Fighter of the year

[Egg Shen]

Stipe's a good shout, but i think Bispings underdog status against Rockhold may put him slightly above him for me.

[jimufctna24]

McGregor is a better fighter than Bisping has even been, or ever will be. Bisping will be remembered as a great fighter, a HOF'er and the pioneer of British MMA, but McGregor will probably be remember with much more relevance.  On this occasion though, I'm going to give Bisping the nod. 

 

McGregor is the biggest star of the year. He's established himself as the biggest draw in MMA history - especially on standard PPV, - which a lot of people think is a dying duck. McGregor has gone 2-1 overall inside the cage. The wins over Eddie and Nate were impressive, especially the latter one. The loss to Nate is a black mark against him being fighter of the year.

 

I can't look past Bisping's story. It's one of the best MMA has ever had. Also, you can call it a fluke or whatever, but Bisping's win over Rockhold is just as good a scalp as McGregor's win over Alvarez. Maybe even more so. You could easily argue that Rockhold is a better Middleweight than Alvarez is a Lightweight, although both are clearly world class (top 5)  Bisping's fights with Anderson and Hendo were thrill rides as well. The former even in 2016 is an impressive notch, even if he's not the fighter he once was. Hendo never lost his power either, and clearly gave it all he had to try and dethrone Bisping. 

 

For excitement, emotion, and comparable relevance - Bisping should be the fighter of the year. 

[lambyUK]

That's a good point Jim.

 

It's hard to argue against Bisping's story and what he had to come through to get where he is now.

[wandshogun09]

Completely overlooked Miocic. First round knockouts of Arlovski, Werdum and Overeem plus the title win. Yeah, he's right up there for me.

 

Still got Bisping at #1. Jim's post has nailed why I feel that way but he's worded it better. McGregor's definitely the biggest star of 2016. And you can make a strong case for best fighter too. I just feel like Bisping had a really special year. It's easy to forget now with all the huge fights and shows we've had in the last few months but Bisping's win over Rockhold was the upset of the year. And not just that he won, that it was a first round KO was the icing on the cake. It was almost the modern day Serra vs GSP, except as good as he is I wouldn't rate Rockhold as the 185 equivalent to GSP. Serra's win was a bigger upset in that way for me in terms of the perceived massive gulf in skills between him and GSP. But Bisping did something amazing. After the Anderson win, which he barely scraped (in what I think was probably one of the top 5 FOTY), people were calling for him to retire because it wouldn't get any better than that for Bisping.

 

The Rockhold win was nuts on a bunch of levels...

 

1) he took it on very short notice.

2) he'd already lost to Rockhold once and it was thought he had no chance.

3) he won by first round KO when his whole career he's been criticised for lacking power.

4) he won the title, when no cunt thought he'd ever touch UFC gold.

 

And that was just the Rockhold fight. Say what you want about the Anderson and Hendo wins but Anderson's still dangerous and it's still a fight most expected Bisping to get slaughtered in. And he did. He just battled through it. And the Hendo fight was him avenging the most brutal loss of his career on home soil. He showed ridiculous heart in both the Anderson and Hendo fights and both were thrilling to watch. People can say those guys are fading, and they are, but Bisping's pushing 40 himself and is practically a cyclops. It's not like they were feeding old has beens to a young lion.

 

When you look at Bisping's 2016, it's mad to think that of his three fights - a declining Anderson, prime Rockhold, last legs Hendo - it was prime Rockhold who was the easiest fight for Bisping. Granted I wouldn't put money on it going like that again should they do a third fight but it just felt like 2016 was Bisping's year and he wasn't going to be denied.

 

It's all over in 2017. Yoel Romero's going to eat him and spit out the skeleton. But it was some year for The Count.