4th Annual Them's Fightin' Words Awards: Breakout Fighter of the Year

[Elsalvajeloco]

The nominees are...

Misha Cirkunov (XTREME COUTURE TORONTO)
W-SUB2 (NECK CRANK) ALEX NICHOLSON (UFC Fight Night 82: Hendricks vs. Thompson, February 6, 2016)
W-SUB3 (ARM TRIANGLE CHOKE) ION CUTELABA (UFC Fight Night 89: MacDonald vs. Thompson, June 18, 2016)
W-SUB1 (GUILLOTINE CHOKE) NIKITA KRYLOV (UFC 206: Holloway vs. Pettis, December 10, 2016)

Francis Ngannou (MMA FACTORY/BLACKZILIANS)
W-TKO2 (DOCTOR STOPPAGE) CURTIS BLAYDES (UFC Fight Night 86: Rothwell vs. Dos Santos, April 10, 2016)
W-TKO1 (PUNCHES) BOJAN MIHAJLOVIC (UFC on Fox 20: Holm vs. Shevchenko, July 23, 2016)
W-SUB1 (KIMURA) ANTHONY HAMILTON (UFC Fight Night 102: Lewis vs. Abudurakhimov, December 9, 2016)

Vicente Luque (BLACKZILIANS)
W-SUB2 (BRABO CHOKE) ALVARO HERRERA (UFC Fight Night 90: Dos Anjos vs. Alvarez, July 7, 2016)
W-KO1 (PUNCH) HECTOR URBINA (UFC Fight Night 95: Cyborg vs. Lansberg, September 24, 2016)
W-KO1 (PUNCHES) BELAL MUHAMMAD (UFC 205: Alvarez vs. McGregor, November 12, 20160

Jared Cannonier (GRACIE BARRA ALASKA)
W-KO1 (PUNCHES AND ELBOWS) CYRIL ASKER (UFC Fight Night 86: Rothwell vs. Dos Santos, April 10, 2016)
W-DEC3 (UNANIMOUS) ION CUTELABA (The Ultimate Fighter 24 Finale: Tournament of Champions, December 3, 2016)

Jason Knight (ALAN BELCHER MMA CLUB)
W-DEC3 (SPLIT) JIM ALERS (UFC on Fox 20: Holm vs. Shevchenko, July 23, 2016)
W-DEC3 (UNANIMOUS) DAN HOOKER (UFC Fight Night 101: Whittaker vs. Brunson, November 26, 2016)

Megan Anderson (GLORY MMA)
W-TKO3 (KNEES AND PUNCHES) AMBER LEIBROCK (Invicta FC 15: Cyborg vs. Ibragimova, January 16, 2016)
W-TKO1 (HEAD KICK AND PUNCHES) AMANDA BELL (Invicta FC 17: Evinger vs. Schneider, May 7, 2016)
W-KO (PUNCHES) PEGGY MORGAN (Invicta FC 18: Grasso vs. Esquibel, July 29, 2016)

2013 Winner: Rustam Khabilov - JACKSON'S MMA
2014 Winner: Aljamain Sterling - SERRA-LONGO FIGHT TEAM
2015 Winner: Joanna Jędrzejczyk - BERKUT ARRACHION OLSZTYN

Award voting will close 1/13 at 12:30 p.m. CST.

 

[twiztor]

i gotta give it to Cirkunov this year. i feel he's had the highest profile win of the bunch, in the Krylov fight, and he looked good doing it. I know he's ranked in the top 10, and i don't think anybody else listed is (maybe Ngannou?)  I see the highest upside for him.

Luque is definitely someone to keep an eye on, tho.

and, apologies, but i am so far behind in my Invicta watching that i haven't seen Megan Anderson yet.

[Elsalvajeloco]

12 minutes ago, twiztor said:

i gotta give it to Cirkunov this year. i feel he's had the highest profile win of the bunch, in the Krylov fight, and he looked good doing it. I know he's ranked in the top 10, and i don't think anybody else listed is (maybe Ngannou?)  I see the highest upside for him.

Luque is definitely someone to keep an eye on, tho.

and, apologies, but i am so far behind in my Invicta watching that i haven't seen Megan Anderson yet.

