Not only that, he has only been past the first round 5 times.

In the FightMatrix world, “fighter of the year” is determined by rank strength, divisional strength, and performances within the calendar year.

3rd Place: Frankie Edgar

Edgar, being the only #1 ranked fighter to fight the #2 fighter twice (even though it was the same guy, Maynard), successfully defended his championship on each occasion, with the second being a very resounding KO4.

2nd Place: Anderson Silva

2011 was a somewhat quiet year for Anderson, other than the “front kick to the face” that he laid on Belfort.  Remaining at the top of the sport and dominantly defending his title twice without problem, locked Anderson into the #2 position.

1st Place: Jon Jones

Was there any doubt here?  Three title fights, beating three of the top 5 Light Heavyweights in history.  He’s skyrocketing up the All-Time rankings and should find himself in this company very soon.

Honorable Mentions

Dominick Cruz - He beat Faber, who is likely the best fighter in history south of Lightweight.  Cruz, along with Aldo, are both gunning for the aforementioned mythical title.

Georges St. Pierre - Though he beat a true #1 contender in Shields, his standing is hurt by the fact that he only managed one fight in 2011.

Jose Aldo – Two title defenses, but two workmanlike decisions in which he badly gassed against Hominick, who was struck down by one punch in his next fight.

Junior dos Santos - Took down the mighty, although inactive, Cain Velasquez to gain the Heavyweight crown.  His other win was against the seemingly spent Shane Carwin.

Dan Henderson - If you’re going for style points, it’s hard to argue against Henderson.  Knocked out Feijao, made another dent in Skynet, and went “life or death” with Shogun.

3rd Place: Miesha Tate

Winning one of the select few women’s titles that matter, Tate only fought one time within 2011 — though that one fight was enough to score her a 3rd place slot on the year.

2nd Place: Cristiane Santos

She remained the top woman in the sport, although like Tate, she also only fought once.  Her win, a 0:16 knockout over Yamanaka, the #1 contender who also saw time on the division dominance list, coupled with holding the top spot in the entire sport, was enough to edge out Tate for 2nd place.

1st Place: Naho Sugiyama

Probably not the popular choice in the largely US-based MMA world, but when you look at the real data, it’s hard to argue against this selection.  Although fighting in perhaps the weakest division in women’s MMA (though our lowest division runs up to 110lb), Sugiyama went 4-0 on the year, winning the JEWELS GP in this division.  Three of her four wins were over fighters currently ranked in the Top 4.  In what was a weak MMA year for this gender, Sugiyama gets a lot of love from the FightMatrix system.

Honorable Mention: Sarah Kaufman

Gilbert Melendez is the only fighter with 20 wins to avenge both of his losses once (total_loss-avenged_loss = 0).

Georges St. Pierre avenged both of his two losses, but later beat Hughes twice (-1).  He is the only 20 win fighter to drive the point home and end up with a net difference of less than 0.

Miku Matsumoto had an interesting journey onto this list.  She lost to Misaki Takimoto twice, then went on to beat her twice.  She also avenged losses to Lisa Ward and Carina Damm (0).

Bas Rutten almost made the cut.  He lost four times, twice to Ken Shamrock, both of which he did not avenge.  Though he did return to beat Funaki once and Frank Shamrock twice (+1).

Yuka Tsuji (sort of) backdoors her way into the discussion.  She avenged her early loss to Ana Michelle Tavares, but later lost to Mei Yamaguchi.  Though, she did hold a prior win over Yamaguchi.  There may likely be other instances of this as well.

The 2011 Comeback Fighter of the Year is: Shinichi Kojima

After suffering a decision loss to Jussier da Silva and losing his #1 Flyweight ranking, Kojima tore his ACL and suffered a 25 month layoff.  Kojima returned in August 2011 and took decision wins over Masaaki Sugawara and Kiyotaka Shimizu, propelling Kojima back up to #4 in the division.

Honorable Mentions: Ed Herman, Michal Materla

In 2011, the most “noteworthy” match was: Frankie Edgar KO(4) Gray Maynard.

This saw the #1 versus the #2, for the most important championship in the deepest division (at least by number of competitors).  The only other #1 vs. #2 in 2011 (in the men’s — at least) was the first match between Edgar and Maynard.

Chandler, who was unranked at the end of 2010, skyrocketed all the way up to #5 in the Lightweight division, with wins over highly ranked fighters such as Patricky Freire and Eddie Alvarez.  After going 4-0 in 2011, his career record stands at a perfect 9-0.

Honorable Mention: Robert Peralta

Using both equations, the upset of the year was Robert Peralta SD(3) Hiroyuki Takaya

Honorable Mention: Jake Ellenberger KO(1) Jake Shields

Had this taken into account the actual outcome (Split vs. KO), you could certainly argue for these placements to be flip-flopped.

She fulfilled our basic requirements of debuting and fighting three times in the 2011 calendar year.  Furthermore, she has earned the #3 ranking in the 145 division, which may turn into the #2 ranking depending on Baszler who is likely to drop down to 135 or go inactive.  She has also finished all four of her opponents by submission, within a minute.  This was a no-brainer.

As for a follow-up on our 2010 winner, Liz Carmouche, she has not fared so well.  Although fighting against top opposition, she has went 0-2 on the year.

2011 Honorable Mention: Sara McMann

I just wanted to give everyone a glimpse of how dense some divisions are in comparison to others.  These counts are for fighters above the starter rating and have had a pro fight in the last 450 days that we know about.  The recorded count is what we currently have in the database, while the estimated count factors in data availability to give a more “true” count.  Nevertheless, journeymen with records like 1-7 are likely not going to be included.

Using this info, it’s fair to say that the average fighter weighs in at about 169 pounds — and probably walks around at about 195 .

It should be interesting to see how this changes with the UFC bringing in Flyweights and also after they have the Featherweight and Bantamweight divisions for another year or two.

* Male fighters only