Voting is underway for the 14th Annual World MMA Awards, at which Alexander Volkanovski, Johnny Eblen, Charles Oliveira, Islam Makhachev and Francis Ngannou are up for the top honor. Fighters Only Magazine again is hosting the awards, and a black-tie ceremony is expected to take place before the end of the year.
Voting is underway at WorldMMAAwards.com and is going it run until Sept. 30.
The Charles “Mask” Lewis Fighter of the Year nominees include Volkanovski, Eblen, Oliveira, Makhachev and Ngannou are up for the top honor. Female Fighter of the Year finalists include Julianna Peña, Cris Cyborg, Kayla Harrison, Valentina Shevchenko and Raquel Pennington.
According to Fighters Only, a panel of MMA industry experts put together the list of award nominees. That expansive list includes:
Charles “Mask” Lewis Fighter of the Year
Alexander Volkanovski Johnny Eblen Charles Oliveira Islam Makhachev Francis Ngannou
Female Fighter of the Year
Julianna Peña Cris Cyborg Kayla Harrison Valentina Shevchenko Raquel Pennington
Breakthrough Fighter of the Year
Tai Tuivasa Mateusz Gamrot Paddy Pimblett Molly McCann Johnny Eblen
International Fighter of the Year
Alexander Volkanovski Roberto Soldic Mateusz Gamrot Islam Makhachev Khamzat Chimaev
Fight of the Year
Jiri Prochazka vs. Glover Teixeira (UFC 275) Justin Gaethje vs. Michael Chandler (UFC 268) Alexander Volkanovski vs. Brian Ortega (UFC 266) Khamzat Chimaev vs. Gilbert Burns (UFC 273) Max Holloway vs. Yair Rodriguez (UFC Fight Night 197)
Knockout of the Year
Michael Chandler def. Tony Ferguson (UFC 274) Ignacio Bahamondes def. Roosevelt Roberts (UFC on ESPN 29) Sergio Pettis def. Kyoji Horiguchi (Bellator 272) Molly McCann def. Luana Carolina (UFC Fight Night 204) Roman Faraldo def. Robert Turnquest (Bellator 271)
Submission of the Year
Jiri Prochazka def. Glover Teixeira (UFC 275) Stevie Ray def. Anthony Pettis (2022 PFL 5) Oliver Enkamp def. Mark Lemminger (Bellator 281) Jessica Andrade def. Amanda Lemos (UFC Fight Night 205) Charles Oliveira def. Dustin Oliveira (UFC 269)
Comeback of the Year
Sergio Pettis def. Kyoji Horiguchi (Bellator 272) Carla Esparza (Career) Clay Guida def. Leonardo Santos (UFC on ESPN 31) Aljamain Sterling (Injury) Chris Curtis (career)
Upset of the Year
Julianna Peña vs. Amanda Nunes (UFC 269) Mariusz Pudzianowski vs. Michał Materla (KSW 70) Matheus Scheffel vs. Bruno Cappelozza (PFL 5) Ben Parrish vs. Christian Edwards (Bellator 266) Seika Izawa vs. Ayaka Hamasaki (RIZIN 33)
Best Promotion of the Year
UFC Bellator PFL Cage Warriors KSW
Leading Man of the Year
Dana White (UFC) Scott Coker (Bellator) Peter Murray (PFL) Graham Boylan (Cage Warriors) Kerrith Brown (IMMAF)
Referee of the Year
Jason Herzog Marc Goddard Mike Beltran Mark Smith Keith Peterson
Analyst of the Year
Paul Felder Michael Bisping Dan Hardy Kenny Florian Dominick Cruz
Personality of the Year
Laura Sanko Daniel Cormier Chael Sonnen Joe Rogan Jon Anik
Best MMA Programming
UFC Embedded Dana White’s Contender Series The MMA Hour JRE MMA Show Morning Kombat
MMA Media Source of the Year
MMA Fighting MMA Junkie ESPN BT Sport Sherdog
MMA Journalist of the Year
Ariel Helwani John Morgan Shaheen Al-Shatti Aaron Bronsteter Mike Bohn
Coach of the Year
Eugene Bareman Eric Nicksick Mike Brown Henri Hooft Diego Lima.
You can find the full article HERE.
