RealGM

Previous winners:

2018 - Amanda Nunes over Cris Cyborg (UFC 232)
2017 - Rose Namajunas over Joanna Jedrzejczyk (UFC 217)
2016 - Michael Bisping over Luke Rockhold (UFC 199)
2015 - Holly Holm over Ronda Rousey (UFC 193)
2014 - TJ Dillashaw over Renan Barao (UFC 173)
2013 - Emanuel Newton over King Mo/Antonio Silva over Alistair Overeem (tie)
2012 - Tim Boetsch over Yushin Okami/Jamie Varner over Edson Barboza (tie)
2011 - Tito Ortiz over Ryan Bader (UFC 132)
2010 - Fabricio Werdum over Fedor Emelianenko (Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Werdum)

Tristan all day, are you kidding? That was insane. Guy wouldn't make King of the Cage but kept himself alive long enough that Perreira had exhausted himself looking for highlight finishes... threw enough power jabs to beat the guy.

Erik Perez getting ko'ed by a journeyman was the most shocking to me. Misech came in overweight so that's mitigating. Still on paper Goyito was far more accomplished, while being in his prime, and all his losses were back and forths w/ no ko's.

Of that list, it's Connelly over Pereira. However, Pereira wasn't very proven. He's spectacular, but has 10 losses for a reason.

Khabib's upset over Poirier. Champion vs Champion = you'd think that it would be even, right? But, no, it looked like Dustin didn't deserve to be there at all. Huge surprise it went down like that.

Idk, Pereira sucks, and is only in the UFC strictly for entertainment purposes. He was never good, and never will be at 35.

Anthony Pettis KO'd Wonderboy of all people.... I lost a lot of money that day.

I went with the guy who beat EA.

The rest of the fights contained well known and good fighters, while the fight that is currently winning contains two fighters I never heard of.

So, I went with the fight that contained a fighter I know well and a fighter I don't know. It's a big deal too because that was Eddie's debut and he was a HUGE signing for them.

Watch the fight: https://www.mma-core.com/videos/Michel_Pereira_vs_Tristan_Connelly_Full_Fight_UFC_Fight_Night_158_Part_1/10322310

Perreira did 5 minutes of Capoeira on his ring walk, did a cartwheel into a back-flip within the first 30 secs of the fight. The other dude was moving up in weight, had 5 days notice, and has the athleticism of a RealGM poster.

It couldn't be more of a ridiculous set-up. Straight out of an energy drink commercial. Ponytailed douche bag against earnest, under-talented local kid.

I watched it live actually, cool moment. I'm just not sure how good Pereira is at fighting, for all his acrobatics and six pack.

EA has been a champion in every organization he's ever fought in. He was a HUGE signing for them, I think EA implied or said that he got equity in the company for signing. It doesn't seem like a big deal to us because the fight happened in the middle of the night and we generally don't care about non-NA promotions, but if that fight had happened in the UFC I actually think it would be the runaway winner of this category.

REDDzone wrote:I went with the guy who beat EA.

The rest of the fights contained well known and good fighters, while the fight that is currently winning contains two fighters I never heard of.

So, I went with the fight that contained a fighter I know well and a fighter I don't know. It's a big deal too because that was Eddie's debut and he was a HUGE signing for them.

Thoughts on this theory?

Susan wrote:Thoughts on this theory?

I think it's fine. Don't you think the same thing would have happened if Ben went to a European (think UK) promotion though? I think lack of grappling is an issue for a lot of countries not just Asian and also not as much of an issue for some Asian countries. Not a huge problem for the Japanese or Russians for sure. In general though, fine.

REDDzone wrote:I watched it live actually, cool moment. I'm just not sure how good Pereira is at fighting, for all his acrobatics and six pack.

EA has been a champion in every organization he's ever fought in. He was a HUGE signing for them, I think EA implied or said that he got equity in the company for signing. It doesn't seem like a big deal to us because the fight happened in the middle of the night and we generally don't care about non-NA promotions, but if that fight had happened in the UFC I actually think it would be the runaway winner of this category.

IDK, man, I think Alvarez was pretty clearly shot. The dude has won some belts but he has also lost some fights and, most importantly, he's had his ass kicked in almost every fight he's ever been in (right from his days in DREAM - against Hansen and whatnot - and including all the ones he's won). He's muscle-bound and undersized, his boxing has holes, he's scraped by in a lot of fights, and he is shopworn. I'm not the least bit surprised that ONE has talented, wide-backed young dudes who can split his ****. He will continue to lose, I think.

Granted, it's a big story that they gave the dude equity and he crapped out. I concede that's wild. But I think this was a pretty foreseeable result.

Askren going 0-3 is a wilder story. Few coulda foreseen that.

^^ I don't disagree with anything you said. I think the EA upset was bigger in terms of magnitude but maybe the Pereira one was bigger in terms of "no way that other guy wins that fight".

A lot of these awards are open to interpretation like that I think.

Cejudo for sure. Maybe some of the others were bigger betting underdogs, but those fights were all insignificant by comparison. Plus the fact that it was a quick TKO.