Right now even though Misha has the best win of everyone, Ngannou has the best upside by just being in the HW division. Cirkunov is already a top 10 LHW at worst, but that trio (Cormier, Jones, & Rumble) at the top of LHW is hard to beat. If Cirkunov beat someone like Gustafsson, I wouldn't be surprised because Gustafsson now looks more like a smart veteran fighter like a Glover Teixeira who isn't going to be champion. At the same time though, there ain't really many fighters like that at heavyweight save for a Barnett (who is about to be suspended) or a Ben Rothwell. I don't see that many trap fights or fights that would bring Ngannou down to Earth. That's why the Arlovski fight is interesting. The method of victory is obvious and Ngannou might look very impressive, but you can see someone like Arlovski pulling it out somehow. The Krylov fight for Cirkunov was still a prospect vs. prospect fight. Ngannou is getting a real test though despite Arlovski's flaws.

[twiztor]

Just now, Elsalvajeloco said:

Right now even though Misha has the best win of everyone, Ngannou has the best upside by just being at the HW division. Cirkunov is already a top 10 LHW at worst, but that trio (Cormier, Jones, & Rumble) at the top of LHW is hard to beat. If Cirkunov beat someone like Gustafsson, I wouldn't be surprised because Gustafsson now looks more like a smart veteran fighter like a Glover Teixeira who isn't going to be champion. At the same time though, there ain't really many fighters like that at heavyweight save for a Barnett (who is about to be suspended) or a Ben Rothwell. I don't see that many trap fights or fights that would bring Ngannou down to Earth. That's why the Arlovski fight is interesting. The method of victory is obvious and Ngannou might look very impressive, but you can see someone like Arlovski pulling it out somehow. The Krylov fight for Cirkunov was still a prospect vs. prospect fight. Ngannou is getting a real test though despite Arlovski's flaws.

i definitely agree. the heavyweight division is so flimsy that there's plenty of room at the top for everyone. If Ngannou had fought/beaten Arlovski in 2016, he would absolutely have been my pick. As it stands right now, he beat a bunch of no-namers in the weakest division. I could easily see him becoming champion and/or challenging for a title before Cirkunov, but to me it would ring a bit more hollow at this point. I see enormous possibilities for both men, and they were my first and second choices, but in a division that anybody can knock anybody else out at any time, there's always a question mark.

I guess what i'm saying is that fighting at LHW makes it easier to gauge skill level than at HW, so i leaned that way.

[supremebve]

Am I the only one who takes a wait and see approach with any fighter over 185 lbs.? There are just too many dudes we thought were going to be good, but are just beating up the terrible fighters at the higher weights.  I think Misha Cirkunov is good, but I wouldn't be surprised if he lost to OSP or got rag dolled by Ryan Bader.  I don't know who the best heavyweight prospect is, but every top-10 heavyweight is over 30.  According to rankingmma.com Stefan Struve is the highest rated heavyweight under 30, and he's ranked 16th.  I only take the top 5 fighters in that division seriously, and I'd bet on Cain Velasquez against any of them if healthy(fat chance).  I abstain.

[Elsalvajeloco]

36 minutes ago, supremebve said:

Am I the only one who takes a wait and see approach with any fighter over 185 lbs.? There are just too many dudes we thought were going to be good, but are just beating up the terrible fighters at the higher weights.  I think Misha Cirkunov is good, but I wouldn't be surprised if he lost to OSP or got rag dolled by Ryan Bader.  I don't know who the best heavyweight prospect is, but every top-10 heavyweight is over 30.  According to rankingmma.com Stefan Struve is the highest rated heavyweight under 30, and he's ranked 16th.  I only take the top 5 fighters in that division seriously, and I'd bet on Cain Velasquez against any of them if healthy(fat chance).  I abstain.

