Was 2013 The Greatest Year Ever for MMA?

Guest Blogger Emma McHale discusses if 2013 was the greatest year ever for MMA?
by Emma McHale of Sports Direct
Emma McHale trained as a web journalist at the University of Sheffield, has a passion for MMA and currently works at SportsDirect.com.  

MMA has started to become a mainstream sport recently and it is the worlds fastest growing sport. As 2013 comes to a close, we are going to look back at the top MMA moments of 2013 to see if 2013 really was the greatest year of MMA.
 
This has been one of the first years that young talented MMA fighters have completed dedicated training to become simply a MMA fighter. Previous MMA fighters started by learning a specific martial art such as Jiu Jitsu and then become a MMA fighter. This results in more interesting and tougher MMA fights. For example welterweight contender Rory MacDonald has only ever trained as a full mixed martial artist. 

This year celebrated the 20th anniversary of UFC with the UFC 167 event. This year also marked another key event with the introduction of the first women’s division and the first fight in the UFC between rivals Ronda Roussey and Liz Carmouche. 

There have been some of the best MMA fights this year ranging from Silva versus Weidman to Grice versus Bermudez. The year has been highlighted by top knockouts from Weidman, superb submissions from Pettis and controversial judging decisions after the St-Pierre versus Hendricks fight. 

Considered to be the greatest MMA fighter of all time, Anderson Silva lost his UFC Middleweight champion title to Chris Weidman with a knockout in the second round of the fight. The loss of the title was still a UFC record as it was the longest held title in UFC history after defending the title for seven years. “The Spider” and Weidman are due to have a rematch at UFC 168, but could this be the fall of a great MMA fighter? 

The UFC partnership with Fox has resulted in some of the highest viewer ratings since the partnership began in 2011. 

The BAMMA events get better and better every year. The recent partnership with Channel 5 has resulted in MMA becoming a mainstream sport. There are new fans anticipating the latest MMA fights and new participants looking to learn the combat sport. 

2013 may have been the best year of MMA. From the best fights of the year to the television highlights, MMA has come a long way since its humble beginnings of Brazilian jiu jitsu and shoot wrestling. 

Do you think 2013 was MMA’s greatest year? 

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