Kingdom MMA Awards 2013: Worst Fight of the year

Kingdom MMA Worst Fight of the Year Award 2013: Soa Palalei vs Nikita Krylov

by Ben Heather @benheather

Although 2013 has been a great year for MMA it has also had a few stinkers. So this is the wooden spoon award of the year. Thankfully for us all this was actually quite a hard award to think of a winner for because we really have been treated to some amazing fights in 2013.

However, we had three contenders which were put forward as the worst fight of the year, our first contender was the fight between Jake Shields and Tyron Woodley at UFC 161 where the pair clinched for most of the fight in which Shields failed to get Woodley to the floor in the first two rounds alone with a staggering 11 attempts. The fight was either spent tied up in the clinch or pushed up against the side of the cage but nothing of serious note happened. All in all a stinker of a fight. However, Shawn Jordan must have been watching and gave the fans something to cheer about as he knocked out Pat Barry within a minute in the next fight.

Then in July Rory MacDonald vs Jake Ellenberger met at UFC on FOX 8 was certainly a fight with very little happening during the fight. Rory was waiting for Ellenberger to make the move and when he did, did just enough to win the fight without doing much in the process. Thankfully Demetrious Johnson vs John Moraga came on after that fight and put on a show for the fans to make them rightfully forget that fight ever happened.

Our winner though comes from UFC 164 at the end of August when Soa Palelei faced off against Nikita Krylov. Before the fight both guys had impressive records, Soa was returning to the UFC after a one fight stint years before and Nikita was making his debut in the UFC so both really wanted to impress..... unfortunately for both men and us fans that did not happen on this night. The fans were instead treated to over 11 minutes of fighting between two clearly gassed fighters before Soa put Nikita out of his misery and picked up the TKO win. Soa however announced after the fight that he went in to the fight with an injury, having suffered a fractured rib the week of the fight which led to him putting on a lack luster performance.

Thankfully Soa made up for this recently as the UFC returned to his home nation and he quickly knocked out Pat Barry making people forget all about his previous fight.

We are sorry to do this, but the award for worst fight of 2013 goes to Soa Palelei vs Nikita Krylov. Please forgive us and we hope to see you perform well again in 2014.

Kingdom MMA 2013 Awards: Fighter to Watch in 2014

Kingdom MMA Awards Fighter to watch in 2014: Arnold Allen
by Ben Heather @benheather

As well as taking a look back and recognising the achievements of 2013 we would also like to take a look forward to who we believe will be the fighter to watch in 2014. We wanted to give the award to a fighter who some of the casual fans may not have heard of or knew much about, but trust me by the end of 2014 you will all know this fighters name.

Unlike all of the other awards which between our writers we had numerous contenders to pick the winner from there was only one name that came to mind for this category and everyone agreed, that name was Arnold "Almighty" Allen.

Arnold Allen is the 19 year old rising star fighting out of BKK Fighters and has a record of 6-0. Arnold has only been fighting professionally since April 2012. In 2013 Arnold went 4-0, including three wins fighting for Cage Warriors in which he never had to go in to the third round. Since fighting for Cage Warriors Arnold has really showcased his skills with two victories by submission and a TKO win over Doni Miller at Cage Warriors 61.

Arnold started 2013 fighting at UCMMA 32 in February where he defeated Carl Orris picking up the fighter of the night bonus in what can only be described as a one sided unanimous decision victory. It remains the only time that Arnold has been the distance in a fight but he really showcased his skills that night. Arnold landed head kicks, take downs and when he had his opponent on the ground didn't ease up as he continued with some brutal ground and pound that his coach Jack Mason would have been proud of.

The next time we would see Arnold back in the cage he would make his Cage Warriors debut at Cage Warriors 56 where he defeated Andy Green by rear naked choke in the first round. After that fight he signed a five fight exclusive contract to fight only for Cage Warriors proving that they could also see that he is certainly a star of the future and wanted to keep him on their books.

