And the Nominees are: Too many to name

And the Winner Is: Anderson Silva vs Chael Sonnen, UFC 117

I had a hard time choosing this fight over my true personal fight of the year which was Brock Lesnar vs Shane Carwin at UFC 116 which is a fight I can watch over and over which I really can't say is true for the Silva fight. Thus, I added the caveat of "The Fight of The Year based on the original airing". And even then now that I think about it, I still have apprehension giving it the nod, but I made my decision and I'm sticking to it. Sorry folks, I prefer drama and excitement over rounds of sloppy brawling or a fight involving no-name fighters.

You've read the description I gave for the Submission of the Year award and it holds true here. This fight actually started at the beginning of the year with Chael Sonnen's trash-talking against Anderson Silva. And it built and built as Chael became a demigod among pale, acne-faced youths living with their parents. Chael was the anti-hero for all keyboard warriors, he said the things they couldn't say. Meanwhile, Anderson Silva is the picture of coolness and not responding. He was so cool that the media was UPSET that he wouldn't engage in trash-talking. 

The actual fight opened up with Anderson easily stuffing a takedown, while most figured that it would be a routine Silva fight...then a funny thing happened. Sonnen caught Silva off-guard with a punch and sent him off-balance. Sonnen continued to hit him in the jaw while Silva had his hands at his waist. Sonnen then took Silva to the ground and hit him with shot after shot. This wasn't supposed to happen to Anderson Silva. But it did. Over and over. Sonnen took Silva down, but didn't have him in any real trouble, but it seemed destined to go to a decision win for Sonnen. Silva showed a few hope spots with a hard standing elbow that buckled Sonnen as well as a sharp elbow from the bottom that cut Sonnen in the 4th. 

The hope was sucked out of many Anderson fans and the crowd in the arena chanted "Son-nen" and "U-S-A" in support of the challenger. Sonnen again took Silva down and rested in his guard and it looked like it was going to be a new champion. Sherdog and the UG all had their mice ready to click "New Thread" so proclaim the "E(r)a of Sonnen", but soon became the "E(r)ror of Sonnen". While resting in Silva's guard, Sonnen was quickly locked in a triangle from the bottom which transitioned into an triangle-armbar to which Sonnen tapped once. Josh Rosenthal came to break up the hold and Sonnen, true to his personality, momentarily claimed he didn't tap. The crowd booed until they saw the replay and were shown that "Yes", Sonnen had tapped. 

And the Nominees Are:

Robbie Lawler KO's Melvin Manhoef

Marlon Sandro Tiger Uppercuts Masanori Kanehara

Gerald Harris Hurrislams Dave Branch into unconsciousness

George Roop Kills..Rekills The Korean Zombie

And the Winner is: Gerald Harris

Let's be real, this was easy. The Gerald Harris slam was so good, it made people forget that the fight up until that point was boring. It made Joe Silva jump up and shout. It was the kickoff, the opening number on the Card of the Year...uh, hominee. Not only was it a Sportscenter Play of the Day, it was a Play of the Week. Lebron James loved it. Gerald Harris' eye-popping slam made everyone scream out 'Daaaaaaaaamn" like Smokey from Friday. The only KO on here that's giving it any competition is the Lawler KO because he was getting the fire kicked out of his legs before the desperation KO, but we know Manhoef's chin is suspect at best. 

Alas, the beautiful slam wasn't enough to keep him in the UFC after a poor performance at UFC 123, but at least he has the memories. 

And the Nominees are:

Brock Lesnar's DeathClutch Arm Triangle on Shane Carwin at UFC 116

Fabricio Werdum's Triangle Armbar on Fedor Emelianenko at Strikeforce: Fedor vs Werdum

Anderson Silva's Triangle Armbar on Chael Sonnen at UFC 117

And the Winner Is: Not so fast.

This was a difficult category to choose. You have three great submissions. At first glance, the weaker of the three appears to be the Lesnar submission as Carwin was pretty gassed out. Then again, if you take that into account, you have to think about how often Chael Sonnen suffers from poor submission defense. Then you think about how reckless Fedor was in Werdum's guard as that was the ONLY way anyone had Werdum winning. I can come up for reasons why each sub deserves to win. I wanted to remove the Fedor sub as I had no sentimental ties to it (besides ultimately proving a point that when you consistent face good fighters, you lose), but it was the most significant submission out of the three. Some would say the Lesnar submission only delayed the inevitable and the Silva submission just affirmed what we already knew. And there's a chance they're correct. But since these are my awards, I'm going to go with the sentiments. 

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And the nominees are:Jose Aldo, WEC, Cain Velasquez, UFC, Frankie Edgar, UFC, 

Winner is: Cain Velasquez

Cain Velasquez began 2010 as the highly-touted prospect out of the American Kickboxing Academy camp in San Jose with great wrestling and a rep for "pillow fists". Before the year began, Velasquez had impressive, but unremarkable wins over Chieck Kongo and Ben Rothwell, but none of those had propelled them him into superstardom. While many saw UFC gold in Cain's future, it was unknown how quickly it would come. 

Cain's first matchup was against former PRIDE legend Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 110. Minotauro was coming off an impressive win over Randy Couture while Cain was coming off his stoppage of Ben Rothwell. Going into the match, most analysts believed Nogueira had the boxing skills to stand with Velasquez and the world-class BJJ to neutralize Cain's wrestling on the ground. What actually happened was Cain knocked out Nogueira 2 minutes into the first round. With this victory, Cain had earned a title shot against the UFC Heavyweight champion. 

That title shot would come at UFC 121 in Anaheim, California against Brock Lesnar. Velasquez would have the homecourt advantage against the larger foe and would definitely use it. Many people had this fight as a pick 'em as Brock Lesnar was being looked at through a brand new lens after the beating Shane Carwin put on him for 3 minutes at UFC 116. Many felt that a seasoned striker like Cain would be able to hurt Brock on the feet and that his wrestling skills would be able to keep the fight standing. And they were correct. Lesnar came out a blaze of glory and Cain weathered the early storm. Lesnar soon lost steam and secured a takedown and Velasquez popped back up. Cain eventually stopped Brock Lesnar in the first round to win the UFC Heavyweight Championship. 

The future for Velasquez is endless. He has a fight upcoming with Junior Dos Santos, as well as a potential rematch with Brock Lesnar or a showdown with Shane Carwin. His star is just beginning to grow and with the right marketing, he could become a superstar.

Photo via Esther Lin