mma / Columns
The 411 MMA Year-End Awards: Part One – The Biggest Stories of 2015
Welcome back to the MMA Top 5, year-end awards edition! What we are going to is take a topic and all the writers here on 411 MMA will have the ability to give us their Top 5 on said topic, and the end, based on where all of these topics rank on people’s list, we will create an overall Top 5 list. It looks a little like this…
1st – 5
2nd – 4
3rd – 3
4th – 2
5th – 1
At the end we tally the scores and get our overall top 5! It’s highly non-official and final, like WAMMA. From best and worst fight to best fighter and KO of the year, the staff will come together to share out best. Thanks for joining us, and lets get down to work.
5. Jon Jones Fails Drug Test, is Suspended and Loses Championship
4. UFC/Reebok Deal is Widely Panned
3. Conor McGregor’s Road to Defeating Jose Aldo
2. UFC Implements USADA Random Drug Testing w/ Serious Penalties
1. Ronda Rousey Loses – It was going to happen at some point, nobody is able to fight for a long time in MMA and remain undefeated. But, that did not make UFC 193’s main event any less shocking. Ronda Rousey was battered across two rounds en route to a KO loss at the hands and feet of Holly Holm. Holm, a former pro boxing champion, picked her apart to the point where it was not even a competitive fight. There was concern about Rousey’s future in the sport, whether she would remain or increase her focus on Hollywood projects (which have taken up lots of time over the previous year). Some media focus turned to her coaching from Edmund Tarverdyan, as she was completely overmatched on the feet. However, it appears that as long as she can gain medical clearance, she will return for an immediate rematch against Holm at UFC 200 next summer.
5. The Nick Diaz Saga
4. The Jon Jones Saga
3. Ronda Rousey loses badly
2. Reebok deal continues to stumble
1. Stricter Drug Testing – When talking about the biggest story of the year I try to look at things that not only have immediate impact but also have serious long term implications as well, and nothing this year had more long term implications for the sport than the increased drug testing schedule and increased punishments for violations. Sure Ronda Rousey’s loss was covered by more outlets, and the continued incompetence displayed by Reebok when it comes to putting out MMA merchandise is baffling and embarrassing, but the reality that now failing a drug test will cost you multiple years of your career will have the biggest impact going forward. We haven’t seen a major star fail a test yet under the new rules, but it has to be an inevitability at this point and this story easily has the most ramifications of anything that happened over the last year.
5. Jon Jones Hit and Run; Stripped of Light Heavyweight Championship
4. Nick Diaz & Anderson Silva Drug Test Failures/Hearings
3. Reebok Deal Instituted… Hilarity Ensues
2. Ronda Rousey Demolished by Holly Holm
1. The Rise of Conor McGregor – Conor McGregor began the year prepping for a fight on Fox Sports 1 against Dennis Siver, with a large amount of media and fans assuming the UFC was handing McGregor an easy fight to strike while the iron was hot. It was believed that “Notorious” may not be capable of hanging with the elite of the UFC’s Featherweight division and that the UFC was gifting him an easy route to a profitable title fight. Well, Conor McGregor trashed Siver and went on to finish #1 ranked Featherweight contender Chad Mendes at UFC 189 in July, all leading up the historic 13 second KO of long-reigning Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo at UFC 194. Conor McGregor led UFC 194 to the biggest live gate in Las Vegas in UFC history with over $10 million (the second highest was UFC 189, which by no coincidence was also headlined by McGregor). It is already estimated that Aldo-McGregor drew well over 1 million PPV buys. Conor McGregor is well on his way to becoming the absolute biggest star the UFC has ever seen. Bigger than Ronda Rousey. Bigger than Georges St. Pierre. Bigger than Chuck Liddell. If McGregor can keep this momentum rolling, I can’t imagine that we’re very far away from the “Notorious” one headlining a UFC event which breaks the all-time buyrate record of 1.6 million, long-held by UFC 100 in 2009.
5. The Jon Jones saga
4. The Reebok deal in its entirety
3. The fall of Ronda Rousey
2. Stricter drug testing and penalties
1. Conor McGregor’s rise to the throne – No one can deny Conor McGregor’s accomplishments in 2015. He headlined two pay-per-view events that brought the UFC record profits, his two PPV events are among the highest selling in UFC history, and he set the UFC record for biggest live gates in Las Vegas. In addition, he showed his grit and managed to prove himself a legitimate top five featherweight by stopping Chad Mendes. And, he follows that up by knocking out Jose Aldo in 13-seconds. Yeah, not only does he become the first featherweight to defeat Aldo in a decade, but he stops him cold in 13-seconds! McGregor has taken the game to a new height and is well on his way to becoming the biggest star the UFC has ever had; of course, he has to keep that momentum going. Nonetheless, we’re possibility looking at the fighter who may be able to call his own shots, rather, than the UFC brass, and that will not only be a first, but will have huge implications in the future for all fighters.
5. Anderson Silva Drug Test Failure
4. The Reebok Deal
3. Jon Jones hit and run
2. USADA Drug Testing for the UFC
1. The Fall of Ronda Rousey – In 2015, Ronda Rousey fighting became a big media event. Her simply winning and annihilating an opponent in seconds was an experience in and of itself. In hindsight, it almost seems like her loss at UFC 193 was destined to happen. There was so much drama leading up to the fight, between her relationship with Travis Browne being debated in the public. Not only that, there was the issue of her mother publicly throwing her own coach under the bus. No analyst or commentator predicted what Holly Holm did to Rousey. For all intents and purposes, Rousey was supposed to have another easy win, and the world would continue to be her oyster. That’s not what happened. Perfect game plan, the perfect storm, exhaustion, whatever. The Rousey Era unbelievably came to an end at UFC 193. And no one saw it coming that way.
5. Reebok Deal Goes Into Effect, Pisses Everyone Off
4. Debut of Rizin MMA and the Return of Fedor
3. Nick Diaz’s Historic Drug Suspension
2. Anderson Silva’s Failed Drug Test and Failed Legal Defense
1. Jon Jones Strikes Out After Hit and Run – A lot of champions lost their titles this year. Most of them lost them the old-fashioned way. Jon Jones, on the other hand, had his taken away after a hit and run that left a woman injured, and this was after he’d already had that cocaine rehab debacle back in January. Jon had one of the most impressive wins of his championship reign, defeating Daniel Cormier at UFC 182, and then threw it all away in April by having this happen. It was a genuinely shocking moment, as this was the first time anything like this had happened to a major MMA star, and it had ramifications on the future of the light heavyweight division, allowing Daniel Cormier to ascend to the throne, setting up what will likely be one of the biggest fights of 2016 when those two rematch for the title. Jon Jones is responsible for one of the lowest points the sport has ever seen, and, after avoiding any jail time for his crime, it will be interesting to see how he performs upon his return to the sport sometime this year, possibly at Madison Square Garden in April. Drugs are bad, kids. Remember that.
5. NAC Bans Nick Diaz for Five Years in Power Trip
4. Conor McGregor’s Rise
3. Ronda Rousey’s Rise & Fall
2. UFC Inks Uniform Deal With Reebok
1. UFC Gets Serious About Drug Testing With USADA – Let me start by saying there were more major stories in 2015 than in any year since I’ve been doing this. It was tough to pick just five stories and leave things like weight cutting, Josh Gross’ piece on the UFC’s controversial call to allow Vitor Belfort to compete at UFC 152, and the entire Jon Jones situation off the list. There were more popular stories in 2015 – by that measure Ronda Rousey’s loss might be the single biggest story in MMA history – but the move by the UFC to contract USADA to conduct random, year-round independent drug testing changed the sport for the long-term. The program is still in its early stages and has not produced as many failures as many feared it would, but it’s certainly changed the look of some fighters and taken a lot of the lingering questions away. Hopefully it will lead to a better and
safer sport.
5. The Jon Jones Saga (Cocaine, Hit and Run, Suspension, Title Stripping) – 13 points
4. The Rise of Conor McGragor – 15 points
3. UFC’s Reebok Deal Arrives; Fighters are Pissed and Hilarity Ensues – 18 points
2. Welcome USADA and Stricter Drug Testing – 22 points
1. The Rise and Fall of Ronda Rousey – 23 points
THE 2015 411 MMA AWARDS:
* The Biggest Stories of 2015: The Rise and Fall of Ronda Rousey – 23 points
* The Most Disappointing Fighters of 2015: TO BE DETERMINED (January 5th)
* The Breakout Fighters of 2015: TO BE DETERMINED (January 6th)
* The Worst Fights of 2015: TO BE DETERMINED (January 7th)
* The Best Submissions of 2015: TO BE DETERMINED (January 11th)
* The Best Knockouts of 2015: TO BE DETERMINED (January 12th)
* The Best Fights of 2015: TO BE DETERMINED (January 13th)
* Fighter of the Year: TO BE DETERMINED (January 14th)