Next up Arnold fought the most experienced fighter of his career to date as he battled Dec Williams at Cage Warriors 60 in October. If you saw the fight without knowing who was the more experienced fighter you would not have known that it was only Arnold's fifth fight of his professional career as he took Dec Williams down in the first round before posturing up and landing some explosive shots on Williams who just had no answer for it. In the second round Arnold got the victory by submission. After locking in a guillotine choke on the ground but realising he couldn't finish the fight he released it and instantly locked in a triangle choke which this time made Williams tap securing Arnold's fifth win of his career.

Arnold returned to action in December fighting for the first time outside of the UK as Cage Warriors returned to Amman, Jordan for Cage Warriors 61 where he fought Doni Miller. This fight saw Arnold show off his improved boxing skills as he floored Miller in the first with a crisp right hook but was unable to finish the fight then as Miller did a good job locking him up and being unable to get off his normal ground and pound. Within 30 seconds of the second round Arnold found his mark again this time it was the left hand which floored Miller and Arnold was then relentless with his punches on the downed Miller before the referee came in to stop the fight.

If you have not seen any of Arnold Allen's fights then I recommend that you get on YouTube and check them all out. He is a great fighter who can go a very long way in the sport and to think he doesn't turn 20 until the 17th January. Having Jack Mason as his head coach, who has witnessed and been in probably every situation during a fight and guys Luke Barnatt, Sean Carter and Jason Cooledge in his corner is only going to help him achieve whatever he wants to in this sport.

Congratulations Arnold you have been crowned Kingdom MMA’s Fighter to watch in 2014 – Arnold we salute you.

Kingdom MMA 2013 Awards: Domestic Fighter of the Year

Kingdom MMA Domestic Fighter of the Year Award 2013: Brett Johns

by Ben Heather @benheather

The main reason we set up this website was to help promote the amazing talent which the UK and Ireland has and so this award is one of my personal favourites.

2013 has been a great year for MMA throughout the world and domestic MMA has been no different. Cage Warriors has been on fire this year, this week Cage Warriors 63 will be their fourteenth event of 2013 and the quality of the fighters and the fights that have taken place has been incredible. Also, BAMMA have chipped in with a couple of events this year and although they have not put on the quantity of cards that Cage Warriors have the events they have staged have been just as good again showcasing the talent we have in the UK and Ireland. All you have to do is look at the current roster of British and Irish UFC fighters who have signed in the last couple of years and chances are they have fought for one of these two organisations.

There is nothing I love more than seeing our athletes in this case fighters showcasing their skills to the world and we have picked what we feel are the cream of the crop in 2013.

At the start of the year not many casual fans knew the name Luke Barnatt let alone had seen him fight. That being said, they do now. Luke has had a good year by starting the year in the TUF house and being picked first overall by Chael Sonnen before making his full UFC debut and winning twice this year including a very impressive submission win against Andrew Craig at UFC Manchester. Next up for Luke is a fight on the UFC's return to London in March '14 where he will square off and try to keep his record undefeated against Mats Nilsson.

Also making big waves in the UFC and picking up a pair of victories in the octagon was Ireland's Conor McGregor. He started the year (OK it was last year but only a by a few hours) by becoming a two weight Cage Warriors champion as he captured the lightweight title in his home town of Dublin on New Years Eve 2012. Then signed for the UFC making a very impressive debut by Knocking out Marcus Brimmage and securing the KO of the night bonus. He then followed that up in August by getting a unanimous decision win over Max Holloway. Unfortunately for McGregor he got injured in that fight and it ruled him out for the rest of the year but I am sure we will see big things from him in 2014.

