MMA HQ – Mixed Martial Arts News and Analysis

Now that 2008 is officially behind us, it’s time to once again look back and dish out the annual MMA HQ awards.

As always, trying to review an entire year of MMA and pick out the best and worst of the year can be a daunting task, and 2008 was no exception. I’ve done my best to review and recap all the major fight cards from the past year and award those who are truly deserving.

Today, we will begin with a few of the smaller awards categories and then finish up with the main categories over the course of the coming week. So, without further ado, let’s get this awards ceremony started.

Best Promotion
1. UFC – Clearly the Ultimate Fighting Championship is head and shoulders above the competition when it comes to MMA promotions. The UFC continues to tighten their “stranglehold” grip on the rest of the North American MMA scene and continues to pump out MMA events at the current rate of nearly 20 per year.
2. Strikeforce – Scott Coker continues to develop and improve his Strikeforce promotion and has been in business longer than anyone not owned by Zuffa, LLC. Strikeforce continues to make it’s name with excellent fighters and excellent fight cards and should continue that tradition throughout 2009.
3. DREAM – FEG showed that while Zuffa is still king, they may not be the smartest of the group. After Zuffa purchased PrideFC, FEG put together the DREAM promotion and held seven total events in 2008. The DREAM lightweight and middleweight grand prix events were a success and DREAM plans on holding bantam and featherweight grand prix events in 2009. There still is some question regarding whether or not FEG has the finances and backing needed to keep the promotion in business, but they made it successfully through 2008 and earn our third spot.

We can’t talk about the best promotions of 2008 without talking about the worst. The International Fight League, EliteXC, and TKO all folded in 2008. The IFL took their shot at a “team-based” MMA concept, but proved what we all knew before they started: MMA is an individual sport. EliteXC simply mismanaged their money and huge opportunity with CBS and now is desperately shopping for a buyer. Stephane Patry took TKO from Canada’s major MMA promotion and shut down shop. TKO is now part of the new XMMA promotion and hopefully XMMA and MFC can continue to bring solid MMA events to Canada.

Best Fight Card
1. Affliction: Banned – When Affliction announced they were going to get into the MMA promotion business, they were met with the usual skeptics who have seen many MMA promotions start and fade off the scene. Affliction may ultimately end up being another one of those fleeting promotions, but they went all out for their inaugural fight card. Affliction: Banned saw some of the biggest names in the MMA world outside the UFC fight on an excellent fight card from top to bottom. Undoubtedly, Affliction will not be able to match this card again, but it was a joy to watch their first event go off in spectacular fashion.
2. Fields Dynamite!! – K-1 and FEG came together for the annual New Year’s Eve extravaganza fight card in Japan and put together a whopping 17 fights for the Fields Dynamite!! event. While the Japanese love to mix solid fights with freak-show matchups, the overall fight card saw some excellent MMA and K-1 rules fights that made the whole event a joy to watch from start to finish.
3. UFC 92: The Ultimate 2008 – The UFC ended 2008 with an excellent fight card that saw both the heavyweight and light heavyweight titles on the line. UFC 92 also feature a fight between Quinton Jackson and Wanderlei Silva that was more anticipated than either of the night’s two title fights. A somewhat lackluster undercard and preliminary fights is what continues to keep the UFC from grabbing a higher ranking in the Best Fight Card category.

Most Disappointing Fighter
1. Fedor Emelianenko – Fedor Emelianenko continues to be one of the least active, yet highest regarded fighters on the planet. Fedor only fought once in 2008 at Affliction: Banned where he defeated Tim Sylvia via submission in the first round. Since his victory over Mirko Filipovic in August of 2005, Fedor has only fought six times with his only solid heavyweight opponents being Tim Sylvia and Mark Hunt. Fedor’s lack of activity against top competition is what grabs him the No. 1 most disappointing fighter of 2008.
2. Chuck Liddell – After defeating long-time “rival” Wanderlei Silva at UFC 79 to close out 2007, form UFC light heavyweight champ only fought once in 2008, where he was brutally KO’d by Rashad Evans at UFC 88. Liddel has lost three of his last four fights and a return to title contention in the light heavyweight division seems a long way off for the former face of the UFC.
3. Randy Couture – It’s hard to call any 45-year-old fighter most disappointing, especially Randy Couture, but Randy’s 2008 was not an easy one. After resigning from the UFC in late 2007, Randy spent most of 2008 in a legal battle with Zuffa trying to determine when is fight contract with the promotion officially ended. Randy had dreamed of fighting Fedor Emelianenko in 2008 and most MMA fans thought of Randy as being the “voice of the fighters” in his battle against the UFC. All that ended in September when the UFC announced that Randy Couture was returning to the UFC for a new three-fight contract. Couture returned at UFC 91 where he lost to Brock Lesnar in the second round. Randy’s return to the UFC most assuredly ended any chances of him fighting Fedor before retirement.

Be sure to check back each day this week as we continue the 2008 awards with the biggest upset, best submission, best knockout, breakout fighter, fight of the year, and fighter of the year categories.