With 2022 coming to a close, it only makes sense that we take a look at the best of the best of what happened this year. The best fighter of the year, the best fight of the year, the KO of the year, the submission of the year, and the best moment of the year.
So to start, let's discuss our candidates for fighter of the year. Charles Oliviera, Alex Pereira, and Leon Edwards. Charles Oliviera's 2022 was one for the ages. Charles started the year as the undisputed Lightweight Champion. He defeated Dustin Poirier at the end of last year, then in May submitted Justin Gaethje inside one round. Unfortunately, Charles's reign came to an end in October when he faced Islam Makhachev. Leon may have only had one fight in 2022, but it was to become the undisputed Welterweight Champion. Leon faced Kamaru Usman on August 20th. Edwards took it to Usman round one and even beat him on the ground. Rounds two through four were pure domination by Usman. In between rounds four and five Leon's coach, Dave Lovell, delivered possibly the most inspiring speech in sports. He just repeatedly yelled "You can't let him bully ya son!" at Leon. What happened in round five? Leon didn't let Kamaru bully him, Leon showed a spectacular amount of heart, and in the final minute of the fight, Leon baited Usman into leaning right into his head kick. As for Pereira, he fought Sean Strickland and Israel Adesanya this year. He knocked out Strickland with just one heavy hook in the first. The fight against Adesanya was a five-round war where Alex got the stoppage late in the fifth in order to become the Middleweight Champion. Alex is our fighter of the year. If Charles beat Islam, there's no doubt in my mind Charles would be considered the fighter of the year. Leon probably needed just one more fight. However, Alex truly dominated 2022, it is hard to say anyone had a better year in fighting than Alex.
Now for the fight of the year, we only have two candidates. Jiri Prochazka vs Glover Teixeira and Dustin Porier vs Michael Chandler. Prochazka vs Teixeira was a five-round championship war that even called for a rematch which unfortunately got canceled. I've watched this fight several times throughout the year. It was back-and-forth nonstop action. Had Jiri not pulled off the submission to become the Light Heavyweight Champion, Glover probably would have retained the title via decision. As for Chandler vs Poirier, everyone knew this fight was going to be a banger from the moment it was announced. Both men always put on a show inside the octagon. Round one probably could have gone either way, Chandler probably took round two, then round three both men were giving it to each other, but Dustin finally found Chandler exposing himself and put him in a deep rear naked choke and tapped him out. Both of these fights really could have been considered the fight of the year. Yet, we can only pick one, and since Glover vs Jiri was w championship bout that went all five rounds that is our fight of the year.
For the knockout of the year, we have five candidates. Michael Chandler's front kick to the face of Tony Ferguson. Leon Edwards's head-kick to Kamaru Usman. Chito Vera's head-kick to UFC legend Dom Cruz. Alex Pereira's heavy hook to Sean Stickland. Or, Molly McCann's spinning elbow to Luana Carolina. All of these KOs were absolute show-stoppers. However, with only one possible winner it's gotta be Chandler's front kick. We've never seen Tony Ferguson get dropped like that before. Seeing that was crazy. The energy in the building was crazy. It wasn't even a typical kick, it was almost like Chandler punted Tony's chin right off.
As for the submission of the year, there is only one candidate in my personal opinion. Charles Oliviera's submission over Justin Gaethje at UFC 274. It happened so quickly and efficiently that there are no other options. It was a fantastic rear-naked choke. We could have mentioned Porier's rear naked over chandler, or even Jiri's over Glover. However those took the whole fights to get locked in, Charles got his sub locked in the first round.
Before we get to the best moment of the year, let's take a look at some of the worst moments of 2022 for the UFC. The worst fight of the year: "Thug" Rose Namajunas vs Carla Esparza. This isn't even debatable. There were like a total of maybe three punches thrown. It was a five-round piss break. It's a shame, because UFC 274 had the KO and sub of the year, but it also had the worst fight of the year. The worst decision of 2022 had to be the Paddy Pimblett unanimous decision over Jared Gordon. Jared probably won every round of the fight, except maybe round two. This decision was super fishy.
Finally, for our moment of the year. There were certainly a lot of special moments throughout 2022. With Islam winning the title, then placing it on Khabib, or even Renato Moicano's moment on the microphone after his performance at UFC 281. However, there is only one winner and that is Leon Edwards kicking Kamaru Usman's lights out and then yelling on the mic "POUND FOR POUND HEADSHOT DEAD!" There was absolutely nothing better than that moment in the UFC this past year. That moment will live on in history. The way the fight broke down all the way to that. What a moment and what a year it has been for the UFC. 2023, you got some big shoes to fill!
Comments