Conor's team mate Cathal Pendred has also had a very impressive year and deserves a lot of respect. He started the year as challenger for the Cage Warriors welterweight title at Cage Warriors 52 where he faced then champion Gael Grimaud, he won that fight via unanimous decision to become the new champion. Next up Cage Warriors set him the challenge former UFC fighter Che Mills at Cage Warriors 55. Cathal controlled the fight from start to finish and it was only Che's corner throwing in the towell that prevented the one sided beating from continuing. Like Conor the second half of the year Cathal has not been back in the cage but I am sure you will all see a lot more from him on your Tv's in 2014 alongside BJ Penn and Frankie Edgar....

Brett Johns has also had a perfect year going 4-0 in 2013. He started the year with a submission victory in February before following that up with a TKO victory at Cage Warriors 54 then in September came the highlight of his short career so far. Brett was included in the Cage Warriors tournament for the bantamweight title and fought twice in one night in his home nation of Wales to become the new champion.

Another young fighter who has really made his mark this year is Arnold Allen. Arnold like Brett only became a professional fighter last year and has taken his record to 6-0 with four impressive wins this year. In his last three fights he has also stopped each of his opponents and in the process increasing his reputation as one to watch for the future. At just 19 years old Arnold certainly deserves a lot of credit for the year he has had and always backs up his reputation as an explosive fighter who will fight anyone, anywhere.

Although each of the above fighters certainly deserve the award there can only be one Winner and that is: Brett Johns.

As I have already said 2013 has been a great year for Brett Johns. He has shown he can finish fights this year by finishing his first two opponents of 2013. He showcased his submission skills by finishing Joe Orrey via armbar in his first fight of the year. Then at Cage Warriors 54 went on to finish James Macalister by TKO. Brett won that fight with great ground control before finishing the fight with some brutal ground and pound. Although he won that fight by TKO my personal highlight was when Brett locked in a standing d'arce choke in the first round but couldn't quite get the finish.

Then on September 14th at Cage Warriors 59 Brett was included in the Cage Warriors Bantamweight Championship tournament, a two fight four man tournament to crown the new Cage Warriors Bantamweight champion. The format was a semi final fight which consisted of 2x 5 minute rounds and if required a third overtime round. Then in the final the two winners of the semi finals would meet in a 5x 5 minute round fight to crown the new champion.

Brett went in to the night as a massive underdog and as part of the prelims for the night was first matched up with David Haggstrom in his semi final. That fight ended up going in to the third round but Brett was announced the winner via unanimous decision. In the other semi final James Pennington defeated Kris Edwards but was unable to proceed to the final due to an injury which meant that Jordan Desborough who had also already fought beating Timur Mercanoglu via second round TKO was promoted to fight for the title. Now Brett was going in to a 5 round title fight for the first time in his career against a guy he had not even prepared for. After fighting for all five rounds meaning Brett had fought 8 five minute rounds on the same night. When the decision was announced Brett was crowned the Cage Warriors bantamweight champion.

For any fighter to go a full calendar year undefeated having fought 4 times is impressive enough but to do so the way Brett Johns has deserves a lot of respect for this reason we have named him our domestic fighter of the year 2013.

Congratulations Brett you have been crowned Kingdom MMA’s 2013 Domestic Fighter of the Year – Brett Johns Kingdom MMA we salute you.

Kingdom MMA Awards 2013: KO of the Year

Kingdom MMA KO of the Year Award 2013: Vitor Belfort
by Chris Houten - @mrhouts

Everyone loves a great knockout, and 2013 was full of them.

From Mark Hunt’s jaw-breaking knockout of Stephan Struve, to Emanuel Newton’s spinning back fist KO of Mo Lawal, to Paul Daley’s uppercut finish of Romario Manoel da Silva, 2013 has been a beauty. But in the year of the head kick KO, Kingdom MMA’s knock out of the year goes to Vitor Belfort, for his spinning heel kick knockout of Luke Rockhold.

There was some great kick Knockouts in 2013, with Chinzo Michada returning to the cage with a devastating flying knee, and Uriah Hall knocking out Adam Cella with a spinning hook kick but none of these knock out were as impressive as Belfort’s due to the quality of Belfort’s opponent.

