Fighters Only 2010 World MMA Awards Predictions and Results

It is time for the third annual World MMA Awards taking place today, Wednesday, December 1^st in Las Vegas at The Pearl inside the Palms Casino Resort.  After the success of the 2008 and 2009 awards the 2010 black-tie style celebration event promises to be an even bigger success featuring celebrities from sports and entertainment.  Estimates based on cast votes by fans show that the event’s popularity has more than doubled since last year.  This year’s venue, The Pearl, is Las Vegas’ premier concert theater and can accommodate up to 2,500 ticket holders.  The main stage is four feet from the floor and the furthest seating area is only 120 feet from the stage allowing those who attend and intimate viewing of the festivities.

The event is put on by Fighters Only, the world’s biggest MMA magazine and is sponsored by BodyBuilding.com.  The award ceremony will be hosted by one of the most recognized MMA fighters in the world, the very popular Randy “The Natural” Couture and co-hosted by long time sports reporter Molly Querim, who is known to viewers in the US from various ESPN sports shows. 

Fighters Only devised the World MMA Awards not only to recognize success and achievement in the world of MMA, but also to give MMA fans from all over the world a chance to cast their votes on which athletes, industry professionals and brands they think have made the greatest impact in the sport throughout the last year.  The voting process had two stages, the first one being nominations by fans in 20 different award categories.  Anybody could be nominated at this stage.  After nominations were closed short-lists of the five most nominated finalists were compiled for each category.  The second stage was voting by fans on the www.worldmmaawards.com website for their chosen winner for each category.  After vote calculations the winners will be presented with their awards at the ceremony.

The process has taken almost half a year giving fans plenty of time to nominate and vote for their favorites.  Nominations were open on July 26^th, 2010 with fans being invited to nominate anyone as long as eligibility criteria were fulfilled.  Nominations were open until the 26^th of September, 2010, after which entrants were tallied up and final short-lists of the 5 most popular nominations for each category were created.  Voting was opened on October 1^st, 2010 after the finalists were announced.  Fans were allowed to vote for their chosen winner until November 26^th, 2010.  On that day voting was closed and votes were calculated to decide the winner for each category to be announced at the live ceremony on December 1^st.  With the voting process now closed it is time to make some predictions on who the possible winners might be and the real winners will be reveled at the bottom.

The Charles “Mask” Lewis Fighter of the Year Predicted winner: Jose Aldo

Jose Aldo has an excellent record of 19-1, with 12 of his wins coming by knock out, 2 by submission and 4 by decision.  He has been undefeated since 2006 and has had a very successful last three years.  Aldo is ranked by sherdog as the number one feather weight in the world and the number three pound for pound fighter.  He is the fourth and final WEC Featherweight Champion and with the recent UFC/WEC merger he is now the current and first UFC Featherweight Champion.  Aldo has had to overcome adversity to get to where he is today, he has proven himself an exciting, tough and very likable fighter.  His popularity among fans has steadily risen and he has been on the cover of MMA magazines.  He stands a good chance to win this award.  The rest of the nominees in this category are:

Anderson Silva

Brock Lesnar

Frankie Edgar

Mauricio Rua

Fight of the Year Predicted winner: Anderson Silva vs Chael Sonnen, UFC 117

Was the UFC 117 main event a fight or an epic battle?  It should not be too much to say that this fight was one of the most spectacular ones in MMA in the past year.  To everyone’s surprise Chael Sonnen managed to back up all the trash talk prior to the fight and forced Silva to fight all the way into the fifth round until he finally managed to win through a great submission, which not surprisingly was also nominated for an award for best submission of the year.  There were many great fights this year and this may be a close call, but just for the amount of twitter traffic it caused this fight deserves an award.  The rest of the nominees in this category are:

Brock Lesnar vs Shane Carwin, UFC 116

Chan Sung Jung vs Leonard Garcia, WEC 48

Chris Leben vs Yoshihiro Akiyama, UFC116

Jorge Santiago vs Kazuo Misaki, Sengoku 14

KO of the Year Predicted winner: Rich Franklin vs Chuck Liddell, UFC 115

This fight lasted only into the first round and everyone knows the result by now, where Franklin finished Liddell with a KO (Punch).  For as short as the fight lasted it was a tremendous fight, during which Franklin sustained a broken left arm before knocking Liddell unconscious.  The biggest star of the UFC, Liddell (21-8), had returned to the ring after being away for over one year and at 40 years of age.  This may be another close call but possibly fans will give Franklin credit for knocking out an MMA legend after sustaining such an injury.  The rest of the nominees in this category are:

