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What was your favorite fight of the year, and why?
RICH HANSEN, MMATORCH COLUMNIST
First of all, I don't think there was a fight in 2012 that is going to go down in the annals of history as an all-time great fight. To my personal tastes, there was no Henderson-Shogun, there was no Santiago-Misaki 2, there was no Pettis-Henderson. But that doesn't mean it was a bad year for fight quality. There were a ton of 'A' and 'A-minus' fights, just no 'A-Plus' fights. But there were so many great fights, that rather than narrow it down to one fight, or to wax poetic, I'm just going to list my favorite fight per division:
Heavyweight: Cormier vs. Barnett (The best 5 round HW fight I've ever seen)
Light Heavyweight: Jones vs. Belfort (Jon Jones was in serious jeopardy. It's something we're going to remember years from now)
Middleweight: Silva vs. Sonnen 2 (Not a great fight, but come on. It was the closest thing to a 'superfight' we had all year). Honorable mention to Belcher vs. Palhares
Welterweight: St-Pierre vs. Condit (This was a classic, with high drama and storylines galore). Fitch vs. Silva was highly enjoyable. Ellenberger vs. Sanchez was fantastic. Alves vs. Kampmann was good, with a dramatic finish. Marquardt vs. Woodley is highly underrated. It was a good year for WW fights.
Lightweight: Henderson vs. Edgar 1 (You know, the one that Henderson actually, you know, won). Lauzon vs. Varner and Lauzon vs. Miller are way up there as well.
Featherweight: Jung vs. Poirier (This was my fight of the year)
Bantamweight: Menjivar vs. Albert (Best of a thin lot)
Flyweight: McCall vs. Johnson 1 (Despite the unbelievable scoring controversies, this fight totally rocked it).
Women: Housey vs. Tate (Of course)
So, ask me for one fight of the year, you get 16 fights.
And so as to not short shrift Bellator, Cupcake vs. Pitbull was a nice fight in an otherwise bad year for high-level fights out of Bellator. And for what it's worth, Cupcake vs. Pitbull does not mean Miesha Tate vs. Thiago Alves (which could be interesting). It's Lloyd Woodard vs. Patricky Friere. I know you knew that, I just wanted to implant the visual of Alves vs. Tate. Merry Christmas!
FRANK HYDEN, MMATORCH CONTRIBUTOR
My favorite fight was Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen from UFC 148. Silva responded after being out-wrestled in their first fight, and he crushed Sonnen in the rematch. Silva proved that he's the greatest of all-time yet again as he laid waste to a guy who is hard to stop. That was incredible to watch the precision striking of Silva. UFC 153's main event of Anderson Silva vs. Stephan Bonnar was also amazing because of the way that Silva stood in front of Bonnar before finishing the fight.
ANWAR PEREZ, MMATORCH COLUMNIST
It wasn't a classic by any means, but seeing the comeback from Tim Boetsch against Yushin Okami was an awesome sight. That was something you don't see too often with a fighter knowing he has to finish to win and actually doing it. A phenomenal showing from Boetsch that in my opinion was the biggest comeback in UFC history.
ERIC HOBAUGH, MMATORCH CONTRIBUTOR
GSP vs. Condit was my favorite fight of this past year. I was wondering if GSP could come back from his year-long injury. It was good to see him come back and be the dominating champion that he had been for years. The sport and the UFC needed him to come back and recharge the sport. He did a great job and proved that he is one of the all-time great fighters.
BRAD WALKER, MMATORCH COLUMNIST
My favorite fight of the year? Is it too soon to say Derek Brunson and Chris Leben? I mean come on, that was a barn burner from bell to bell, I have never seen such a high octane bout in my lifetime. Ok, all crapola aside, I have to give the favorite fight award to The Korean Zombie vs Dustin Poirier. That was an absolute war that made me jump off the couch and exclaim "oh shit" 11 or 12 times before it was finished. It truly showed that featherweight may be the next seriously popular division based solely on the excitement that it can consistantly provide. The fight was fantastic, back and forth and gave us a finish that left us all applauding.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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