Luke Rockhold entered the UFC as the last Strikeforce middleweight champion, and as so was billed as a contender for the UFC Middleweight title. In less than 3 minutes Belfort shattered Rockhold’s UFC title aspirations and ensured Rockhold would be a highlight real forever.

Thanks for that Belfort, we enjoyed it very much!

Kingdom MMA 2013 Awards: Female Fighter of the Year

Kingdom MMA Female Fighter of the Year Award 2013: Joanne Calderwood
by Ben Heather - @benheather

2013 has been the year women's MMA has joined the big leagues and is started to get the full respect it deserves, not only did the UFC finally introduce a women's division in the 135lb division but Invicta has been building on its debut year last year to have a strong 2013. You also have promotions such as Cage Warriors who have signed a host of women to its roster this year. The UFC has only recently announced that it will introduce a second women's division to its roster in 2014, this time the strawweights are coming on board and in a big way. TUF20 will be the first time where it will be a house full of women and not only that the winner of the series will be crowned the UFC's first 115lb champion.

So as part of our inaugural Kingdom MMA awards 2013 it was an easy decision to include a category for female fighter of the year.

Its been a great year for WMMA, in a year where Ronda Rousey twice defended her UFC title, Cris Cyborg became the first 145lb champion in Invicta FC and Juliana Pena became the first woman to win the title of The Ultimate Fighter its hard to pick a winner. You also have women such as Alexis Davis who has been a pro for more than 6 and a half years and has gone undefeated in 2013 having fought some of the top women in the 135lb division. Then you have some of the new fighters coming on to the scene in a big way such as Scotland's undefeated JoJo Calderwood.

We had a really hard time getting just one winner with two stand outs for the award in Alexis Davis and JoJo Calderwood, both of who went undefeated in 2013 and have beat some of the top women in their respective divisions. In the end after a group discussion we had our winner, Joanne Calderwood.

Jojo had her first professional MMA fight only last year and is now 8-0. She has had four fights in 2013 three of which were under the Invicta FC banner winning each by unanimous division. She also fought in her home town of Glasgow, Scotland fighting for Cage Warriors back in April where she won by TKO. Then possibly the biggest news for JoJo came only a couple of weeks ago when she found out her Invicta FC contract had been acquired by the UFC making her only the second Scottish fighter to be on the books with the UFC, the first was her Dinky Ninjas team mate Rob Whiteford. She also becomes the second British woman to have signed for the UFC with Rosi Sexton the first.

2013 has been a great year for JoJo but 2014 could be a year which defines her whole career. She has the opportunity to become the UK's first UFC champion and in all honesty is our best hope, with only Michael Bisping and Brad Pickett as our other real contenders.

Congratulations Jojo you have been crowned Kingdom MMA’s 2013 female fighter of the year – Jojo we salute you.

Kingdom MMA 2013 Awards: Breakthrough Fighter of the Year

Kingdom MMA Breakthrough Fighter of the Year Award 2013: Khabib Nurmagomedov
by Chris Houten - @mrhouts

2013 has seen some real quality fighters rise through the rankings to solidify themselves as serious contenders, and even champions in their respective weight divisions going into 2014.

Emanuel Newton went 4-0 in 2013 for Bellator defeating King Mo twice on route to winning the promotions interim Lightheavyweight title. Nick Newell and Justin Gaethje rose to the forefront of WSOFs lightweight division, going 5-0 between them, finishing all of their opponents in the process.

It was an international affair in the UFC with Irish featherweight Conor McGregor picking up two fantastic wins since making his debut, while on his way to becoming one of the sports biggest and most popular personalities, and Canadian Alexis Davis announcing herself to the world with dominating UFC wins over Rosi Sexton and Liz Carmouche, as well as a win over Shanya Bazler.

For the staff at Kingdom MMA though there was another international fighter worthy of the top honours as Breakthrough fighter of the Year – Russian, Khabib Nurmagomedov.

2013 has seen the Russian run through every opponent he has faced, set a lightweight record for most takedowns in a single fight along the way, particularly impressive when you consider he did that against one-time NAIA All-American collegiate wrestler, Abel Trujilo.

Starting the year with the brutal destruction of veteran Thiago Tavares in Brazil, Nurmagomedov then beat the aforementioned Trujilo, before rounding out his year with a dominating victory over then top 10 lightweight, Pat Healy.

At just 25 years old Nurmagomedov is 21-0 in his professional MMA career, and already looks like a future champion. Nurmagomedov is expected to face Gilbert Melendez at UFC 170 and a win over the former champ would thrust the Russian firmly in the title picture.

Khabib Nurmagomdev has impressed in 2013, and don’t be surprised if he doesn’t remain undefeated in 2014 too. Khabib is a well-deserved winner of Kingdom MMAs Breakthrough fighter of the year award.

Kingdom MMA 2013 Awards: Male Fighter of the Year

Kingdom MMA Male Fighter of the Year Award 2013: Vitor Belfort

by Ben Heather - @benheather

2013 has been a great year for MMA, so many fighters have upped their game and the quality level of MMA has improved so much at all levels. The European shows such as Cage Warriors and BAMMA have put on great shows and the fighters abilities constantly improve with every event. Then you look at the UFC and look at the level of the fighters now to those a few years ago. Its no comparison, the guys now are incredible athletes and have put on a brilliant year of fighting for us all to enjoy and now we have the hard task of picking just one fighter to call Male fighter of the year.

Anthony Pettis became the lightweight champion, Johny Hendricks believes he deserves to be UFC Welterweight champion and Chris Weidman has twice defeated Anderson Silva. Alexander Gustafsson also pushed Jon Jones all the way but couldn't quite pull off the upset but certainly put on the performance of his life. All in all it has been a great year.

The main contenders for the award were.
Vitor Belfort who rebounded from losing to Jon Jones in his last fight of 2012 to come through three fights in 2013 and finish all of them with head kicks. Next up for Vitor is a title fight with Chris Weidman in 2014.

Demetrious Johnson has dominated his division fighting the best contenders in the division and improving with every single fight. First he easily defeated John Dodson by Unanimous Decision and then he put away top contenders John Moraga and Joseph Benevidez.

But it was clear that this year there could only be one winner and that man was Vitor Belfort.

Vitor Belfort has had possibly the best year of his MMA career which is very impressive as Belfort is now 36. Belfort is always surrounded by controversy whenever he fights due to his continued use of TRT and his previous failed drugs test. However, he is using TRT within the legal limits and until it is banned (I hope) can continue to. After all, the skills he has shown this year and the fighters he has beaten can not all be down to him using TRT.

In three fights in the octagon this year Vitor Belfort has put away Michael Bisping, Luke Rockhold and Dan Henderson and has done it in 10 minutes 17 seconds combined. To be able to finish the calibre of fighters he has finished in the method he has is truly amazing. He went in to both the Bisping and the Rockhold fight as the underdog even though both of those fights were in his home country.

The highlight of his year has to be the spinning back kick knockout of Luke Rockhold. The timing was perfect and the skill required to do the move was simply jaw dropping. Which is why we awarded the Knockout our Knockout of 2013.

Vitor then got revenge over Dan Henderson after losing the first fight between the pair when they fought in Pride in October 2006. This time Vitor knocked Henderson out for the first time in his 40 fight career.

People may call him a cheat or argue that he shouldn't be allowed to use TRT but the fact is he is allowed at the minute and based on his performances we award him the Kingdom MMA Male Fighter of Year 2013.

Kingdom MMA Awards 2013: Upset of the Year

Kingdom MMA Upset of the Year Award 2013: Chris Weidman

by Ben Heather @benheather

2013 has been a great year for MMA, champions have been dethroned and if not have finally looked like they might actually be human after all and can be challenged. Which leads us to present our award for the upset of the year.

Benson Henderson lost his title to long time rival Anthony Pettis. GSP got pushed all the way and took more punishment this year than we have ever seen him take. He ultimately kept his title before giving it up as he took an indefinite leave of absence from fighting and Johny Hendricks will get his chance again to be crowned the UFC Welterweight champion. It has also been the year that Chris Weidman has twice defeated the fighter many thought was unbeatable and rightfully so classified as the greatest of all time in Anderson Silva. Alexander Gustafsson also pushed Jon Jones to the limit but just missed out on defeating the champion and this is only what happened in title fights in the UFC.

In Bellator the biggest upset of the year came in February as Emanuel Newton defeated the massive favourite King Mo. Again just beating him was a massive upset win but the manner in which he did it really was special winning via a spinning back fist halfway through the first round of there fight at Bellator 90. This then set in place a rivalry which came to a head when they faced off for the rematch at Bellator 106 in November. Where again Newton won but this time via unanimous decision after 5 rounds to become the Bellator interim Light Heavyweight Champion.

Bigfoot Silva went in to his heavyweight battle with Alistair Overeem at UFC 156 as a massive underdog and the first two rounds looked like the bookies were right to make him the underdog going in to the fight. However, just at the end of the second round Bigfoot caught Overeem. When they came out for the start of the third round it was a completely different fight and Bigfoot picked apart Overeem before the referee had seen enough and Bigfoot got a massive TKO victory which set him up for the a title shot against Cain Velasquez. This was certainly one of the biggest upsets of the year and in any other year may have got the award but not 2013.

2013's award belongs to one man and that man did the impossible and defeated a fighter who was unbeaten in the UFC with a record of 16-0, held the record for the longest championship reign of any champion in the UFC ever and truly looked unbeatable. That was until UFC 162 on July 6th when Chris Weidman faced off against Anderson Silva.

What Chris Weidman did against Anderson Silva may not just be the biggest upset of the year, it has to be up there with the biggest upsets of all time. Chris Weidman knocked out the greatest fighter of all time when nobody predicted that could happen. People were saying Weidman could win but maybe by submission or decision. Nobody other than Weidman's camp said he would knockout the champ.

People can say what they want about the first fight "Anderson was clowning around" "Anderson was playing with Weidman and he got caught with a lucky shot" but in my opinion people who say stupid comments like that after seeing Chris Weidman knock out the greatest fighter on the planet are crazy. Anderson Silva fought Weidman the same way he fought every single fight in the UFC before that day the only difference is Anderson Silva's showboating made him even better because he was winning. As soon as he got caught and knocked out not many people gave Weidman any credit or the respect he deserved but instead said it will be different the second time.

This past weekend they had the rematch, we all know by now the outcome and nobody wants to see a fight finish with such a major injury like that, but up until the injury Chris Weidman was clearly in control of that fight. He nearly knocked out Anderson Silva in the first round and in the second made the changes to his game from the first fight by checking the kicks instead of taking the punishment on his legs. It was one of those checked kicks which resulted in a broken leg for Silva.

After the fight some of those same people who gave Weidman no credit for the first win were calling the injury "a fluke injury" but it was as a result of the changes Weidman had made to his game and if he didn't make those changes Silva would not have a broken leg now.

Weidman not only did the impossible and pulled off the biggest upset of the year once, he did it twice in the space of six months. For that Kingdom MMA's award for Upset of the Year 2013 goes to Chris Weidman.

We salute you Chris and hope that you start to get the respect you deserve for pulling off such a great achievement.

Kingdom MMA Awards 2013: Fight of the Year

Kingdom MMA Fight of the Year Award 2013: Jones vs Gustafsson
by Chris Houten - @mrhouts

The general consensus amongst fans is that 2013 has been one of, if not the best years in MMA history. From The UFC, to Bellator and on and on, we have witnessed fights that will stick in fans memories for many years to come.