Anthony Njokuani vs Chris Horodecki, WEC45

Cain Velasquez vs Antonio Nogueira, UFC110

Lyoto Machida vs Mauricio Rua, UFC113

Mike Russow vs Todd Duffee, UFC114

Submisson of the Year Predicted winner: Fabricio Werdum vs Fedor Emelianenko

What is more notable than ending Fedor Emelianenko’s (32-2-1) 28 fight, decade long, winning streak, with 14 of those wins coming by submission with a submission.  The Last Emperor had been unbeaten since the end of the year 2000.  Werdum (14-4-1) was able to finish the fight in the very first round by a triangle armbar submission at the June 26^th, 2010 Strikeforce (Fedor vs Werdum) event in San Jose, California.  This submission deserves to easily win the top spot at the awards tonight.  The rest of the nominees in this category are:

Matt Hughes vs Ricardo Almeida, UFC117

Chris Leben vs Yoshihiro Akiyama, UFC116

Cole Miller vs Dan Lauzon, UFC108

Anderson Silva vs Chael Sonnen, UFC117

Best Promotion Predicted winner: UFC

The fact that this category exists at all, speaks to the reality that there are now several strong competitors to the UFC who are recruiting top world talent and putting out great fight cards and shows.  However, due to the obvious better popularity of the organization it should be pretty safe to assume that the UFC will win this category.  Even with DREAM in the short list votes for the UFC will most likely tally up to win the award.  It will be very interesting to watch how this category will perform in the future.  The rest of the nominees in this category are:

Bellator

DREAM

Strikeforce

WEC

Leading Man of the Year Predicted winner: Dana White

Well does this need an explanation?  Again the fact that this category exists shows that the UFC now has some great competition.  Love him or hate him Dana White is now a public figure known outside the world of MMA as “the man who runs the UFC”.  For all the critics he has Dana White has a tremendous following and this will most likely win him the award if his fan base supported him through the voting process.  Commentator Michael “TheVoice” Schiavello is a strong contender in that, that he has a very loyal and strong following as well.  Michael is not as widely known in the US, yet as other people on the short list but he is someone to watch out for in the future as his popularity rises.  The rest of the nominees in this category are:

Bjorn Rebney

Joe Silva

Michael Schiavello

Scott Coker

International Fighter of the Year Predicted winner: Alistair Overeem

There is a reason why Dutch man Alistair Overeem’s (7-4 KB) (33-11-1 MMA) nickname is “The Demolition Man”.  Once he gets going he is an unstoppable freight train.  Alistair is an accomplished fighter with a vast amount of experience under his belt and a great record.  He has been competing side by side in both Kickboxing and MMA and performing well in both.  He is truly an internationally known and well-respected fighter, who keeps very active and never turns down a fight.  In the past three years he has fought for PRIDE, Strikeforce, DREAM, Dynamite, K-1 and Ultimate Glory.  His performance at Strikeforce this year vs Brett Rogers was more than satisfactory, when he knocked out his opponent in the first round, with what seemed like ease.  His conduct after the fight was that of sportsmanship toward his opponent, thanking him for accepting the fight.  He has been asking for a fight with Fedor and waiting on Fedor’s management camp.  A man who does not shy away from tough fights he more than deserves recognition for all he has accomplished in MMA.  The rest of the nominees in this category are:

Dan Hardy

George Sotiropoulos

John Hathaway

Shinya Aoki

Breakthrough Fighter of the Year Predicted winner: Evan Dunham

Evan Dunham (11-1) may have lost his last fight at UFC 119 against Sean Sherk but what a fight it was!  Many fans called this the fight of the night and even though there was a loss the performance and heart Evan showed probably won him some new fans.  In addition his loss came through a controversial split decision.  Evan is aggressive, quick and accurate.  Prior to his last loss he has had 4 straight wins fighting for the UFC.  This is an exciting fighter who knows how to put on a show, to watch out for in the future.  At UFC Fight Night 20 Evan won submission of the night by nearly breaking Efrain Escuerdo’s arm.  The rest of the nominees in this category are:

Charles Oliveira

George Sotiropoulos

John Hathaway

Jon Jones

Female Fighter of the Year Predicted winner: Cristiane Santos

This might be a close toss-up between Cristiane Santos (11-1) and Megumi Fujii (22-1).  Megumi is the more experienced fighter with more wins under her belt, however Cristianne Santos has been performing extremely well for the past two years fighting for Strikeforce in the US and winning a larger and larger fan base.  She is an exciting fighter has an excellent record so far and has been undefeated since late 2005.   Similar is the story with Megumi, however based on the amount of fans from the US that may have voted online Cristiane stands a good chance of winning.  The rest of the nominees in this category are:

Megumi Fujii

Miesha Tate

Sarah Kaufman

Zoila Frausto

Coach of the Year Predicted winner: Rafael Cordeiro

Rafael Cordeiro is Wanderlei Silva’s personal trainer who is the creator of the unorthodox training techniques seen on Wand’s released training videos where he can be seen training with his nose taped off and breathing only through a snorkel.  Rafael followed Wand to the U.S. from Brazil to help him open a new gym here.  Following two losses for Wand in 2008 and 2009 his training was modified to account for other fighters being able to counteract his original fighting style and he showed this off in past year with his win over Michael Bisping at UFC 110 in Australia.  Unfortunately due to serious injuries and a surgery Wand will not able to fight again until 2011 at which time we will be able to continue to show off his improvements resulting from his training.  For his dedication Rafael deserves this award.  All of the nominees in this category are very highly respected and accomplished individual so it will be exciting to see the actual result.  The rest of the nominees in this category are:

Cesar Gracie

Firas Zahabi

Greg Jackson

Shawn Tompkins

Gym of the Year Predicted winner: Wand Fight Team

When Wanderlei Silva could not find a gym to satisfy his training needs in the U.S. because no one would train with him, due to the hardcore training he goes through he  just decided to form his own.  The Wand Fight Team gym was established by Wanderlei and his coach from Brazil who followed him in the US from Chute Boxe Academy, Rafael Cordeiro.  Wand fight team fighters have been performing very well in competition winning all of their fights.  The gym does a good job recruiting new talent and promoting itself through videos and events.  They gym’s performance within the past 12 moths should win it some recognition it deserves.  The rest of the nominees in this category are:

AKA

American Top Team

Black House

Greg Jackson

Ring Girl of the Year Predicted winner: Arianny Celeste

All of the contenders in this category are a good choice for the winning spot and deserving of it.  However, Arianny Celeste’s popularity has made her known even outside of MMA and she most associated with the UFC by casual fans.  During the 2008 World MMA Awards the ring girl category received the most votes, so this will most likely be a close competition.   The rest of the nominees in this category are:

Brittney Palmer

Chandella Powell

Natalie Skyy

Rachelle Leah

Best Lifestyle Clothing Brand Predicted winner: TapouT

Who doesn’t know the TapouT crew?  Although all of their brands turn out quality products it is pretty safe to assume that the TapouT brand has become the most mainstream.  TapouT T-Shists, shirts, caps and even pants can be seen at most malls and have become associated with MMA even to people who do not have any interest in the sport.  The rest of the nominees in this category are:

Affliction

FightChix

RVCA

SilverStar

Referee of the Year Predicted winner: John McCarthy

Another good category in which all short list nominees can be deserving.  However, as far as popularity goes who does not know and like the “Lets get it on!” man Big John McCarthy.  He has been around since the early days of the UFC when, with much less rules in MMA, much more responsibility lay on the referee to keep the fighters safe.  John McCarthy has proven over the years that he is a trustworthy referee and if not a yearly award he deserves a lifetime achievement one.  This is another category where it may be a close call however.  The rest of the nominees in this category are:

Dan Miragliotta

Herb Dean

Josh Rosenthal

Mario Yamasaki

Most Memorable Ring Entrance Predicted winner: Jason Miller

Jason Miller is known for his entrances from the very beginning of his MMA career.  He always has something new up his sleeve and it has become expected of him by fans to come up with a new and entertaining entrance for them, for each of his fights.  He is routinely asked in interviews before his fights what he has prepared for an entrance, showing that there is a demand for this style of entertainment in MMA and a high anticipation by his fans to know what is coming.  Although he never gives out any plans on what his entrance will include, he never disappoints and his entrances are talked about and watched long after a fight is done.  In the past year Jason Miller had two great televised entrances one in the USA and one in Japan.  Another entrance in the US was not televised by Strikeforce due to time restrictions.  King “Mo” Lawal would probably put up a good fight for this award based on fans’ votes since he is extremely creative with his entrances as well.  It will be interesting to see the outcome of the category.  The rest of the nominees in this category are:

Anderson Silva

Clay Guida

King “Mo” Lawal

Tom Lawlor

Best Technical Equipment Brand Predicted winner: TapouT

Choosing TapouT for this category, as well, due to their popularity and name recognition.  Depending on who the voters are many votes from non-fighters may have gone to TapouT simply due to name recognition.  The rest of the nominees in this category are:

Everlast

Fairtex

Hayabusa

Venum

Best Technical Clothing Brand Predicted winner: Jaco

Jaco has been marketing itself as a lifestyle and a philosophy rather than just a brand which possibly may have long-term appeal to fighters and fans alike.  They also sponsor many top fighters such as Wanderlei Silva, Anderson Silva, Lyoto Machida et al.  This brand has quality products that keep up with current trends and a very recognizable logo.  All of the nominees in this category are quality brands so it will probably be a close win as well.  The rest of the nominees in this category are:

Bad Boy

Hayabusa

TapouT

Venum

Media Source of the Year Predicted winner: Sherdog

This is another category with excellent contestants.  All of the nominees in this category need to be awarded for bringing great MMA news coverage.  That being said, sherdog.com has long-established itself as a source for MMA information, rankings, fighters and timely news and fight results.  It should be pretty safe to assume that Sherdog is the leader in this category.  The rest of the nominees in this category are:

Inside MMA

MMA Junkie

MMA Weekly

MMAfighting.com

MMA Journalist of the Year Predicted winner: Ariel Helwani

There is a reason why he is known as “the Nose that Knows”, Ariel Helwani is one of the best known and most popular MMA journalists, who is always on the look out for the best interview or story to bring to the fans.  He has developed his own style of reporting and interviewing.  He is always calm, collected and seems to be able to put both those he interviews and his audience at ease.  He is extremely respectful and a great ambassador for the sport.  Although all of the nominees are good it does not seem that any of them would be able to take away the spotlight from Ariel Helwani.  The rest of the nominees in this category are:

Aaron Teweles

Conner Cordova

Gareth A Davies

John Morgan

To find out what the real results from the World MMA Awards are, you will be able to watch the awards live online on the versus website at www.versus.com at 7:30PT/10:30ET.  Online chat will be available on the site as well.

Official Results:

Outstanding Contribution to MMA Award: Randy Couture

The Charles “Mask” Lewis Fighter of the Year winner: Jose Aldo

Fight of the Year winner: Anderson Silva vs Chael Sonnen, UFC 117

KO of the Year winner: Lyoto Machida vs Mauricio Rua, UFC113

Submisson of the Year winner: Fabricio Werdum vs Fedor Emelianenko

Best Promotion winner: UFC

Leading Man of the Year winner: Dana White

International Fighter of the Year winner: Alistair Overeem

Breakthrough Fighter of the Year winner: Jon Jones

Female Fighter of the Year winner: Cristiane Santos

Coach of the Year winner: Greg Jackson

Gym of the Year winner: Wand Fight Team

Ring Girl of the Year winner: Arianny Celeste

Best Lifestyle Clothing Brand Predicted winner: TapouT

Referee of the Year Predicted winner: Herb Dean

Most Memorable Ring Entrance winner: Jason Miller

Best Tehnical Equipment Brand winner: Everlast

Best Technical Clothing Brand winner: Bad Boy

Media Source of the Year winner: MMA Junkie

MMA Journalist of the Year winner: Ariel Helwani

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