I think Minakov is a good prospect (IIRC he is currently in talks with the UFC), but Ngannou is clearly head and shoulders above everyone else in terms of HW prospects. Maybe it's because the Eastern Euro prospects basically litter (however now some are moving to 205) the UFC HW division, but Ngannou would piledrive those dudes. I think the thing with Ngannou is he is going to win a ton of fights based on athleticism, but can he get out of certain tough situations. Someone like Rothwell is going to get barnstormed, but how does he respond against an Alistair Overeen or Cain Velasquez? My point being that he is no worse than the sixth or seventh best HW right now, and we're not going to see him pushed against anyone not at that level. Like...is Travis Browne not going to be on the receiving end of one of the worst ass kickings ever against Francis Ngannou?

It's like what have now with Anthony Joshua. Joshua was clearly a top 10 HW so early in his career. Now the HW division has gotten to the point where Joshua is no worse than a top 3 or 4 HW by virtue of his sheer athleticism, punching power, and there being like only 5 heavyweights worth a damn in the world. He is a heavyweight titlist, but still a prospect at the same time.

[supremebve]

The fact that guys like Alistair Overeem(debuted in 1999), Ben Rothwell(2001), and Fabrico Werdum(2002) are still at the top-10 of the divison says so much about the dearth of talent in the heavyweight division.  Miocic, Velasquez, and Dos Santos are pretty much the only top flight prospects in the last 10 years.  Someone needs to start recruiting college campuses for heavyweight wrestlers and football players who aren't making it to the league.  The cupboard has been bare for so long, I just don't understand how it got this way.  

[Elsalvajeloco]

11 minutes ago, supremebve said:

The fact that guys like Alistair Overeem(debuted in 1999), Ben Rothwell(2001), and Fabrico Werdum(2002) are still at the top-10 of the divison says so much about the dearth of talent in the heavyweight division.  Miocic, Velasquez, and Dos Santos are pretty much the only top flight prospects in the last 10 years.  Someone needs to start recruiting college campuses for heavyweight wrestlers and football players who aren't making it to the league.  The cupboard has been bare for so long, I just don't understand how it got this way.  

Out of those six fighters you named, the only blue chip prospect was Cain and that's because Javi Mendez hyped him up from the beginning. Alistair was considered the lesser Overeem brother. Rothwell was thought of as a half decent midwestern fighter. Werdum was a world class grappler, but when he was living in Spain, he was just Mirko's BJJ coach. JDS didn't really hit prospect level until he hit the mitts in that one video before he fought Werdum, who everyone thought prior to that video would blow his doors off. Miocic was a good prospect, but the only people who knew about him were people who saw him in NAAFS.

Someone like Todd Duffee was suppose to be the first next generation HW prospect because he was built like a brick shithouse and was young enough that he grew up watching MMA (HookNShoot). However, Duffee (or Travis Browne for that matter) is what someone would consider a top prospect eleven or twelve years ago. I mean if someone said in 2006 that Brandon Vera and Todd Duffee would be the top HW prospects for the next 3 years, people would automatically assume one of them would be HW champ if not both inside that timeframe. However, size and athleticism aren't the be-all, end-all in the HW division anymore. People thought once someone like Arlovski became champ or Sylvia became champ, that everyone not named Fedor below 6'2" or 6'3" and below 235-240 lbs would get lamped. There are going to be dominant champs at HW, but the era of someone going 10 years without a loss are over. You're not running into a Zuluzinho or Justin Eilers to pad your record as champion. Your opponents are going to have some combination of skill, size, athleticism, toughness, fight IQ, and other intangibles that you're going to have a competitive night at some point. Heavyweight MMA is still not ideal at all, but it's comparative to what we're seeing in several other divisions.

[DreamBroken]

I really liked Megan Anderson's year, definitely was a breakout one for her. She bounced back from a tough loss at the end of 2015 to have three straight wins in 2016. Looking forward to her start in 2017. My gut says Cirkunov as he had the best competition with that awesome win over Krylov to seal it. But if he has a clear lead, I might toss a vote to Megan. I'll think about this one for a few.

[Jiji]

Ngannou for having the highest ceiling of the bunch, though Cirkunov probably had the better year on paper. Can't go wrong with either of them.

[Hail Sabin]

Had it between Ngannou and Megan Anderson went with Megan which will become clear shortly will one of my predictions in the 2017 contest.

[Elsalvajeloco]

FRANCIS NGANNOU is your 4th Annual Them's Fightin' Words Awards Breakout Fighter of the Year.