Fans have been blessed with epic fights this year with the UFC serving up classics like Bermudez vs Grice, Melendez vs Sanchez and Silva vs Hunt. Bellator have done their bit too by giving us Chandler vs Alverez 2, the Axis TV broadcasted local shows gave us Leonard Garcia vs Nick Gonzalez at Legacy 23, and literally every single women’s fight this year can only be described as frigging awesome.

Not to be outdone, UK MMA got in on the action too, with Cage Warriors delivering brilliant fights between Jordan Desborough and Brett Johns, as well as Danny Roberts vs Hendry Fadipe. Bamma had the short but sweet Barnaoui vs Fletcher, while Ashley Reece and Martin Chester put on one of the best amateur bouts of all time at FCC 8.

But when it’s all said and done, the one fight that stuck in the minds of the staff at Kingdom MMA was Jon Jones vs Alexander Gustafsson.

One of the most exciting title fights of all time, Jones vs Gustafsson was a war, a five-round battle of precise strikes and hard-nosed chins – a war!

Back and forth two warriors wen to toe-to-toe, one the pound-4-pound king of MMA, the other one a huge underdog which no one gave a chance going in to the fight. Jones vs Gustafsson is MMAs equivalent to Rocky Balboa vs Apollo Creed.

Gustafsson took the fight to Jones, he landed a crisp jab all night, and become the fight fighter to ever take Jones down in the UFC; in fact many people actually thought Gustafsson won.

Whoever you thought won the fight there is no disputing that Jones and Gustafsson put on one hell of a fight, with both man showing the heart of a champion - here’s hoping to a rematch in 2014.

Congratulations to both Jones and Gustaffason for the fight of the year performance.

Kingdom MMA Awards 2013: Submission of the Year

Kingdom MMA Submission of the Year Award 2013: Anthony Pettis
By chris Houten - @mrhouts

2013 has been a year full of great submissions. From Rose Namajunas submission of Kathina Catron at Invicta 5 to Takuya Eizumi submission of Teppei Masuda at Pancrase 250, fans have been left in the kind of awe that makes you show up at the local BJJ academy scratching for your first lesson, in a way only a drug addict would. 

With so many great submission in 2013 including the aforementioned, the staff at Kingdom MMA found it difficult to agree on winner of submission of the year with several championing Rose Namajunas’ flying armbar, and Eizumi getting a well deserved vote for his hip toss reversal into belly down arm bar. In the end though one man came out on top – Anthony Pettis for his UFC 164 submission victory over Benson Henderson, which earned him the UFC lightweight title.

Strange choice you may say, when you compare a regular old armbar which happens week in week at many events around the world, to a flying armbar, but in the end it was the magnitude of the victory, and the quality of his opponent which earned Pettis sub of the year.

Going into the fight with Pettis, the lightweight champion Benson Henderson was on a 7 fight win streak and was looking pretty cosy at the top of the lightweight division. What makes Pettis submission of Henderson even more impressive is the fact that Bendo has just earned his BJJ blackbelt a few months before, and had been competing and winning in high level BJJ tournaments for most of the summer.

As one of the best strikers in all of MMA, Pettis was given the advantage standing by fans and pundits a like; its fairly safe to say that not many people would have backed a Pettis submission at the bookies, even with Pettis’ notoriously active guard. And that’s what makes Pettis' victory even more impressive, he tapped out one of the finest lightweights of all time with ease, a feat that caused absolute hysteria in Pettis’ home town where the fight took place. Sometime its not the just the method of victory that makes a finish great it’s the complete packagage, and this one had it all.

By tapping out Henderson, Pettis becomes only the second man in 22 fights to submit Benson Henderson, earning himself the UFC Lightweight title, and Kingdom MMA’s 2013 submission of the year award – Pettis we salute you.