Over the next few days, Bloody Elbow is going to ask for your opinion on some of the best things that have happened in the MMA world in 2012. There will be a total of eight different categories you’ll be asked to vote on. For simplicity’s sake we’re going to stick with high-level and relevant MMA stuff in these posts. I’m sure there was a crazy three-toed neck crank in M-1’s Kazakh rookie series or something, but we’ll just go with stuff that most people have actually seen here. Cool?
It’s pretty simple. I’ll post 10 options in a category, you vote for what you think was the best. If you think I left something really important off my list, post it in the comments and we can add it to the poll if it’s deemed worthy. I can almost guarantee you won’t like all my suggestions, but narrowing down these lists to 10 is tough.
Before we get to this one, you can vote on Best Submission, Best Celebration, Best Feud, Best Comeback, Biggest Upset, and Best Fighter at the applicable links.
Okay let’s get onto one of the biggest awards of the year – Best Knockout. 2012 saw a ton of thunderous KO’s, and narrowing the list to ten is ridiculously hard. But here goes.
Cung Le vs. Rich Franklin, UFC on Fuel 6 – Not many people thought Le had the power to put away Franklin. It took one huge right hand to change everyone’s mind.
Lyoto Machida vs. Ryan Bader, UFC on Fox 4 – Machida made Bader look silly with a perfect counter right that finished the fight.
Anthony Pettis vs. Joe Lauzon, UFC 144 – A monster head kick floored Lauzon early, and it was over a few seconds after that.
Johny Hendricks vs. Martin Kampmann, UFC 154 – The left hand of doom put Kampmann’s lights out almost exactly the same way as it took out Jon Fitch last year.
Siyar Bahadurzada vs. Paulo Thiago, UFC on Fuel 2 – After 40 seconds of nothing, Siyar landed a short right that put Thiago out cold. One of the best one-punch KO’s you’ll see, even though it didn’t look that brutal at first.
Pat Curran vs. Joe Warren, Bellator 60 – Curran landed a ton of flying knees and big shots that probably should have stopped the fight, but then he landed another monster shot that put Warren to sleep and earned Curran the Bellator featherweight title.
Ryan Jimmo vs. Anthony Perosh, UFC 149 – Seven seconds. One right hand. Out cold. And a silly dance for good measure.
Edson Barboza vs. Terry Etim, UFC 142 – The spinning wheel kick head ’round the world. The kick was nominated for an ESPY for best play.
Chris Weidman vs. Mark Munoz, UFC on Fuel 4 – A beautiful right elbow caught Munoz as he was coming in and brought an end to the fight.
Donald Cerrone vs. Melvin Guillard, UFC 150 -After taking a brutal body shot, Cowboy came right back with a huge left head kick that left Guillard stunned. Cerrone followed that up with an equally huge right hand to put Guillard down for good.
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