2021 Others Receiving Votes Awards: Newcomer of the Year
This past year was a banner run for debuting fighters in the UFC, and it's time to give a bunch of them some shine
The Others Receiving Votes Awards continue here on Keyboard Kimura with a look at the first-year UFC fighters that competed in 2021.
As with the Fighter of the Year race, there are, to me, a couple obvious candidates to take home this award — Michael Chandler, Casey O’Neill — and then a whole pack of competitors that made an impression without necessarily doing enough that they’ll merit podium consideration or a great deal of attention from the MMA media as a whole.
The staff over at UFC.com got together and voted on this award, coming up with a pretty comprehensive Top 10, with many of the names featured there making another appearance here, plus a few more mixed in for good measure because it really was an absolutely massive year for fighters making their debuts in the Octagon in 2021.
Chris Curtis
“The Action Man” got Fighter of the Year consideration from me, so I won’t go too deep on him again here, but two wins in six weeks over fighters working towards the Top 15 is a damn-fine debut campaign.
More than anyone on this list, Curtis has the best chance to work into title contention in 2022, as he’s older, more experienced, and competing in a division (middleweight) where the road ahead of him isn’t as daunting as in numerous other weight classes.
Manon Fiorot
The French flyweight made an impact right out of the gate, kicking off the second card of the year with a second-round stoppage win over Victoria Leonardo, showcasing her deft, karate-based striking attack and impact aggressiveness. A little less than five months later, “The Beast” returned and dominated overmatched and undersized Tabitha Ricci, extending her winning streak to seven.
In October, the 31-year-old former IMMAF world champion secured her third victory in as many starts, earning a unanimous decision win over Mayra Bueno Silva that earned her a place in the Top 15.
Between her striking prowess, her physicality, and her forward-pressure style, Fiorot established herself as someone to watch in 2021 and should take that a step further in the year ahead.
Manel Kape
It took longer than everyone anticipated, but Kape finally started showing why everyone was pumped about his arrival in the UFC in the second half of his first year on the roster.
After a pair of decision losses to Top 10 talents out of the chute, the former RIZIN champ finally got into the win column with a first-round finish of Ode’ Osbourne at UFC 265, but his weight miss sullied the effort a little. Four months later, he made weight and mauled Zhalgas Zhumagulov to bring his record to 2-2 under the UFC banner, and re-establish himself as a dangerous threat in the wide-open 125-pound weight class.
Kape has superstar upside and just turned 28, so if he can maintain the success he had in the second half of 2021 into next year, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him fighting for championship gold at the end of 2022 or early in 2023.
Loopy Godinez
After winning the LFA strawweight title with a majority decision victory over Vanessa Demopoulos to close out here 2020 campaign, Godinez made her UFC debut in April, dropping an ultra-close split decision to returning former title challenger Jessica Penne.
She volunteered to return five weeks later and up two weight classes against Sarah Alpar, but the commission demurred, resulting in the Vancouver-based newcomer having an incredibly long (for her) six month gap between appearances. On October 9, she submitted Silvana Juarez to secure her first UFC victory, and then returned a week later, dropping a decision up in weight to Luana Carolina before closing out her 2021 campaign with a unanimous decision win over Loma Lookboonmee.
Godinez may only have a .500 record inside the Octagon at this point, but there is no question she was one of the newcomers that made the most noise over the last 12 months.
Bruno Silva
Silva was originally supposed to make his UFC debut in June 2019, but he failed a drug test before ever stepping into the Octagon. After serving his two-year suspension, “Blindado” finally made his first walk to the UFC cage this spring and promptly earned a first-round stoppage win over Wellington Turman that restarted his career and pushed his overall winning streak to five.
In October, he rallied to finish Andrew Sanchez in the third round of a fight he was losing on the cards, and earlier this month at UFC 269, the 32-year-old Brazilian landed on top in a “Who Falls First?” battle with Jordan Wright, giving him three wins and three finishes in as many appearances in 2021.
Like Curtis, Silva has a chance to make even more noise next year because middleweight is a weird division and his power could certainly carry him into the Top 10. He’ll get an opportunity to make a big statement in the first quarter of 2022, as it was recently announced that he’ll square off with former Glory Kickboxing double champ Alex Pereira on March 12.
Pat Sabatini
I have a lot of time for fighters like Sabatini.
The 31-year-old Philadelphia native is one of those guys that had a bunch of success fighting very good competition in a bunch of quality promotions along the East Coast and got to the UFC a little later in his career, but has since made the most of it, parlaying three appearances into three victories to cement his place as a member of the featherweight establishment.
He out-hustled veteran Tristan Connelly in April to get his first win, got rocked, but still submitted Jamall Emmers with a nasty heel hook in August for his second victory, and played on his edge in experience and savvy to sweep the scorecards against Tucker Lutz in late November to secure his third win of the year.
There is nothing flashy about what Sabatini does inside the Octagon and he’s not somebody that is going to make waves and draw attention to himself with the things he says or posts on social media — he’s just a well-rounded, technical fighter with the ability to stack victories and willingness to work his way up the division ladder one step at a time.
