What fighters and bouts have earned the highest of honors?
The UFC’s 2021 campaign wrapped up on Saturday night in Las Vegas, bringing to a close one of the most exciting, entertaining, and eventful years in the promotion’s history.
With the curtain having fallen on another year of action inside the Octagon, it’s time to hand out hardware to recognize some of the top competitors and performances that transpired inside the UFC cage during the 43 events and 510 fights that took place between January 16 and December 18, 2021.
These are the OSDB Sports 2021 UFC Awards.
FIGHTER OF THE YEAR: KAMARU USMAN
Midway through the year, Usman taking home Fighter of the Year felt like a forgone conclusion, but Charles Oliveira submitting Dustin Poirier to successfully defend his lightweight title at UFC 269 made me think twice about bestowing the honor on the welterweight ruler.
Ultimately, Usman racking up three successful title defenses to 15-0 inside the Octagon was just a little better than his Brazilian contemporary winning and defending the lightweight strap.
Usman kicked off his year with a steely third-round stoppage win over Gilbert Burns in February. He got rocked right out of the gate and had to steady himself, but did that and then some, shifting the momentum back in his favor before the first round ended. After dominating his friend and former teammate in the second, “The Nigerian Nightmare” sealed the deal in the third.
Two months later, Usman got the finish he coveted in a rematch with Jorge Masvidal, silencing the talkative title challenger by blasting him with a clean right hand a minute into the second round to secure another successful title defense.
And then in November at Madison Square Garden, the welterweight kingpin survived another hellacious battle with his arch nemesis, Colby Covington, escaping with a unanimous decision victory that once again showed just how evenly matched and stylistically similar Usman and Covington are inside the cage.
KNOCKOUT OF THE YEAR: KAMARU USMAN (VS. JORGE MASVIDAL, UFC 261)
There weren’t a lot of people that were immediately excited when the UFC announced that Usman and Masvidal would run it back in April. They’d fought the previous summer on Fight Island, with Usman winning a clinch-heavy decision, and Masvidal hadn’t fought since losing that short-notice assignment.
But Usman was tired of hearing “Gamebred” yap about how the first fight played out and what he would do to the welterweight titleholder if they were to meet again. So, he asked the UFC to set it up again, and left no question as to who the better man is.
The right hand that Usman hit Masvidal with a minute into the second round was so pure. As soon as it landed, the rivalry was over. There was nothing more to be said.
The image of Masvidal’s entire torso twisting to his right with the force of the blow, sweat hanging in the air after having just been sent skyward by the force of Usman’s punch was one of the best combat sports photos of the year, and the finish itself carried such karmic force that it had to be award top honors.
SUBMISSION OF THE YEAR: VICENTE LUQUE (VS. MICHAEL CHANDLER, UFC 265)
There were a lot of terrific submission finishes this year, but for me, Luque’s first-round D’Arce choke finish of Michael Chiesa at UFC 265 in September gets the nod as the best of 2021.
This was a crucial fight for dueling welterweights, as they were each looking to establish themselves as legitimate championship threats. Chiesa got the fight to the ground just before the midway point of the round and found some success, taking Luque’s back and threatening with a rear-naked choke. But the Brazilian defended well and wriggled out of Chiesa’s grasps.
As soon as Luque freed himself, he attacked the neck, locking up his signature choke. In the span of five seconds, he went from working to avoid an armbar setup and shaking free of Chiesa to clamping onto the fight-ending choke.
It was such a smooth transition — no wasted movement, no having to work for the right angle or adjust the hold; Luque just laced his left arm under Chiesa’s right armpit and around his neck, grabbing his bicep on the opposite side of his head, sinking in the finish.
Chiesa fought it for as long as he could, but had no choice but to tap, giving Luque his second D’Arce choke finish of the year and a fourth straight victory, making “The Silent Assassin” a serious contender in the welterweight division.
NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR: MICHAEL CHANDLER
It feels a little weird giving the award for top newcomer to someone that heads into 2021 on a two-fight slide, but no first-year UFC fighter had the kind of impact Michael Chandler did over the last 12 months.
The long-time Bellator standout debuted in January, knocking out Dan Hooker with a lunging left hook at the halfway point of his very first UFC round. Taking out the talented New Zealand native put Chandler on the short list of potential title challengers, and ultimately landed him a matchup with Charles Oliveira at UFC 262 in May, with the UFC lightweight title hanging in the balance.
Chandler busted up Oliveira less than a minute into the fight, survived an extended stretch with the submission ace on his back, and sat the Brazilian down along the fence with just under two minutes remaining in the round. He pushed for the finish, but Oliveira hung tough, and 19 seconds into the second round, Oliveira flattened Chandler, felling him with a left hook of his own to claim the lightweight strap.
Less than six months later, Chandler met Justin Gaethje in the opening bout of the UFC 268 pay-per-view main card at Madison Square Garden. The lightweight sociopaths set The Garden alight. For 15 grueling minutes, they took turns blasting one another with big shots; both men bloodied, both men hurt, neither man showing any interest in stopping. While he landed on the wrong side of the cards, Chandler further established himself as must-see fighter, and the unquestioned choice for top newcomer.
UPSET OF THE YEAR: JULIANNA PENA (VS. AMANDA NUNES, UFC 269)
This wasn’t just the biggest upset of the year — this is one of the three biggest upsets in UFC history, and maybe the biggest, depending on how you feel about Matt Serra beating Georges St-Pierre at UFC 69 and Holly Holm knocking out Ronda Rousey at UFC 193.
Peña said throughout the preamble to her fight with Nunes that she was going to be the one to dethrone the long-reigning bantamweight champion — that she was going to get in Nunes’ face, make her uncomfortable, and prove that she is the better woman … and then she went out and did exactly that. It happened well over a week ago, and I’m still kind of in disbelief.
Nunes had sat atop the division for nearly 1,981 days since submitting Peña’s close friend, Miesha Tate, at UFC 200, posting dominant victories over Rousey and Holm while also winning and successfully defending the featherweight title. She was universally recognized as the greatest female fighter of all time, and Peña walked out after losing the first round and broke her.
That’s what happened: Julianna Peña broke Amanda Nunes, authoring the biggest upset of the year, and one of the biggest upsets in UFC history.
FIGHT OF THE YEAR: TJ DILLASHAW VS. CORY SANDHAGEN (UFC VEGAS 32)
The lightweight slobberknocker between Gaethje and Chandler at UFC 268 will certainly get some love in the Fight of the Year race, but for my money, the best fight of 2021 took place on Saturday, July 24 at the UFC APEX between TJ Dillashaw and Cory Sandhagen.
As much as I love a good brawl, I’m a sucker for a great story playing out inside the Octagon more than anything, and this one was rich.
Dillashaw was competing for the first time in more than two years after serving a suspension stemming from a serious anti-doping violation in his flyweight title fight with Henry Cejudo at the start of 2019. He was a pariah, and there were scores of people that longed to see him struggle mightily, just so they could point to his admitting cheating as a means to discredit everything he’d done in his career up to that point.
Sandhagen was coming off an incredible knockout win over Frankie Edgar in February where he elevated in place and put his knee on Edgar’s chin, sending the former lightweight titleholder into the Odinsleep and establishing himself as a serious title threat. On top of that, he and Dillashaw had trained together in the past, and while there as no animosity, that familiarity is always a delicious twist in a compelling fight.
Originally scheduled to take place in May, the bout was pushed back two months after Dillashaw suffered a cut in training, which only ratcheted up the anticipation for the five-round bantamweight tussle even more, and once they hit the Octagon, boy did they deliver.
For five rounds, Dillashaw and Sandhagen traded shots and ran neck-and-neck, putting forth an exciting, competitive, technical fight that was difficult to score, especially in the championship rounds.
In the end, Dillashaw got the nod by split decision, winning the first and third on all three scorecards, while taking the fourth on one, and the fifth on another. Sandhagen was crestfallen, believing he had done enough to get the victory, but elevated his stock nonetheless.
With how close this fight was and their continued standing as two of the best bantamweights in the world, it wouldn’t be surprising to see them square off again in the future, and if they do, it will most likely be another instant classic just like this one.
