Sherdog.com’s 2019 Year-End Awards: The Complete List

Another year has come and gone in mixed martial arts, and while the Ultimate Fighting Championship remains the industry leader, Bellator MMA, the Professional Fighters League, One Championship and Rizin Fighting Federation continue to vie for a piece of the pie.

What began with UFC Fight Night 143 on Jan. 19 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, concluded with UFC Fight Night 165 on Dec. 21 in Busan, South Korea. In between, the MMA world bore witness to fights that stretched the bound of what was thought possible, historic knockouts, slick submissions, judging controversies and the rise of new superstars who will carry the combat sports torch into the next decade and beyond.

Stipe Miocic, Israel Adesanya, Kamaru Usman, Alexander Volkanovski, Henry Cejudo and Weili Zhang all ascended to the top of various weight classes. Daniel Cormier, Robert Whittaker, Tyron Woodley, Max Holloway, T.J. Dillashaw and Jessica Andrade all ceded control. The dawn of the UFC-ESPN partnership, sexual assault allegations against the sport’s biggest star, the creation of the BMF title and more changes implemented by the United States Anti-Doping Agency were a few of the straws that stirred the MMA drink across the past 12 months.

A complete rundown of Sherdog.com’s 2019 Year-End Awards:

• Fighter of the Year by Brian Knapp
• Fight of the Year by Tristen Critchfield
• Knockout of the Year by Jay Pettry
• Submission of the Year by Keith Shillan
• Story of the Year by Tristen Critchfield
• Beatdown of the Year by Brian Knapp
• Event of the Year by Jay Pettry
• Breakthrough Fighter of the Year by Ben Duffy
• Robbery of the Year by Tyler Treese
• Round of the Year by Tyler Treese
• Comeback Fighter of the Year by Tyler Treese
• Upset of the Year by Brian Knapp
• Walkout Song of the Year by Jay Pettry