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.

UFC 166 Fight Card Grows By The Hour

Boetsch vs Rockhold and Gonzaga vs Jordan added to UFC 166

by John Haigh @JohnBJayHaigh

The UFC 166 fight card booked for October 19th in Houston Texas is growing fast with two new fights added to the card.
First is a heavyweight bout between Gabriel Gonzaga and Shawn Jordan. Gonzaga (15-7) is in his second UFC tour, having won three of the four bouts since returning to the promotion at UFC 142 in January last year.
Shawn Jordan (15-4) is also on a run of a 3-1 in the Octagon, his last fight was a win over Pat Barry at UFC 161. Both fighters will be looking to make an impression on the already stacked Heavyweight division knowing that a win here could pit them against the elite of the division next time out.
Also added to the Houston fight card is Luke Rockhold vs. Tim Boetsch. Rockhold (12-2) is former Strikeforce Middleweight Champion and made the move to the UFC in January when Strikeforce closed its doors. He was welcomed to the octagon by Vitor Belfort on May 18, 2013 in the main event at UFC on FX 8. He lost the fight via a brutal spinning headkick knockout in the first round, after being caught with a spinning heel kick to the face.

Tim Boestsch (16-6) comes in to this fight having lost his last two fights, before that he had been on a four fight win streak. His most recent loss was to the returning Mark Munoz at UFC 162 in July.

Both fighters could be fighting for their jobs given that there are still too many fighters on the UFC’s books so will be looking to put on the performance we all know they can and have in the past.
UFC 166 is headlined by the trilogy fight between Cain Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos.