That wasn’t the case in 2019, and I blame Israel Adesanya, Henry Cejudo, Jorge Masvidal and Kamaru Usman. If anything, those were the top four fighters of 2019, but I can’t separate them and put them in any sort of order because I can make a case for any of them being the best of the year. They were all that good against top level competition. So whoever was number one on Wednesday wasn’t going to be in that spot on Thursday, and so on and so on.
Ultimately…I wimped out, and in the final installment of the Highly Unofficial Awards season, here are the top fighters of 2019…in alphabetical order.
PS – Don’t know if it makes anyone feel better, but even choosing the 10 honorable mention folks was tough. Yeah, didn’t think so. And as far as the rules (and my sanity) goes, to be considered, a fighter has to have competed more than once in 2019.
Finally, the rest of the sporting universe knows what most MMA fans have known for years, that Jorge Masvidal is a real fighter and an entertaining throwback to a different era in combat sports. But better yet, he may be in his prime right now, and for proof, just look at a 2019 campaign that saw “Gamebred” finish Darren Till, score the fastest KO in UFC history against Ben Askren and then win the inaugural BMF title with a stoppage of Nate Diaz. It’s the year we’ve all been waiting for from Masvidal, and in 2019 we got it.
Winning 20 straight fights is a feat in and of itself; earning four of those victories in the UFC adds to the accomplishment achieved by Zhang Weili thus far in her career. But there’s more, and after decisioning perennial contender Tecia Torres in March 2019, she stepped up to face Jessica Andrade for the strawweight title in August and needed just 42 seconds to become the first Chinese fighter to win a UFC title. Not a bad year for Ms. Zhang, was it?
Honorable Mention (also in alphabetical order) – Gilbert Burns, Dan Hooker, Geoff Neal, Francis Ngannou, Amanda Nunes, Charles Oliveira, Jairzinho Rozenstruik, Cory Sandhagen, Edmen Shahbazyan, Glover Teixeira
