Sherdog.com’s 2022 Year-End Awards: The Complete List

Another impactful 12 months have somehow flown by in mixed martial arts. Bellator MMA, the Professional Fighters League, One Championship and the Rizin Fighting Federation all moved forward in various forms, a post-pandemic world continuing to reveal itself around them. The sport was rocked by an alleged betting scandal at its highest level, championships changed hands, injuries wreaked havoc on premium events and scoring discrepancies fed public angst over those charged with meting out justice.

Through it all, the Ultimate Fighting Championship remained the industry standard bearer. What began with a featherweight firefight between Calvin Katter and Giga Chikadze in the UFC on ESPN 32 headliner on Jan. 15 concluded with a controversial decision in the UFC Fight Night 216 main event between Jared Cannonier and Sean Strickland on Dec. 17. Alex Pereira, Leon Edwards, Islam Makhachev, Deiveson Figueiredo, Amanda Nunes and Weili Zhang were among those who rose to the top of their respective weight classes, some of them for the second time. Meanwhile, Glover Teixeira, Israel Adesanya, Kamaru Usman, Charles Oliveira, Julianna Pena and Carla Esparza were among those who ceded power in what was another volatile campaign.

The spaces in between were filled with fights that stretched the bounds of our collective imagination, devastating knockouts, bone-crunching submissions, emotionally charged rivalries and the rise of new stars like Vadim Nemkov, Johnny Eblen, Usman Nurmagomedov, Anatoliy Malykhin and Kai Tang, who will help carry the combat sports torch into a promising but unknown future.

A complete rundown of Sherdog.com’s 2022 Year-End Awards:

• Fighter of the Year by Brian Knapp
• Fight of the Year by Tristen Critchfield
• Knockout of the Year by Brian Knapp
• Submission of the Year by Ben Duffy
• Story of the Year by Tristen Critchfield
• Beatdown of the Year by Tyler Treese
• Event of the Year by Jay Pettry
• Breakthrough Fighter of the Year by Ben Duffy
• Robbery of the Year by Brian Knapp
• Round of the Year by Lev Pisarsky
• Comeback Fighter of the Year by Lev Pisarsky
• Upset of the Year by Brian Knapp
• Walkout Song of the Year by Jay Pettry

Sherdog’s Year-End Awards were voted upon by the following panel of staff members: Tristen Critchfield, Jay Pettry, Marcelo Alonso, Brian Knapp, Tyler Treese, Christian Stein, Lev Pisarsky, Keith Shillan, Ben Duffy, Tudor Leonte, Mike Fridley, Sean Sheehan, Edwin Ayala and John Brannigan.