Ben Duffy/Sherdog.com illustration
It was a big year for big storylines—fittingly, since the Ultimate Fighting Championship celebrated the 30th anniversary of its debut event, and with it the dawn of the current era in no-holds-barred fighting. That is not to say that the industry leader hogged the headlines entirely, as the UFC’s top competitors did plenty to keep it on its toes. One Championship, Asia’s top martial arts organization, pointedly chose the anniversary of UFC 1 and even its Denver location as the landing point for ONE Fight Night 10, its first foray into North America. Meanwhile, Professional Fighters League completed its comeback from a COVID-dictated total hiatus three years ago and cemented itself as the No. 2 promotion in the Western Hemisphere with its December purchase of Bellator MMA, a move whose full implications will only become clear in the years to come.
While there was no shortage of promotion vs. promotion jockeying, those stories were overshadowed in the eyes of many observers by a clash of man vs. promotion, as former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou completed the rare feat of parting ways with the organization and appearing to come out on top. After failed negotiations with the UFC left him on the shelf for much of 2022 and 2023, “The Predator” signed an unprecedented deal with PFL that included an executive position in his native Africa, seven-figure purse guarantees for his challengers and most notably, the right to compete in boxing. He took full advantage of that latter provision, knocking down consensus No. 1 heavyweight Tyson Fury and arguably beating him, even if he came out on the wrong side of the judges’ scorecards.
Beneath and between those top headlines, there were of course thousands of fights in 2023, with thousands of prizefighters plying their trade everywhere from dingy nightclubs to packed arenas. The resulting batch of knockouts, submissions, instant classic fights—and of course robberies and other controversy—sit comfortably alongside the offerings of any other year since the sport’s inception. Some new names rocketed to stardom, some familiar names showed back up after years away and several major titles changed hands in shocking upsets. Here are the winners of Sherdog’s 2023 Year-End Awards, and here’s to another great year in mixed martial arts.
A complete rundown of Sherdog.com’s 2023 Year-End Awards:
• Fighter of the Year by Brian Knapp
• Fight of the Year by Brian Knapp
• 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 Ben Duffy
• 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 Brian Knapp
• Comeback Fighter of the Year by Ben Duffy
• Upset of the Year by Ben Duffy
• 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.