With upsets of the year, we use pre-bout point totals and also put some exclusions into play — both fighters cannot be suffering from any inactivity penalty and the losing fighter must have a respectable rank — within the top 20. We also do the math two ways; proportional raw point difference and net point difference normalized by division.
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.