2021 Others Receiving Votes Awards: Fighter of the Year
Recognizing the athletes that won't get enough mention when the fictional hardware gets passed out
Welcome to the first annual Others Receiving Votes Awards; I’m your host, E. Spencer Kyte.
I actually first published this idea five years ago yesterday, when I was still writing at The Province. It was one of those years where a bunch of the award winners were pretty clear cut, and I thought, “Everyone is going to write about XYZ, but there were plenty of other really great performances this year that shouldn’t go unrecognized just because they didn’t have the absolute best year of anyone stepping into the Octagon.”
That I idea stayed with me because it speaks to who I am as a writer, as a fan, and as an advocate for this sport, and so now that I’m settled into my own little situation here on the Substack version of Keyboard Kimura, I figured why not bring it back?
Over the next handful of days, I’ll hand out the usual year-end awards, but rather than spotlighting those that will likely make the podium in other iterations of this December staple, I want to shine a little light on the folks that would appear at the bottom of each category in the Honorable Mentions or, as this series has now been named, the Others Receiving Votes section because just because having the sixth most impressive year or eighth best submission in 2021 doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get a little more love in series like this.
Let’s get started with Fighter of the Year.
Fighter of the Year is usually going to be a titleholder, much in the same way a quarterback almost always wins NFL MVP — there is just too much at stake, too many eyes on those fights, the competition is the best competition possible at the time, and there two more rounds to navigate if you don’t get things done quickly and efficiently.
For me, the podium was pretty easy to decide and I believe plenty of others will have similar ballots and ideas.
Kamaru Usman will win the award in a number of spots, deservedly so, as the welterweight champ went 3-0, earned two stoppages, including one that will be in the Knockout of the Year mix, and a gutted out another hard fought battle against his chief rival.
Charles Oliveira is the silver medalist, though I’d certainly listen to cases for him deserving gold. The veteran lightweight won the vacant title with a early second-round rally against Michael Chandler, and then navigated rough waters early to wrestle and finish Dustin Poirier in the third to cement his place atop the division.
Ciryl Gane takes bronze for me after earning three victories and claiming the interim heavyweight title by stopping Derrick Lewis in his own backyard. Say what you will about the validity or necessity of that title, but Gane going 3-0 against Top 10 heavyweights and never being in danger once is impressive.
But a host of other fighters had noteworthy years inside the Octagon, and I’m here to give them a greater amount of shine.
Islam Makhachev
Long considered the heir to Khabib Nurmagomedov’s throne, 2021 was the year Makhachev really started showing that might be more than just high praise from a pack of teammates and coaches.
The 30-year-old fought three times, won three times, and earned three finishes, pushing his winning streak to nine and his record to 21-1 overall. Each fight was viewed as a step up in competition — the hurdle he needed to clear in order to justify the hype and take another step forward in the loaded lightweight ranks — and each time out, Makhachev aced the test in front of him.
He out-grappled Drew Dober for two rounds before forcing him to tap in the third, and did something similar against Thiago Moises in his first main event assignment, battling with the talented Brazilian into the fourth before sinking in the fight-ending choke. But the performance that really put everyone on notice came at the end of October in Abu Dhabi, when he marched into he cage and snatched up a kimura in two-and-a-half minutes against Dan Hooker.
Because lightweight is packed with talent, Makhachev still has more work to do before earning a title shot, as he’s scheduled to face fellow streaking standout Beneil Dariush at the end of February, but after the year he had in 2021, I wouldn’t have had any qualms about sliding the dominant grappler from Dagestan in there with Oliveira in their shared first appearances of 2022.
Marina Rodriguez
Rodriguez entered the year with a 2-1-2 record in the UFC and coming off a questionable split decision loss to Carla Esparza. While she hadn’t turned in any real eye-opening performances inside the Octagon, she’d done well through her first five fights, and seemed, at the very least, like someone that was going to hang around in the Top 10, testing hopefuls and pushing veterans for the next couple years.
But after only fighting once in 2020, she got an early start to 2021 with a booking opposite Amanda Ribas and made the absolute most of it, stopping the effervescent emerging star in the second round to get back into the win column and make an immediate impression out of the gate.
Rodriguez fought twice more this year, headlining opposite Michelle Waterson and Mackenzie Dern, winning each five-round affair in convincing fashion to post a 3-0 mark and move onto the short list of potential title challengers heading into next year. She showed she can work at a steady clip for 25 minutes, made it through a rough patch on the ground in the second round of her fight with Dern, and generally did an improved job of dealing with the takedowns and grappling exchanges, showing she can defend well enough to avoid serious trouble and get right back to work once she’s back on her feet.
If I were handing out a Breakout Fighter of the Year award, it would go to Rodriguez.
Casey O’Neill
Three fights, three wins, three finishes… that’s a helluva rookie campaign for the 24-year-old Scottish-Australian flyweight.
O’Neill was one of those young fighters you heard good things about as she was readying to make her UFC debut in February. She’d moved to Vegas and set up shop at Xtreme Couture, and while she didn’t have a ton of top-end experience on the way to the Octagon, she was undefeated, driven, and had plenty of people that are smart and respected in this industry making it clear that she was one to watch.
What I didn’t expect in February when she debuted with a second-round stoppage finish over Shana Dobson is that O’Neill would end the year in the Top 15 and at the vanguard of a crop of emerging talents in the 125-pound weight class that seem poised to battle one another for divisional supremacy in no more than 3-5 years, maybe less.
After dispatching Dobson, O’Neill worked her way through Lara Procopio, a physical grinder, securing a third-round submission win, and closed out the year by dominated Antonina Shevchenko, stopping the elder sister of divisional titleholder Valentina Shevchenko with strikes in the late stages of the second round. It was the culmination of a standout rookie campaign, one that should earn “King Casey” some hardware over the next couple weeks, and the kind of effort that should make you realize that O’Neill is a problem for anyone in the flyweight division and only going to keep getting better as she continues to gain more experience and sharpen her skills even more.
Valentina Shevchenko
I don’t think “Bullet” is going to get much Fighter of the Year love this year and it’s because we’re so conditioned to her personal brand of brilliance that a lot of folks have started to take it for granted.
For the third straight year, Shevchenko turned in a pair of successful title defences, turning back the challenges of Jessica Andrade and Lauren Murphy with startling ease. But because this is what she has done every year since claiming the vacant title in December 2018, it’s become expected, and we’ve kind of lost sight of just how difficult it really is to make a former champion like Andrade and a gutsy, battle-hardened fighter like Murphy look like rank amateurs when they’re standing across from you.
Shevchenko finished Andrade in just over eight minutes, figuring out in the first round that she could easily out-wrestle the former strawweight champ, and deployed the approach immediately to start the second. When she put the Brazilian challenger on the deck the second time, she swiftly climbed into the crucifix position and unleashed a barrage of elbows that ended the fight. She looked pissed when she stood up to strut around the Octagon, as if she was mad that people even deigned to think Andrade would be a challenge.
At UFC 266, she completely outclassed Murphy, finally earning the finish with a minute remaining in the fourth round. Shevchenko had a +87 significant strike differential in the fight, but didn’t land over 100 strikes herself; that’s how little success she allowed Murphy to have in Houston. It was Frankie Edgar’s “There Are Levels to This” come to life in a championship fight, with the titleholder showing just how vastly superior she is to her competition at the moment.
This woman is one of the most complete fighters in the sport and her dominance over skilled, talented, competitive fighters like Andrade and Murphy is further proof of that fact.
Giga Chikadze
Chikadze had the year in 2021 that I would like to see from Sean O’Malley in 2022.
The former Glory Kickboxing standout racked up four wins in 2020 and proclaimed himself a major threat in the featherweight division, despite not having beaten anyone of great significance during his first full year on the UFC roster. But that changed this year, as Chikadze earned a first-round finish over veteran Cub Swanson in May, felling him with his patented “Giga Kick,” before headlining opposite Edson Barboza in October and finishing the Brazilian stalwart less than two minutes into the third round.
This was a year where Chikadze needed to be tested against better competition and prove himself as a player in the featherweight division, and he aced both tests to finish the year stationed at No. 8 in the rankings and wishfully calling for the next championship opportunity. While he still has a couple more wins he needs to collect before fighting for gold, 2021 turned a whole host of doubters into believers, myself very much included.
Chris Curtis
Listen — if you earn two finishes in five weeks against a pair of ascending talents, you’re getting Fighter of the Year consideration from me.
Curtis raised his hand to fill-in for Deron Winn opposite Phil Hawes on one day’s notice in early October, but Hawes declined the fight. The bout was booked for a month later at Madison Square Garden, and the 34-year-old “Action Man” made the absolute most of his promotional debut, stinging Hawes with a counter left late in the opening round before chasing down the finish. After more than a decade as a pro and over 30 fights, Curtis had finally landed his chance to compete inside the Octagon and wrote a fitting conclusion to his incredible story.
A couple weeks later, Brendan Allen was in need of an opponent and Curtis again raised his hand, stepping in to face the Contender Series alum and Sanford MMA product in Las Vegas. Just as he had against Hawes, the veteran bided his time, but when he found an opening, he pounced, putting Allen on skates and securing the finish less than two minutes into the second round.
As Curtis put it when we spoke ahead of his bout with Allen, he’s “gone from homeless to middle class in six weeks,” and there’s no reason to believe he won’t continue being an intriguing piece in the middleweight division in 2022.
Daniel Rodriguez
Daniel Rodriguez has quietly had a tremendous two-year run to start his UFC career, putting together a 6-1 record by following up his 3-1 rookie season with a three-win effort in 2021.
“D-Rod” began the year by dispatching Mike Perry from the UFC, and followed it up with a first-round stoppage win over Preston Parsons in July. While most probably don’t remember that fight, the performance stood out to me because it’s the kind of effort we all want to see from tenured talents taking on newcomers on short notice. He took his time, found his range, and put it on the 26-year-old, getting him out of there in under four minutes.
But the real impact win for Rodriguez came in August when Rodriguez volunteered to fill in for Sean Brady opposite Kevin Lee in August. Just a few short days after Lee declared himself a “Top 5 welterweight,” the 34-year-old from Alhambra went out and scored a unanimous decision win over “The Motown Phenom.” Lee won the opening round, but Rodriguez controlled the latter two, using his technical striking and sound defensive wrestling to neutralize his adversaries offence and score the biggest win of his career.
Despite all his success over the last two years, Rodriguez still can’t crack the Top 15 in the welterweight ranks, but he should be in line for another step up in competition when he returns next year and could join Curtis as an “old head” to keep tabs on going forward.
The 2021 Others Receiving Votes Awards will continue tomorrow with a look at the impressive crop of first-year fighters to grace the Octagon over the past 12 months.