MMA-Other World MMA Awards 2015

[BradWCE]

Link if anyone wants to vote: http://www.worldmmaawards.com/vote.php

Just thought I'd start this thread so we can put some of our selections here.

Here's how I'd vote:

Fighter of the year: Robbie Lawler
Female fighter of the year: Joanna Jedrzejczyk (Rousey will and should win I guess but stuff it)
Breakthrough Fighter Of The Year: Kelvin Gastelum (Will Brooks a close second)
International Fighter Of The Year: Conor McGregor
Fight Of The Year: Weidman/Machida (Aldo/Mendes a close second for me but I think Hendricks/Lawler will win)
Knockout Of The Year: Mark Hunt (Not the flashiest but dude Koed Nelson. Samman either very unlucky or his KO was too late to be included.)
Submission Of The Year: Ben Saunders
Comeback Of The Year: Dominick Cruz (Zingano right up there and Pendred/King too)
Upset of the Year: TJ Dillashaw
Shawn Tompkins Coach Of The Year: Not sure
Trainer of the Year: No idea. I guess Dolce will win on name factor alone.
Gym Of The Year: Not sure
Referee Of The Year: Herb Dean (Not too sure about this. Only notice the refs when they stuff up. Herb did a couple of times but he's in more big name fights than anyone.)
Ringcard Girl Of The Year: No idea. (Arianny on name factor I guess)
Leading Man of the Year: Scott Coker (Dana White will win but I like Coker more)
Personality Of The Year: Brian Stann (Weird award but I really like Stann so whatever)
Best Promotion: UFC
Best Lifestyle Clothing Brand: No idea
Best Technical Clothing Brand: No idea
Best Technical Equipment: No idea
MMA Media Source Of The Year: Bloody Elbow (MMA Fighting or MMA Junkie will win though)
MMA Journalist Of The Year: Ben Fowlkes (Luke Thomas next best. Helwani will win though. I'd perhaps vote Helwani if it was MMA media member of the year or something. He doesn't really fit in the journalist category to me, and yet he's won this every year. Jack Slack's a great analyst but he doesn't fit the journalist tag well either. Brent Brookhouse does some terrific stuff at Bloody Elbow and Connor Ruebusch's analysis there is great too.)

 

[BradWCE]

Here's the list of awards to make it easier for everyone.

Fighter of the year:
Female fighter of the year:
Breakthrough Fighter Of The Year:
International Fighter Of The Year:
Fight Of The Year:
Knockout Of The Year:
Submission Of The Year:
Comeback Of The Year:
Upset of the Year:
Shawn Tompkins Coach Of The Year:
Trainer of the Year:
Gym Of The Year:
Referee Of The Year:
Ringcard Girl Of The Year:
Leading Man of the Year:
Personality Of The Year:
Best Promotion:
Best Lifestyle Clothing Brand:
Best Technical Clothing Brand:
Best Technical Equipment:
MMA Media Source Of The Year:
MMA Journalist Of The Year:

 

[Jab]

Fighter of the year: Lawler
Female fighter of the year: Ronda (I can't see any reason why it shouldn't be her)
Breakthrough Fighter Of The Year: Gastelum
International Fighter Of The Year: McGregor
Fight Of The Year: Lawler/Hendricks I (any are worthy winners)
Knockout Of The Year: Hunt. No one KO's Big Country like that.
Submission Of The Year: Saunders (Only just. I think that a one armed submission by Rockhold over Bisping should be nominated)
Comeback Of The Year: Cruz (especially now. Brown vs Silva is unlucky)
Upset of the Year: TJ
Shawn Tompkins Coach Of The Year: Bang or Edmond
Trainer of the Year: Dolce. Just because.
Gym Of The Year: AKA over Alpha Male
Referee Of The Year: Herb, just 'coz
Ringcard Girl Of The Year: Who cares
Leading Man of the Year: Dana should win it, but who knows.
Personality Of The Year: On the list of nominees, Joe should win, and easily.
Best Promotion: UFC
Best Lifestyle Clothing Brand: Who cares. Affliction or Dethrone
Best Technical Clothing Brand: Who cares. Hayabusa
Best Technical Equipment: Who cares
MMA Media Source Of The Year: MMA Fighting, but only just over MMA Junkie
MMA Journalist Of The Year: Ariel, Ben and Luke are all from the same style, it's just who has the opinion that suits you more. Ariel will win it due to his TV gig, which makes him more recognisable to the masses. Not that it would be bad if he wins again.

 

[Guy Threepwood]

Fighter of the year: Robbie Lawler. Don't think there can be too much argument about this.

Female fighter of the year: Rousey, although I developed a major soft spot for Tiburcio on the last Invicta card.

Breakthrough Fighter Of The Year: All guys are good shouts. I'm a big fan of what Jury's done, but would have to vote Gastelum.

International Fighter Of The Year: McGregor.

Fight Of The Year: Brown vs Silva. No fight had me out of my chair more than that one.

Knockout Of The Year: Really split on three on this one. The Beal flying knee and the Kim spinning elbow were incredible, but I loved the Trujillo/Varner KO as well as it came from nowhere. I guess I'd pick Kim's KO based on spinning elbows being so rare.

Submission Of The Year: Saunders. First Omaplata in the UFC is hard to beat. Rockhold's sub of Boetsch was super impressive as well though.

Comeback Of The Year: Zingano. Came back from a horrible knee injury, her husband comitting suicide and a horrible beating in the first round of her comeback to earn her title shot back. Hard to overlook for me.

Upset of the Year: Agree on Dillashaw.

Shawn Tompkins Coach Of The Year: Ludwig.