Mason Jones
“The Dragon” entered the UFC as an undefeated former two-weight world champion under the Cage Warriors banner, and ends his rookie campaign having added only a single victory to his resume, but over three fights, the Welsh lightweight established himself as a perpetually entertaining all-action fighter.
Jones got into a scrap with Mike Davis in his promotional debut, landing on the wrong side of the cards in a terrific back-and-forth battle early in the year, and was on his way to victory in his sophomore appearance against Alan Patrick before an errant eye poke brought the fight to a premature halt, resulting in a No Contest verdict. Towards the end of October, Jones finally secured his first UFC win, edging out short-notice replacement (and natural featherweight) David Onama in a fight I’ll write more about later in the week.
He’s still just 26 and has already proven himself to be tough as all get out and relentless inside the Octagon, two things that should continue to serve him well going forward, and if he can tighten up his defence a little and be a little less willing to brawl, he could be someone that makes a little noise in the 155-pound weight class going forward.
Erin Blanchfield
I took my victory lap about Blanchfield in the wake her breakthrough effort at UFC 269 against Miranda Maverick, so I don’t need to say much about the 22-year-old flyweight here.
While there are others that had more impressive rookie campaigns, Blanchfield established herself as one of the absolute best prospects in the UFC and the sport in 2021, and is going to be a real factor in the 125-pound weight class for the next several years.
Jeff Molina
Here’s what I wrote about “El Jefe” heading into his rookie campaign:
He’s faced limited competition on his way to the big leagues, which makes him more of a long-term prospect for me, but given his current run of success, his obvious potential, and the fact that trains with a good team, I’m really interested to see how he does and how much he grows during his first year on the UFC roster.
In two appearances, Molina (left) showed he’s a future contender in the flyweight division, as he overcame some debut jitters to dominate down the stretch in his first trip into the Octagon against Aoriqileng, and then turned in a standout effort in his sophomore appearance opposite Daniel Lacerda in October.
The 24-year-old Glory MMA & Fitness representative should be on everyone’s list of fighters to keep close tabs on in 2022 because a push towards the Top 15 is likely, and a move into the Top 10 isn’t out of the question.
Carlston Harris
There aren’t going to be many people giving love to a 34-year-old welterweight newcomer in their year-end columns, but that’s why I’m doing this series this way.
Harris earned a pair of first-round finishes in his first two UFC appearances in 2021, choking Christian Aguilera unconscious less than three minutes into his May debut, and then battering Impa Kasanganay with a barrage of strikes midway through the opening stanza of their clash four months later.
Currently riding a five-fight winning streak (all finishes) and 9-1 over his last 10 outings, Harris is the type of veteran talent that could be a nightmare matchup for emerging hopefuls, and has the chance to prove that early in 2022 as he’s penciled in to face undefeated 27-year-old Shavkat Rakhmonov at the start of February.
Terrance McKinney
“T. Wrecks” is going to show up on most lists of this nature because his lone appearance of 2021 resulted in a seven-second knockout victory over veteran Matt Frevola.
He landed at No. 7 in the UFC list of the 10 Best Newcomers and probably could have crept up a couple more places had he fought another couple times, but his sophomore appearance opposite Fares Ziam was scratched the day of the fight. They’ve been rebooked for the end of February, and given that McKinney fought five times in 2021 without competing in the second half of the year, I have a feeling we’ll be hearing his name a lot next year, regardless of how that fight plays out.
Umar Nurmagomedov
“Cousin Umar” finally made his promotional debut in January after having three bouts fall apart for various reasons in 2020, earning a second-round submission win over Sergey Morozov to push his record to 13-0.
Because his lone fight of 2021 came at the start of the year, it feels like Nurmagomedov has been swept under by the crush of emerging talents and promising newcomers that competed throughout the rest of the year, but he’s 25, he’s undefeated, and he’s paired off with another unbeaten bantamweight hopeful, Jack Shore, in March, and the winner of that one is sure to get a look against some of the more established names in the 135-pound weight class in the second half of 2022.
A Note on Paddy Pimblett and Ian Garry
You may be surprised to see both Pimblett and Garry excluded from the collection of fighters listed above, but you shouldn’t be, as they’re the exact type of fighters that don’t need to be included in a piece like this because they’re getting a ton of attention anyway.
Each carried a ton of hype into their respective debuts.
Each navigated some dicey moments to collect first-round stoppage wins.
Each garnered a bunch of “Next Big Thing” attention coming off their victorious efforts.
Each is getting extra credit for their rookie efforts based on their popularity and social media impact, and that’s not something I care about at all.
Both have a ton of upside and are bound to get showcase opportunities in 2022, but I could see each of them stumbling depending on who they’re matched up against just as easily as I could see them thriving, which is more of a testament to the depth of talent that exists in the featherweight and welterweight ranks at the moment, and not a knock on either fighter.
They’re each certainly going to land in my Fighters to Watch pieces on their respective divisions and are two athletes I’m going to be paying close attention to in the coming months, but personally, I think they hype has exceeded the performance a little with each of them, and I’m taking more of a wait-and-see approach than most others when it comes to “The Baddy” and “The Future.”
The 2021 Others Receiving Votes Awards will continue tomorrow with a look at the best knockouts of the year. Catch up on the awards you might have missed: