RealGM

Back for year 3.

Varner pretty easily for me, but it depends what kind of comeback you're talking about I guess.

There's always been a sense that Belcher was good, and he had a win in 2011.

Varner, on the other hand, was losing fights to gay porn stars in 2011, and pretty much written off as a major promotion level fighter until his comeback.

Swick had the longest road to recovery, and just lost to Matt Brown, so while I can see why he's there, he's not getting my vote.

Kampmann had a pretty solid bounceback starting in late 2011 and ending with the JH loss,

Yeah, like CPT said, Varner was losing to gay pornstars, then he returned to a big stage, curb-stomping Barboza, then being involved in one of the fights of the year which he was winning in the 3rd before the normally gassy J-Lau came back to sub him. He's my choice as well.

In terms of the best comeback in a fight, which is grafted to this category in the world MMA awards, I'll go with Craig-Natal. Natal was beating the crap out of Craig for almost 2 rounds, being on the verge of a finish multiple times, Craig looked weary and impotent, then out of nowhere he busts out a single knockout head kick. It was a jaw dropper. You had to be watching the prelims on a Fuel card to catch it though.

Matt Brown. Only fighter to win 4 fights this year and was on the cusp of getting cut in late 2011.

SDM wrote:Matt Brown. Only fighter to win 4 fights this year and was on the cusp of getting cut in late 2011.

I like it.

+1.

That's a good one.

SDM wrote:Matt Brown. Only fighter to win 4 fights this year and was on the cusp of getting cut in late 2011.

Wasn't he also the object of one of Goldberg's extremely obscure stats as well?

"Matt Brown was actually the ufc welterweight to land the highest percentage of strikes on the ground in the year 2012".

I think Matt Brown has a shout at breathrough. Comeback implies a fighter overcame a lot to succeed or used to be good and returned to form. He's a little better than he used to be, although the win quality of Cope (speaks for itself), Ramos (hasn't beaten anyone of note), Thompson (same thing), and Swick (recently came off long layoff from stomach and knee problems, struggled against Johnson before finishing him) isn't very high. He previously beat Howard, young Lima, Sell, and Wilks. Lost to DHK, Lytle (twice), Almeida, Foster, and Baczynski. He's went from lower to mid tier, to firmly entrenched in the mid tier, I think.

I'd like to see Brown fight Sadollah again.