Trainer of the Year: Would be surprised if Dolce won it with all the negativity towards him from a few fighters. I don't know enough about the others to vote though.

Gym Of The Year: ATT. Think the feel good story surrounding Lawler will get them the nod.

Referee Of The Year: Goddard. He's vastly underrated as a ref.

Ringcard Girl Of The Year: Jhenny Andrade. I would do horrible, horrible things to that woman.

Leading Man of the Year: I imagine Dana will win too.

Personality Of The Year: Either Rogan or Florian for me.

Best Promotion: Considering the monopoly they alledgedly have, the UFC should win.

Best Lifestyle Clothing Brand: Don't pay much attention, but the brand I notice the most is Dethrone. Some of their shirts are really nice.

Best Technical Clothing Brand: Even less of an idea.

Best Technical Equipment: Don't care.

MMA Media Source Of The Year: MMAJunkie.

MMA Journalist Of The Year: Ben Fowlkes.

 

[BradWCE]

My thoughts on Helwani came off harshly. I generally don't like him but now I've remembered something that really bugged me. Earlier in the year I was listening to the MMA Hour and they were playing the new UFC video game. Helwani asks 'what's a parry' and it certainly sounded like a serious question. If all of the MMA media was like Jack Slack there would be very dry articles but you don't need to be at Jack Sack's level to know what a parry is.

Apparently Chael Sonnen has a podcast now. I saw a transcript from it where he was talking s**t about Helwani, which including him saying that 'he's not a journalist, he's a parrot'. I like and respect Helwani far more than Sonnen, so I don't take much from this but it's interesting.

Here it is: http://mmanuts.com/news/chael-sonnen-ariel-helwani/

Reads as Sonnen's opinions often do. He's done nothing wrong and the person he has an issue with is completely at fault. Whether truthful or not (who knows), his couldn't find a phone as it's a third-world country comment falls perfectly in line with his shtick. No computers, buses are a newly discovered animal for Brazilians arriving in the developed world, etc.

 

[Jab]

My thoughts on Helwani came off harshly. I generally don't like him but now I've remembered something that really bugged me. Earlier in the year I was listening to the MMA Hour and they were playing the new UFC video game. Helwani asks 'what's a parry' and it certainly sounded like a serious question. If all of the MMA media was like Jack Slack there would be very dry articles but you don't need to be at Jack Sack's level to know what a parry is.

Apparently Chael Sonnen has a podcast now. I saw a transcript from it where he was talking s**t about Helwani, which including him saying that 'he's not a journalist, he's a parrot'. I like and respect Helwani far more than Sonnen, so I don't take much from this but it's interesting.

Here it is: http://mmanuts.com/news/chael-sonnen-ariel-helwani/

Reads as Sonnen's opinions often do. He's done nothing wrong and the person he has an issue with is completely at fault. Whether truthful or not (who knows), his couldn't find a phone as it's a third-world country comment falls perfectly in line with his shtick. No computers, buses are a newly discovered animal for Brazilians arriving in the developed world, etc.

That Sonnen interview was clearly a pisstake, and well executed. Sonnen said that the Nog boys were feeding a carrot to a bus because it was a horse and that he didn't know that Brazil had internet yet.

Helwani is a good jouno, he just needs to stop being so antagonistic. In the world of fighting, it isn't difficult to get a headline from an interview, but that will only last a short period of time.

 

[MMAPride Scott]

That Sonnen interview was clearly a pisstake, and well executed. Sonnen said that the Nog boys were feeding a carrot to a bus because it was a horse and that he didn't know that Brazil had internet yet.

Helwani is a good jouno, he just needs to stop being so antagonistic. In the world of fighting, it isn't difficult to get a headline from an interview, but that will only last a short period of time.

Helwani is not a journo he get new directly from ufc or other and repeats it, he is feed on the spoon there is no investigation nothing just regurgitated BS. Folkes is pretty good, Jack from Sherdog also worthy

 

[Jab]

Helwani is not a journo he get new directly from ufc or other and repeats it, he is feed on the spoon there is no investigation nothing just regurgitated BS. Folkes is pretty good, Jack from Sherdog also worthy

While I do agree that Ariel gets spoon fed info at times, you can't deny how good he is in the MMA scheme of things. His interviews with Mark Hunt, even the latest ones with DC and Jones are a fantastic insight and completely different to anything else you find out there.

One thing I dislike about Ben, and I like him in general and think that he is a talented journalists is that he constantly looks for the negatives in anything related to Dana or the UFC. More specifically about Dana, but it gets tired. Surely Dana White can rub people the wrong way and talk crap as much as anyone, but he does do a lot of good too. Some balanced reporting is a skill that I believe that he is yet to acquire. All in all I like him though.

 

[bkozican]

I honestly could not answer half of these questions

 

[BradWCE]

Fowlkes is just honest I think. Some people want to be basically 100% positive when they talk about the UFC or Dana White. Just look at Kenny Rice, and to a lesser extent Bas Rutten, on Inside MMA when they had Ben Askren on there. If anything Fowlkes would probably be reined in regarding negative stuff about the UFC as I've read that MMA Junkie/USA Today has a direct relationship with the UFC.

I saw that Brent Brookhouse will be working for MMA Junkie/USA Today soon. He's had a lot of investigative pieces at Bloody Elbow that the UFC probably wouldn't have been happy about. I wonder how different his work will be now, hopefully not at all but I don't know.

 

[MMAPride Scott]

Finally put my votes in though i did vote for Brendan in the personality of the year, i started listing to the fighter and the kids podcast after the rogan episode got to admit he is pretty funny.