2008 was a fully brilliant year of the UFC. Great events, great fights, amazing submissions, vicious knockouts, and shocking upsets. 2008 had everything, but certain fights and fighters jump out when the tops of 2008, stay with me to know who won what and why.Event of your Year: UFC 92: The Ultimate 2008. UFC 92 was the ideal MMA event of the year, not only UFC, but worldwide. All 7 fights shown on your PPV were amazing; it wasn't an ideal knockouts and upsets, however the atmosphere and production value that made this the greatest event of your year. UFC 92 was simply spectacular.Honorable mention travels to UFC: Effort for the Troops and UFC 80: Rapid Fire. Both events featured great fights and unbelievable knock outs.Fight of many Year: Within the UFC, there are a large amount of great fights in 2008, but the one fight that stands within my mind as fight of the year is Georges "Rush" St. Pierre vs. Jon Fitch at UFC 87. This is a personal opinion, as a hardcore GSP fan, watching him placed on a 5 round clinic on his method to an unanimous decision was beautiful.Honorable mention travels to Brock Lesnar and Randy Couture at UFC 91, Forrest Griffin and Quinton Jackson at UFC 86, and Sean Sherk vs. Tyson Griffin at UFC 90. I'm sure there are fights that I'm missing, but they are the web services that be noticeable at my mind.Round of your Year: It's challenging to remember rounds, but there was one round within the GSP/Fitch fight that I'll always remember. The third round of the fight was simply amazing. An incredible show of skill on GSP's part, and an inspiring show of heart on Fitch's part. Fitch was completely dominated and dropped twice and he still kept fighting. Watching GSP move was spectacular, he was quick and precise, previously just like he was floating. While Round One was essentially the most exciting rounds I've seen, Round Three was the most beneficial round of MMA I saw inside the UFC in 2008.Comeback of many Year (in a fight ): The person is known his epic comebacks wins this person hands down. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueria's begin behind submission victory against Tim Sylvia at UFC 81 was what MMA will be about. Nogueria was rocked early and many times by Sylvia it also seemed that Sylvia was going to jab his thanks to an unanimous decision. Nogueria was hurt bad at the beginning of Round Three but used his brilliant Jiu-Jitsu skills to catch Sylvia inside a guillotine choke.KO of our year: There are three KO's that happened very recently inside the UFC that are provided to mind for KO of the Year; Rashad Evans on Chuck Liddell at UFC 88, Josh Koscheck on Yoshiyuki Yoshida at UFN for your Troops, and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson on Wanderlei Silva at UFC 92.All deserve the distinction, but for me need to select one and i am picking Koscheck on Yoshida. Although other two were shocking and harsh, the Koscheck KO is primarily two KO's of the asking price of one. Koscheck KOed Yoshida and he fell back aga inst the cage, he hit the cage, bounced forward and Koscheck gave him an extra of a luck sending him crashing towards the canvas as the ref stepped in to stop the fight.Submission of the year: We saw a great deal of great submissions within an UFC right now, but one which really sticks out inside my system is Dustin Hazelett's flying armbar on Josh Burkman at The Ultimate Fighter 7 finale, it is a thing of beauty.Honorable mention goes to C.B. Dollaway's Peruvian necktie on Jesse Taylor at Silva vs. Irvin, Rousimar Palhares' slick armbar on Ivan Salaverry at UFC 84, and Anderson Silva's rear naked choke persuade Dan Henderson at UFC 82.Upset of many year: The entire year of your upset is, but 2008 featured several shocking upsets. Rashad Evans over Chuck Liddell, Forrest Griffin over Quinton Jackson, Frank Mir over Antonio Rodrigo Nogueria, and countless others.However the biggest upset most likely for me was seeing Rob Emerson (yes, that Rob Emerson) knock Manny Gamburyan s illy at UFC 87. Just not only was it an enormous upset considering the success Manny had on TUF compared to the success Emerson had on TUF, but it was simply the greatest 12 seconds I've ever seen.Most improved Fighter: There's no competition here, Kenny Florian would be the most improved fighter of 2008. Kenny went 3-0 in 2007, he also went 3-0 in 2008. How is it that he be thought of as the "most improved fighter of 2008" then? Really wish a large just start competition plus a massive leap in talent shown by Florian in 2008. He disposed of Joe Lauzon with ease at UFN 13, he outclassed Roger Huerta at UFC 87, and he absolutely demolished Joe Stevenson in the first round at UFC 91. Kenny Florian has gone from mid-carder to headliner in just underneath a year.Honorable mention travels to Josh Koscheck (see fighter of many year for more information on Koscheck)Breakthrough fighter: Brock Lesnar. Lesnar went 2-1 in 2008, and considering the competition he faced, that's about th e same as going 7-0 against cans. At UFC 81 he lost to former UFC Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir after having a controversial stoppage by referee Steve Mazzagatti. Brock then went on to dominate Heath Herring for three rounds on his method to an unanimous decision. Lesnar finished the entire year winning the heavyweight title in the biggest fight of your year at UFC 91. Lesnar finished Randy Couture midway through round two silencing many critics.Fighter of Year: When contemplating fighter of our year I developed this list; Anderson Silva, Brock Lesnar, Frank Mir, Thiago Alves, Kenny Florian, Georges St. Pierre, BJ Penn, Josh Koscheck, Rashad Evans, and Michael Bisping.Whereas many will disagree with me, my vote for UFC Fighter of many Year goes to Josh Koscheck. Koscheck ended 2007 losing to Georges St. Pierre. Koscheck opened 2008 which has a vicious TKO win over Dustin Hazelett at UFC 82, he completely dominated Chris Lytle at UFC 86, Koscheck then took a fight in the inc redibly dangerous Thiago Alves at UFC 90 in October. Koscheck lost the fight by unanimous decision, but it should really be noted that Koscheck took the fight on two weeks notice and showed incredible heart and will in the loss. Koscheck comleted his 2008 year with the KO of many Year.In 2008, Koscheck knocked out two tough guys, won a dominating decision over another tough guy, and took a combat among the top welterweight fighters on the earth on a fortnight notice. For individuals reasons, Josh Koscheck is the UFC Fighter of your Year for 2008.The UFC really stepped up in 2008, showing more fights per card, airing more fights on PPV, and adding awesome fight cards throughout the entire year. Here's hoping 2009 can go on to deliver the high quality MMA that 2008 has accustomed us to.
