Make your pick for the best event of the first half of 2019 in Bloody Elbow’s Half-Year Awards.
Over the next few days, Bloody Elbow is going to ask for your opinion on some of the best things that have happened in the MMA world over the first half of 2019. With these being half-year awards, there will be an abbreviated number of categories – five to be exact.
For the sake of simplicity we’re going to stick with high-level and relevant MMA stuff in these posts. While I’m sure there was a ludicrous knockout in an unscheduled MMA event at The Lumberyard strip club in Des Moines, or an insane pancreas lock submission on an obscure ZST! card in Japan, let’s just stick to stuff a lot of us have seen, okay? (If that spiel looked familiar, it’s because I’ve used the same one for nine years in a row. Originality? What originality?)
It’s pretty simple. I’ll post 5 options in a category, you vote for what you think was the best. If you think I left something really important off my list, post it in the comments and we can add it to the poll if it’s deemed worthy. I can almost guarantee you won’t like all my suggestions, but narrowing down these lists is tough.
Our fifth and final category will be best event. MMA, and specifically the UFC, put on some stellar shows over the first half of 2019. Here are the five best for you to choose from.
UFC Brooklyn – The first event on ESPN+ ever totally delivered. The undercard featured some good action with a blistering fight between Cowboy Cerrone and Alexander Hernandez topping the prelims. Five of the six main card fights didn’t see the final horn (that includes Greg Hardy’s DQ) and Henry Cejudo whooped the now-disgraced T.J. Dillashaw in 32 seconds in the main event.
UFC Fortaleza – The promotion took the Octagon down to Brazil in early February, and the last five fights were all finishes. Johnny Walker destroyed Justin Ledet in 15 seconds, then destroyed his shoulder doing the worm. Charles Oliveira and Demian Maia showed off the ir grappling prowess with nice submissions. Jose Aldo stopped Renato Moicano in his tracks. And in the headliner, Marlon Moraes finished a high-level black belt in Raphael Assuncao with a guillotine.
UFC 236 – It’s not often that a card with nine decisions on it would get the nod on a list like this. But the show was topped by two of the best fights of the year to date – Israel Adesanya vs. Kelvin Gastelum, and Dustin Poirier vs. Max Holloway.
UFC 239 – The main event bout between Jon Jones and Thiago Santos did not deliver. But the main card before that was crazy. Jan Blackowicz melted Luke Rockhold. Amanda Nunes crushed Holly Holm. Jorge Masvidal took out Ben Askren in five seconds. It was well worth the purchase price.
UFC London – While there were a fair amount of decisions, Dan Ige, Claudio Silva, and Nathaniel Wood picked up nice submission wins. And who could forget Masvidal knocking out Darren Till? Or piecing up Leon Edwards after the show was over?