Fight of the Year

[jmt225]

Please vote for what you feel was the best MMA fight of the year 2008. The nominees are below. If you feel I left a deserving fight out of the choices, then feel free to choose "Other" in the poll and state the fight who you feel should win this category. Thank you for participating.

Frank Shamrock vs. Cung Le - Strikeforce: Shamrock vs. Le​

Spoiler: Frank Shamrock vs. Cung Le

This fight was held by Strikeforce and EliteXC and took place on Saturday, March 29, 2008 at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California. Cung Le defeated long time MMA veteran Frank Shamrock via TKO when Frank Shamrocks' right arm was broken after a series of kicks (ulna broken), making him Strikeforce Middleweight Champion.

Eddie Alvarez vs. Joachim Hansen - Heiwa DREAM.3 - Lightweight Grand Prix 2008 Quarter Finals​

Spoiler: Eddie Alvarez vs. Joachim Hansen

This fight was held by Fighting and Entertainment Group's mixed martial arts promotion DREAM and took place on Tuesday May 11, 2008 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. Alvarez defeated top ranked lightweight fighter Joachim Hansen on by unanimous decision in an exciting fight. Hansen, who was known for his ability to take a punch, was dropped twice in the fight and dazed numerous other times by Alvarez's strikes. This fight is regarded by many as the best fight to take place thus far in DREAM.

Gina Carano vs. Kaitlin Young - EliteXC: Primetime​

Spoiler: Gina Carano vs. Kaitlin Young

This fight was held by Elite Xtreme Combat taking place on May 31, 2008 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. Carano defeated former Hook N Shoot champion Kaitlin Young by TKO at the end of the 2nd round in a very exciting fight. It was dubbed Fight of the Night by the EliteXC announcers.

Miguel Torres vs. Yoshiro Maeda - WEC 34: Faber vs. Pulver​

Spoiler: Miguel Torres vs. Yoshiro Maeda

This fight was held by World Extreme Cagefighting that took place on June 1, 2008 at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento, California. Torres won the fight via TKO (Injury) at 5:00 of the third round. The bout tied for fight of the night with Urijah Faber and Jens Pulver's fight.

 

[jmt225]

Urijah Faber vs. Jens Pulver from - 34: Faber vs. Pulver​

Spoiler: Faber vs. Pulver

This fight was held by World Extreme Cagefighting that took place on June 1, 2008 at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento, California. Faber and Pulver fought a constant back-and-forth battle, but neither man was able to finish the other and the fight went the full five rounds, the first time in Faber's WEC career that one of his fights had gone the distance. The judges scored the bout a unanimous decision for Faber, 50-45, 50-44 and 50-44. The bout also tied for fight of the night with Miguel Torres and Yoshiro Maeda's fight.

Quinton "Rampage" Jackson vs. Forrest Griffin - UFC 86: Jackson vs. Griffin​

Spoiler: Rampage vs. Forrest

This fight was held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) on July 5, 2008, at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Viewed as a heavy underdog by many going into the fight, Forrest Griffin faced Rampage Jackson in a hard fought battle that was given "Fight of the Night" honors by UFC president Dana White. Griffin looked to be in trouble in the first round after being dropped by an uppercut, but he rallied in the second round, and landed a damaging leg kick early that severely wobbled Jackson. Griffin followed up with ground strikes and cemented his control, preventing Jackson from mounting any significant offense for the rest of the round. Griffin went on to win the match by unanimous decision.

Georges St-Pierre vs. Jon Fitch - UFC 87: Seek and Destroy​

Spoiler: GSP vs.Fitch

This fight was held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on August 9, 2008, at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Jon Fitch was defeated by Georges St-Pierre by unanimous decision with scores of 50-43, 50-44, 50-44 at UFC 87[5], St-Pierre retained his UFC welterweight title by exhibited clear dominance over a durable Jon Fitch, scoring multiple devastating strikes and taking the former Purdue wrestling captain down seemingly at will.

Chris Lytle vs. Paul Taylor - UFC 89: Bisping vs. Leben​

Spoiler: Chris Lytle vs. Paul Taylor

This fight was held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on October 18, 2008 at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham, England. Chris Lytle won a unaminous decision in this fight. The judges scored it 29-28 (twice) and 30-27. The decision resulted in loud boos and Taylor was surprised at Lytle being awarded the judges’ decision. Sherdog, MMAWeekly and MMAJunkie thought Taylor had won the decision. The fight was awarded fight of the night by the UFC.

 

[jmt225]

Randy Couture vs. Brock Lesnar - UFC 91: Couture vs. Lesnar​

Spoiler: Couture vs. Lesnar

This fight was held by by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on November 15, 2008 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. On September 2, 2008 the UFC announced a 3 fight deal with a now 45 year old Randy Couture to return to active competition for the UFC. His first fight back was to defend his UFC Heavyeight Championship against Brock Lesnar in what was being dubbed as UFC's Greatest Fight Ever. It was at first a closely contested match, however, later in the the fight Lesnar knocked Couture down and finished him with hammerfists for a TKO victory at 3:07 of the second round.

 

[theneil450]

I didn't see all of the fights listed(I saw about half of them) but my choice is GSP and Fitch. Not only was Fitch's heart/endurance incredible so was GSP's conditioning, granted GSP couldn't stop Fitch but he never really gassed while spending 25 minutes beating the shit out of him which is quite an impressive feat to me. Bottom line it was 2 warriors(they're all fighters in mma but a lot aren't warriors) who backed up there talk by delivering a must see fight.

 

[jmt225]

Had to vote for Frank Shamrock vs. Cung Le from Strikeforce.

This fight had everything: A back-story, a great setting, drama, and most importantly... unbelievable action.

The back-story was that these two use to be training partners and that Le was the one person who could consistently get the best of Frank in training; of course Frank would deny it, but there was a history there. The setting was in San Jose California, both Le and Shamrock's hometown... so the crowd was split right down the middle. The drama came with the crowd's back and forth chants. And the action... what can you say? It was one of the greatest stand-up battles to ever take place on a MMA event. It was truly unbelievable. It's probably the best fight I ever watched live. It was that amazing.

Honorable mention goes to Gina Carano vs. Kaitlin Young and Eddie Alvarez vs. Joachim Hansen. While the UFC had some incredible events this year, the all around best fights happened in other promotions in my opinion (difference being is that most of those shows with the unbelievable fight like Shamrock vs. Le, the other fights were crap; whereas the UFC usually puts on a card that’s good from top to bottom).

 

[Marquis]

Fight of the year in my opinion was Frank Shamrock vs Cung Le without doubt. As Jmt already explained the back story was great. Seeing the crowd so split down the middle was a great sight as well. The fight itself though is what really made it my favorite fight of the year. Great back and forth striking combined with Cung Le landing one of the greatest sweeps i have seen. It was a shame the fight ended a bit early, But nonetheless still one of the greatest fights i have seen and my choice for fight of the year.