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The awards below are equation-guided and have been awarded by FightMatrix to fighters, based on their career results and its relation to the FightMatrix rating system.
Older awards were populated retroactively at their creation, using a manner similar to that in which we’d use for future awards. In these cases, the text will be presented in italics.
FightMatrix Fighters of the Year
The “Fighter of the Year” award looks back on the entire year as a whole and the fighters’ performances within it. Divisional strength is also considered.
One male in all years, one female in years 2002 and later.
| Year | Winner | Runner-Up | 3rd Place |
| 1993 | Royce Gracie | Ken Shamrock | Masakatsu Funaki |
| 1994 | Ken Shamrock | Royce Gracie | Manabu Yamada |
| 1995 | Ken Shamrock (#2) | Bas Rutten | Dan Severn |
| 1996 | Bas Rutten | Jay R. Palmer | Masakatsu Funaki |
| 1997 | Masakatsu Funaki | Bas Rutten | Yuki Kondo |
| 1998 | Frank Shamrock | Semmy Schilt | Guy Mezger |
| 1999 | Semmy Schilt | Kazushi Sakuraba | Matt Hughes |
| 2000 | Nate Marquardt | Alexandre Franca Nogueira | Tito Ortiz |
| 2001 | Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira | Tito Ortiz | Alexandre Franca Nogueira |
| 2002M | Matt Hughes | Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira | Murilo Bustamante |
| 2002F | Yuka Tsuji | - | - |
| 2003M | Fedor Emelianenko | Randy Couture | Matt Hughes |
| 2003F | Jennifer Howe | - | - |
| 2004M | B.J. Penn | Fedor Emelianenko | Matt Hughes |
| 2004F | Yuka Tsuji (#2) | Megumi Yabushita | Roxanne Modafferi |
| 2005M | Takanori Gomi | Mauricio Rua | Matt Hughes |
| 2005F | Yuka Tsuji (#3) | Hisae Watanabe | Satoko Shinashi |
| 2006M | Chuck Liddell | Fedor Emelianenko | Shinichi Kojima |
| 2006F | Tara LaRosa | Hisae Watanabe | Megumi Fujii |
| 2007M | Anderson Silva | Quinton Jackson | Randy Couture |
| 2007F | Tara LaRosa (#2) | Megumi Fujii | Yuka Tsuji |
| 2008M | Anderson Silva (#2) | Miguel Torres | Thiago Alves |
| 2008F | Megumi Fujii | Gina Carano | Cristiane Santos |
| 2009M | Georges St. Pierre | Lyoto Machida | Mike Brown |
| 2009F | Tara LaRosa (#3) | Megumi Fujii | Sarah Kaufman |
| 2010M | Georges St. Pierre (#2) | Jose Aldo | Dominick Cruz |
| 2010F | Cristiane Santos | Megumi Fujii | Sarah Kaufman |
| 2011M | Jon Jones | Anderson Silva | Frankie Edgar |
| 2011F | Naho Sugiyama | Miesha Tate | Sarah Kaufman |
FightMatrix Most Improved Fighter of the Year
| Year | Fighter |
| 2011 | Michael Chandler |
Based on increase in rank (and points as a tie-breaker) from the end of the previous year.
FightMatrix Comeback Fighter of the Year
| Year | Fighter |
| 2011 | Shinichi Kojima |
Fighters cannot have had a fight in the previous year.
FightMatrix Rookies of the Year
One male fighter prior to 2010. One male and one female fighter for 2010 and after.
| Year | Fighter |
| 1995 | Ricardo Morais |
| 1996 | Jay R. Palmer |
| 1997 | Randy Couture |
| 1998 | Sergio Melo |
| 1999 | Mamoru Yamaguchi |
| 2000 | Kazuyuki Fujita |
| 2001 | B.J. Penn |
| 2002 | Yoshinori Momose |
| 2003 | Ansar Chalangov |
| 2004 | Mark Hunt |
| 2005 | Jake Ellenberger |
| 2006 | Jamal Patterson |
| 2007 | Bryan Baker |
| 2008 | Jon Jones |
| 2009 | Joe Warren |
| 2010 | Cole Konrad (M) / Liz Carmouche (F) |
| 2011 | Sultan Aliev (M) / Ronda Rousey (F) |
Prior to 2011, fighter must debut in and have three pro fights in the calendar year. In 2011, rules changed to allow fighter to have a maximum of 1 pro fight in the year previous to award year. This fight would also count toward the three pro fight requirement.
