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Another crazy year full of twists and turns has come and gone in the growing sport of mixed martial arts. Undoubtedly, you’ve run across quite a few of these lists in the past few weeks. I’m not trying to pretend mine is any more important or significant than anyone else’s. Rather, I like to think of it as a list of some of the most memorable moments of the 2009. Please feel free to share your picks in the comments.

UFC 99 “The Comeback”, scheduled for June 13 in Cologne, Germany, features a very intriguing match-up between former Pride 205-pound champion Wanderlei Silva and former UFC middleweight champion, Rich Franklin. The fight is interesting not only because both guys are in serious need of a win after recent losses but also because the bout is taking place at a unique catchweight of 195-pounds. Personally, I think a catchweight bout is a great idea for both fighters. Silva and Franklin are both legendary veterans who are popular enough to headline a pay-per-view, yet both are facing the problem that they are not in title contention in their particular weight divisions.

Franklin especially, but Silva as well, have been loyal, marketable stars for Zuffa and deserve a bit of a break from the UFC. In the past Franklin has been quite open about how miserable cutting weight makes him. In fact, when approached by UFC President Dana White about fighting at UFC 99, Franklin was adamant that he wanted to fight at 205 pounds and had no interest in dropping to 185. Instead of forcing Franklin’s hand, White came up with a compromise. After a devastating loss at 205 pounds to Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Wanderlei Silva was being forced to consider a drop to 185 pounds in hopes of reinvigorating his recently slumping career. Dropping from 205 to 185 is a big drop for Wanderlei so White suggested that a fight at 195 was a good way for Franklin to save himself ten pounds of weight cutting, and for Wanderlei to incrementally adjust to dropping a significant amount of weight for the first time. A catchweight fight between the two may have no title implications but it makes sense for the UFC because it rewards two of their older and more loyal fighters with not having to drop as much weight, and yet it still offers the UFC an exciting and marketable main event featuring two proven pay-per-view stars.

As a backlash against all of the hoopla concerning GreaseGate, there has been an increase of people lately saying, “Who cares about a little Vaseline…BJ Penn got his ass kicked by St. Pierre and showed a lot of previously unnoticed holes in his game in the process.” The fact that Penn seems unable to keep his mouth shut and stop trash talking his opponents certainly hasn’t helped divert the renewed focus on his less than stellar performance.

Penn’s cockiness was more endearing in the past because he was doing it to sell fights. There are a lot of people out there who like their fighters to have a street mentality like Penn and the Diaz brothers, and I happen to be one of them. I enjoy it when fighters are passionate about fighting and not afraid to speak their minds. However, trash talk only works when you’re winning fights. Otherwise, it just becomes empty words and fans just start writing you off as a bad sport. I could deal with Penn licking Joe Stevenson’s blood off his hands and calling Sean Sherk a “fake champ.” It’s understandable when Penn talks smack before a fight to increase the hype. Then, he looks like a honorable guy when he shakes hands and buries the hatchet when the fight is over. Lately though, Penn has been going overboard with the trash talk.

At the end of Cain Velasquez’s fight, he apologized to the crowd. Not something that is usually done by a fighter that so thoroughly defeated his opponent. Still Velasquez asked his fans for forgiveness for not finishing his fight, against Denis Stojnic, in a more spectacular fashion.

Is there a more competitive weight class in MMA than the UFC’s resident lightweights?

Four days have passed since UFC 94, and MMA fans are still waiting to see what B.J. Penn will do. At one point it appeared that Penn and his camp had come to terms with the defeat. The next minute Penn was preparing to file a complaint with the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Whatever Penn’s actions are—he is legally within his rights to file a complaint, and St. Pierre’s corner clearly violated a rule by applying, intentionally or not, Vaseline—there is still one question that hasn’t been asked.

It’s that time of year for the “best of…” awards. Undoubtedly, you’ve run across quite a few of these lists in the past few weeks, and for the most part they’re pretty much the same—Fighter of the Year, Fight of the Year, KO of the Year, etc.. So instead of doing the same old thing, we’re including some of those and making up a bunch of awards that’s basically—for better or worse—a list of the most memorable moments of the 2008.

If you feel we’ve left anything out or chose the wrong winner, let us know in the comments. Hell, even make up your own award if you want. Check back, I may add more.

Without further adieu…

Warrior of the Year

Gegard Mousasi

Gegard Mousasi cut through the DREAM Middleweight Grand Prix like a hot knife through butter. Mousasi took out Denis Kang, Dong Sik Yoon, Melvin Manhoef and Jacare while hardly breaking a sweat on his way to being crowned the DREAM Middleweight Grand Prix Champion. Add in a win at the beginning of the year and an absolutely dominant and destructive K-1 win over Musashi for good measure, and you’re looking at our pick for Warrior of the Year.

Honorable Mention

Rashad Evans – No one predicted at the beginning of the year that Rashad Evans would be known for his devastating knockouts come 2009, let alone that he would hold the most prestigious title in mixed martial arts. Our hats off to Rashad for knocking out the UFC’s KO King and finishing one of it’s toughest customers.

Talk about a wild weekend for mixed martial arts. Brock Lesnar, a former WWE superstar, is now the UFC Heavyweight Champion, or at least half of it. ESPN had an unprecedented amount of coverage of mixed martial arts, even if most of it was only online. One of the weakest UFC cards on paper turned out to be one of the most entertaining events of the year. And if that wasn’t crazy enough for you, apparently Fedor Emelianenko lost his Sambo match at the World Sambo Championships yesterday. To put that into context, last year, one of his opponents didn’t even show up because he was apparently too intimidated. So yeah, it was a wild weekend.

More EliteXC Heat photos at CombatLifestyle.com

Written by Robert K

Nearly every young athlete dreams of becoming a professional athlete and competing on his/her sport’s biggest stage. Baseball players want to be in the MLB, football players in the NFL, and basketball players in the NBA. Up-and-coming mixed martial artists are no exception, and for the past few years at least, the stage they dreamed of was an eight-sided cage owned by the UFC. If you’re good enough and you get the call, it’s a no-brainer, right?