Fighters Only announce nominees for 2020 World MMA Awards

Rob Hewitt, CEO of Fighter’s Only, announces the Nominees for the 12th Annual Fighters Only World MMA Awards and that the official voting website is live at worldmmaawards.com. Voting for the nominees starts now; the venue and the date for the Awards will be announced soon.

In true MMA tradition, Fighters Only Magazine gives fans the power to determine who takes home a World MMA Award.

Fans can cast their votes now through their mobile devices, smart phones or PCs at worldmmaawards.com. Voting is live starting today, giving everyone the chance to vote for their favorite fighters, fight organizations, Ring Girls, MMA personalities and more, and will conclude on Friday, July 31st at 12:00 Midnight PT.

Fighters Only designates a panel of MMA industry experts to select the award nominees. The most anticipated awards include ‘Fighter of the Year’, ‘Knockout of the Year’ and ‘Upset of the Year.’ New to the program this year is the Fighting Spirit Award, which will go to the Nominee that best represents the true spirit and ethos of martial arts in their acts and deeds, either inside or outside of the cage.

Following are the Nominees for the Fighters Only 12th Annual World MMA Awards:

Male Fighter of the Year             

  • Henry Cejudo
  • Israel Adesanya
  • Justin Gaethje
  • Jorge Masvidal
  • Douglas Lima

Female Fighter of the Year          

  • Weili Zhang
  • Amanda Nunes
  • Valentina Shevchenko
  • Kayla Harrison
  • Cris Cyborg

Breakthrough Fighter of the Year

  • Weili Zhang
  • Gilbert Burns
  • Alexander Volkanovski
  • Jorge Masvidal
  • Petr Yan

International Fighter of the Year

  • Israel Adesanya
  • Weili Zhang
  • Kamaru Usman
  • Valentina Shevchenko
  • Aung La Nsang

Fight of the Year

  • Weili Zhang vs Joanna Jędrzejczyk (UFC 248)
  • Kamaru Usman vs Colby Covington (UFC 245)
  • Israel Adesanya vs Kelvin Gastelum (UFC 236)
  • Dustin Poirer vs Dan Hooker (UFC on ESPN 12)
  • Josh Emmett vs Shane Burgos (UFC on ESPN 11)                                                

Knockout of the Year

  • Jorge Masvidal KOs Ben Askren (Flying Knee – UFC 239)
  • Cody Garbrandt KOs Raphael Assuncao (Punch – UFC 250)
  • Anthony Pettis KOs Stephen Thompson (Superman Punch – UFC on ESPN 6)
  • Sean O’Malley KOs Eddie Wineland (Punch – UFC 250)
  • Douglas Lima KOs Michael Page (Punch – Bellator 221)                                       

Submission of the Year

  • Brent Primus SUB Tim Wilde (Gogoplata – Bellator Birmingham)
  • Bryce Mitchell SUB Matt Sayles (Twister – UFC on ESPN 7)
  • Aviv Gozali SUB Eduard Muravitsky (Heelhook – Bellator 225) 
  • Demian Maia SUB Ben Askren (Rear-Naked Choke – UFC on ESPN+ 20)
  • Misha Cirkunov SUB Jimmy Crute (Peruvian Necktie – UFC on ESPN+ 16)                                                

Comeback of the Year

  • Stipe Miocic (Fight/Career – regained title after losing to Cormier in their first fight. Was also losing the second fight until round 4)
  • Eddie Alvarez (Fight/Career – losing badly to Eduard Folayang before fighting back and winning via submission. Also lost first fight)
  • Jairzinho Rozenstruik vs Alistair Overeem (Fight – Rozenstruik losing until round 5 when he TKO’d Overeem with 4 secs left)
  • Peter Queally vs Ryan Scope (Fight – Queally knocked down badly in round 2, but fights back in front of a rampant Irish crowd)
  • Cody Garbrandt (Career – Lost three fights in a row before coming back and KO’ing Assuncao)

Upset of the Year 

  • Alexander Volkanovski def. Max Holloway (UFC 245)
  • Henry Corrales def. Aaron Pico (Bellator 214)
  • Kama Worthy def. Devonte Smith (UFC 241)
  • Kai Asakura def. Kyoji Horiguchi (Rizin FF 18)
  • Timofey Nastyukhin def. Eddie Alvarez (ONE Championship 92)

Coach of the Year

  • Mike Brown
  • Trevor Whitmann 
  • Eric Albarracin
  • Sayif Saud
  • Eugene Bareman

Referee of the Year

  • Herb Dean 
  • Mike Beltran
  • Jason Herzog
  • Marc Goddard
  • Frank Trigg

Ringcard Girl of the Year

  • Mercedes Terrell (Bellator)
  • Jhenny Andrade (UFC)
  • Louise McKie (Bellator)
  • Carly Baker (UFC)
  • Britanny Palmer (UFC)

Best Promotion

  • Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)
  • Bellator
  • ONE Championship
  • Professional Fighters League (PFL)
    Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki (KSW)                                               

Analyst of the Year

  • Daniel Cormier
  • Paul Felder
  • Dan Hardy
  • Robin Black
  • Michael Bisping

Best MMA Programming

  • Joe Rogan Experience MMA Show
  • Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show
  • Anatomy of a Fighter 
  • UFC Embedded
  • Dana White’s Contender Series

MMA Media Source of the Year

  • ESPN
  • MMA Junkie
  • Sherdog
  • The Athletic
  • The MacLife MMA

MMA Journalist of the Year

  • Brett Okamoto
  • Ariel Helwani
  • John Morgan
  • Mike Bohn
  • Gareth Davies

Gym of the Year 

  • American Kickboxing Academy (AKA)
  • American Top Team (ATT)
  • Elevation Fight Team
  • Sanford MMA
  • Fortis MMA

Leading Man of the Year

  • Dana White, UFC
  • Scott Coker, Bellator MMA
  • Martin Lewandowski, KSW
  • Nobuyuki Sakakibara, Rizin
  • Densign White, IMMAF

MMA Personality of the Year

  • Joe Rogan
  • Chael Sonnen
  • The Schmo
  • Jon Anik
  • Big John McCarthy

Fighting Spirit Award

  • Dustin Poirier (Charity work with The Good Fight Foundation)
  • Justin Wren (Charity work with Fight for the Forgotten)
  • Robbie Lawler (Sportsmanship following loss to Ben Askren at UFC 235)
  • Conor McGregor (Charity work with donation of €1m of PPE equipment in Ireland)
  • Walt Harris (Fighting Spirit – bravery to return to fighting following step daughters death)                                                

Trainer of the Year

  • Phil Daru
  • George Lockhart
  • Bo Sandoval
  • Andre Hicks
  • Sunz Singh

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