FightMatrix Most Noteworthy Match of Year
Analyzed at year-end, looking back at the most noteworthy match of the year based on cumulative rank strength of the involved fighters.
| Year | Match |
| 2002 | Jens Pulver vs. B.J. Penn |
| 2003 | Fedor Emelianenko vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira |
| 2004 | Fedor Emelianenko vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira III |
| 2005 | Fedor Emelianenko vs. Mirko Filipovic |
| 2006 | Georges St. Pierre vs. Matt Hughes |
| 2007 | Matt Serra vs. Georges St. Pierre |
| 2008 | Anderson Silva vs. Dan Henderson |
| 2009 | Georges St. Pierre vs. B.J. Penn |
| 2010 | Cain Velasquez vs. Brock Lesnar |
| 2011 | Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard II |
In ties, preference given to stronger division. No contests excluded.
FightMatrix Most Noteworthy Upset of Year
Analyzed pre-bout, the largest difference between raw rating points, normalized by division.
| Year | Match |
| 2004 | Mark Hunt SD(3) Wanderlei Silva |
| 2005 | Sam Greco TKO(1) Heath Herring |
| 2006 | Mark Coleman TKO(1) Mauricio Rua |
| 2007 | Matt Serra TKO(1) Georges St. Pierre |
| 2008 | Frank Mir TKO(2) Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira |
| 2009 | Mamed Khalidov TKO(1) Jorge Santiago |
| 2010 | Fabricio Werdum SUB(1) Fedor Emelianenko |
| 2011 | Robert Peralta SD(3) Hiroyuki Takaya |
FightMatrix Most Lopsided Upset of Year
Analyzed pre-bout, the largest proportional difference between raw rating points.
| Year | Match |
| 2004 | Mark Hunt SD(3) Wanderlei Silva |
| 2005 | Sam Greco TKO(1) Heath Herring |
| 2006 | Tristan Yunker SUB(1) Clay Guida |
| 2007 | Gabriel Gonzaga KO(1) Mirko Filipovic |
| 2008 | Junior dos Santos TKO(1) Fabricio Werdum |
| 2009 | Marius Zaromskis TKO(1) Hayato Sakurai |
| 2010 | Jadamba Narantungalag UD(3) Akihiro Gono |
| 2011 | Robert Peralta SD(3) Hiroyuki Takaya |
Certain fights are excluded from upset records, including those with a loser who was inactive or outside the Top 20 (approximate) and previously undefeated/inactive winners.
Last Updated: 2/3/2011
Thanks Rich.
Rabbit – This just an early version of the page.. I’ll be adding more in the coming days/weeks and possibly re-visiting some of the pre-FightMatrix years also to add in #2, #3, double-check some fighters.. etc.
Stay tuned.
This is great stuff.
Any chance you could put the men and women in seperate colums? Its kind of difficult to look at them in chronological order when there is two of each year in a column.
Its similar to the All-Time rankings. 2008 >= Wins over top fighters, rankings throughout the year, presence in division dominance.. etc.
2007 and before had more emphasis on division dominance and admittedly, there was less “precision” as I didn’t have the ranking data.
Hey, there they are! Can we have a bit of detail on how you used the system to derive the awards? Is it based on points on 12/31 minus points on 1/1, for example? Or by Division Dominance? Or…?
Working on it. Its very complex to calculate this before the site existed. I don’t just want to throw up names arbitrarily in order to fill the tables — everything you see here has substance behind it.
Why no Fighters of the Year before 2008?
Ehh.. I’m still working that one out in my mind.
Cool feature. I hope to see this extended to more years and categories in the future. “Fighter of the Year” would be a natural choice.
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