunning knockout of Matt Lindland at Affliction: Day of Reckoning.
* Brett Rogers’ 22-second victory over Andrei Arlovski in june
* Nick Pace’s flying knee and/or Yahir Reyes’ spinning back fist in Bellator.
* Matt Hamill’s head kick against Mark Munoz at UFC 96.
* Shane Carwin’s comeback KO aginast Gabriel Gonzaga at UFC 96.
* Fedor Emelianenko’s stone cold stunner of a knockout against Andrei Arlovski in January.
And the list goes on and on.
Truth be told, every single one of those could have won this award, and quite frankly, I’m surprised none of them made the list. But you know how it goes in MMA: the more people see a fight, the more recognition it gets, and that definitely seems to have been a factor for this one.
Let’s take a look at the nominees:
Rashad Evans def. Chuck Liddell, UFC 88 – Sept. 6, 2008
Dan Henderson def. Michael Bisping, UFC 100 – July 11, 2008
Lyoto Machida def. Rashad Evans, UFC 98 – May 23, 2009
Nate Marquardt def. Demian Maia, UFC 102 – August 29, 2009
Anderson Silva def. Forrest Griffin, UFC 101 – August 8, 2009
I’ll bump Silva-Griffin out of contention because the punch that “knocked out” Griffin wasn’t all that impressive. Plus, I think that was more of a mental knockout than anything.
Next, I’ll say goodbye to Henderson-Bisping. Don’t get me wrong: that was one of the most impressive knockouts I have ever seen, but I thought Henderson’s extra shot while Bisping was clearly out cold was a little cheap.
Here’s where things get tricky because the remaining knockouts were all extremely impressive. Machida over Evans was jaw-dropping; Marquardt over Maia was a highlight reel knockout if I’ve ever seen one (made even more special by the fact that Maia seemed to be flying in the air when get got knocked out); and, well, have you seen Evans vs. Liddell?
But for historical reasons, I have to give the nod to Evans vs. Liddell because no one had ever knocked out “The Iceman” cold like that before, it’s viewed as a sort of coming out party for Evans, and I’ll never forget the sound of Evans’ wife screaming at the top of her lungs when it all happened.
Congrats, “Sugar.”
Be sure to make your voice heard by heading over to www.worldmmaawards.com, and vote for your favorite MMA knockout of the year.
