Sherdog.com’s 2016 All-Violence Team

2016 All-Violence Second Team

Heavyweight: Derrick Lewis
Light Heavyweight: Ryan Bader
Middleweight: Gegard Mousasi
Welterweight: Tyron Woodley
Lightweight: Khabib Nurmagomedov
Featherweight: Cub Swanson
Bantamweight: Amanda Nunes
Flyweight: Magomed Bibulatov
Strawweight: Joanna Jedrzejczyk

HEAVYWEIGHT: Lewis’ 2016 campaign was not defined by perfect violence. In his hideous December bout with Shamil Abdurakhimov, he was taken down repeatedly for the first 15 minutes before finally punching out his opponent in the fourth round. In his July split decision over Roy Nelson, he was taken down seven times but outlanded Nelson 37-4 in significant strikes and generally whooped him on the feet. Ultimately, Lewis wound up 4-0 with three stoppages on the year, since he also put former UFC title challenger Gabriel Gonzaga flat on his face with a right hook and pulverized Damian Grabowski with punches and elbows on the ground, stopping both men in the first round. Lewis’ grappling deficiencies mean that some of his bouts will be uneven in the action department, but when “The Black Beast” finally lands, it generally turns into splattering time.

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT: Yes, Bader got manhandled in a particularly demoralizing fashion by Anthony Johnson in January, when his terrified guard pull became one of the more cringe-inducing moments of 2016 inside the Octagon. With that said, Johnson is a man of historic All-Violence accomplishment, and Bader more than redeemed himself in his next two outings -- enough to earn his first All-Violence berth. He opted to throw hands with heavy-hitting Swede Ilir Latifi, but it was his knee that produced one of the year’s nastiest knockouts. Bader jabbed to force a Latifi takedown and then blasted him with a counter right knee on the way in that blew Latifi backwards, stiff and supine. Two months later, he came in on short notice for an injured Alexander Gustafsson and beat down Antonio Rogerio Nogueira infinitely worse than he did in their first fight six years prior. For 14 minutes, Bader grounded “Minotoro” and pounded him silly, outlanding him 129-12 before the contest was mercifully stopped late in the third round.

MIDDLEWEIGHT: After Uriah Hall torched him in legendary All-Violence fashion a year ago, Mousasi was a man on a mission in 2016. His February shutout of Thales Leites was nothing to write home about, but that was largely due to the Brazilian’s flopping and butt scooting; and Mousasi still managed to make him a bloody mess. From there, Mousasi turned up the heat, earning three straight stoppages. Against dangerous striker Thiago Santos, Mousasi opted to stand and knocked “Marreta” silly in less than a round with a beautiful, lunging right uppercut. He took down Vitor Belfort and pounded him clinically until “The Phenom” crumbled. Then in November, Mousasi finally got his rematch with Hall and did just as he had done with Belfort, administering another routine ground-and-pound beating, finishing him off and avenging his loss in the first round. Redemption was Mousasi’s theme in 2016, but it came with a side of well-rounded violence.

WELTERWEIGHT: Woodley is not always the most exciting fighter in the world; there’s a reason this is his first All-Violence berth. Still, he blasted All-Violence icon Robbie Lawler unconscious with a monumental overhand right in just over two minutes to take the UFC welterweight title in July. Considering the outcome, the stark visual and the fact it was Lawler, we are clearly talking about All-Violence material; and yes, in his first title defense against Stephen Thompson at UFC 205 in November, he had to settle for a majority draw. However, the greatest moments of offense in that bout came from Woodley, who earned 10-8 scores in different rounds from different judges. In the first, Woodley dominated “Wonderboy” on top and bloodied him with heavy ground-and-pound. In the fourth, he dropped Thompson with that trademark heavy right hand and then went through a series of guillotine chokes that looked certain to take out Thompson. You can debate who won between Woodley and Thompson, but there is no question who dished out more violence.

LIGHTWEIGHT: After spending two years away due to injury, it was just nice to have Nurmagomedov back in April, even if it was against short-notice replacement Darrell Horcher. “The Eagle” treated him exactly as you would expect, pulverizing him from back mount and landing 107 total strikes in less than nine minutes. However, what cements Nurmagomedov’s first All-Violence appearance is what he did to Michael Johnson in November. In Sherdog.com’s 2016 “Beatdown of the Year,” Nurmagomedov outlanded Johnson 140-20 in total strikes, savagely hammering him on the ground for most of the 12 and a half minutes before oh-so-casually torqueing his arm with a kimura for the tap. Between rounds, Nurmagomedov told UFC President Dana White through the fence that he was going to beat up “his boy” Conor McGregor. During the hailstorm of punches and elbows he landed on Johnson, he audibly implored Johnson to give up, telling his bloodied and battered opponent that he “had to” fight for the UFC lightweight title. Nurmagomedov is like a movie villain, which tends to be a pretty violent role.

FEATHERWEIGHT: Set aside his epic slugfest with Doo Ho Choi in December for a moment. In 2016, Swanson also forced a very entertaining 15-minute scramble-fest out of a 37-year-old Tatsuya Kawajiri and got a watchable fight out of the typically offense-averse Hacran Dias -- a feat for which he deserves credit. Of course, the real reason for Swanson’s second All-Violence Team appearance is his UFC 206 barnburner with Choi, the second round of which provided Sherdog.com’s “Round of the Year.” In a fight full of wild, breakneck offense, most of it came from Swanson, as he outlanded Choi 122-87 in total strikes and threatened him from back mount; and when the final horn sounded, Swanson probably was not far from stopping “The Korean Superboy.” Plus, Swanson did it while throwing crazy, whipping hooks and capoeira-style banana kicks, and style points always count on this list.

BANTAMWEIGHT: Nunes started her 2016 campaign with a hard-fought unanimous decision win over Valentina Shevchenko in March but kicked things into high gear after that. She got her UFC title shot in July and ran roughshod over Miesha Tate, mangling her face with jabs and crosses before dropping her and finishing with a rear-naked choke in just over three minutes. The beatdown not only gave Nunes the belt but pushed Tate toward retirement. When Ronda Rousey made her long-awaited return, Nunes turned it into an embarrassment for the ages, blasting Rousey with both hands from the fight’s outset and brutally knocking her out in just 48 seconds. When the stakes were the highest, “The Lioness” was at her most predatory.

FLYWEIGHT: Bibulatov has not defended the World Series of Fighting title he won in October 2015, but he did stay busy lass year. He went 3-0, winning his home-base promotion Akhmat Fight Show’s flyweight grand prix and showcasing the technical, well-rounded offensive game that makes him one of the sport’s best-kept secrets. He could not finish Irmeson Cavalcante de Oliveira in March, but he hit him with almost the full arsenal for 15 minutes: standing punches, low kicks, spinning kicks to the face, takedowns and ground-and-pound. Another Brazilian, Giovanni da Silva Santos Jr., ended up on his back and ate a vicious torrent of punches, hammerfists and knees to the body before their bout was stopped in the first round. In the tournament final in October, he sprawled all over fellow Russian Yunus Evloev’s takedown attempts until he saw his chance for a nasty guillotine, jumped at it and secured the tap. The Evloev win came just three weeks after Bibulatov was in a motorcycle accident that left one man dead.

STRAWWEIGHT: Unlike her first-team berth a year ago, Jedrzejczyk did not knock out anybody in 2016. Instead, she fought the two best women in her division and blistered them with her sharp strikes and heavy output. In her July rematch with rival Claudia Gadelha, Jedrzejczyk had to fight out of a 20-18 hole and did so like a champion, dominating with jabs, kicks and left hands. The fourth round was easily lopsided enough to be a 10-8, and after 25 minutes, “Joanna Champion” had landed a massive 194 total strikes and outlanded Gadelha in significant strikes 176-63. In November, she took on undefeated Polish countrywoman Karolina Kowalkiewicz and made the savvy striker look novice standing, having her way with her on the feet for 25 minutes and outlanding her 183-63 overall. Even when she fails to get the knockout, the top woman in the sport knows how to deliver violence, and she does it in rapid, constant bursts of punches, elbows, kicks and spinning back fists.

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