Author: MMA Fighting Newswire

The nominees for the sixth annual 2013 Fighters Only World MMA Awards were announced Tuesday.

Winners will be selected via fan voting on www.worldmmaawards.com. The voting begins at midnight on Dec. 31, 2013 and closes at midnight on Jan. 31, 2014.

An awards ceremony to announce the winners will be held on Feb. 7 at The Venetian Theatre in Las Vegas.

Below is a complete list of the nominees.

Charles ‘Mask’ Lewis Fighter of the Year
1. Vitor Belfort
2. Urijah Faber
3. Demetrious Johnson
4. Chris Weidman
5. Cain Velasquez

Female Fighter of the Year
1. Joanne Calderwood
2. Alexis Davis
3. Jessica Eye
4. Holly Holm
5. Ronda Rousey

Breakthrough Fighter of the Year
1. Travis Browne
2. TJ Grant
3. Conor McGregor
4. Nick Newell
5. Khabib Nurmagomedov

International Fighter of the Year
1. Shinya Aoki
2. Alexander Gustafsson
3. Conor McGregor
4. Khabib Nurmagomedov
5. Alexander Shlemenko

Fight of the Year
1. Wanderlei Silva vs. Brian Stann (UFC on Fuel TV 8)
2. Michael Chandler vs. Eddie Alvarez II (Bellator 106)
3. Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson (UFC 165)
4. Gilbert Melendez vs. Diego Sanchez (UFC 166)
5. Mark Hunt vs. Antonio Silva (UFC Fight Night 33)

Knockout of the Year
1. Vitor Belfort (vs. Luke Rockhold, UFC on FX 8)
2. Junior Dos Santos (vs. Mark Hunt, UFC 160)
3. Emanuel Newton (vs. ‘King Mo’ Lawal, Bellator 90)
4. Julio Cesar Neves Jr (vs. Dener Dos Santos, WOCS 28)
5. Chris Weidman (vs. Anderson Silva, UFC 162)

Submission of the Year
1. Olivier Fontaine (vs. Sofian Benchohra, Lyon FC)
2. Josh Burkman (vs. Jon Fitch, WSOF 3)
3. Urijah Faber (vs. Ivan Menjivar, UFC 157)
4. Rose Namajunas (vs. Kathina Catron, Invicta 5)
5. Kenny Robertson (vs. Brock Jardine, UFC 157)

Comeback of the Year
1. Travis Browne (vs. Alistair Overeem, UFC Fight Night 26)
2. Blagoi Ivanov (career)
3. Robbie Lawler (career)
4. Michelle Waterson (vs. Jessica Penne, Invicta 5)
5. Tom Watson (vs. Stanislav Nedkov, UFC on Fuel TV 7)

Shawn Tompkins Coach of the Year
1. Henri Hooft
2. Duane Ludwig
3. Ray Longo
4. Andre Pederneiras
5. Duke Roufus

Gym of the Year
1. American Kickboxing Academy
2. Jackson-Winkeljohn MMA
3. Nova Uniao
4. Roufusport
5. Team Alpha Male

Trainer of the Year
1. Doug Balzarini
2. Jake Bonacci
3. Jonathan Chaimberg
4. Mike Dolce
5. Joel Jamieson

Referee of the Year
1. Herb Dean
2. Marc Goddard
3. Yves Lavigne
4. John McCarthy
5. Mario Yamasaki

Ringcard Girl of the Year
1. Jade Bryce
2. Arianny Celeste
3. Kat Kelley
4. Brittney Palmer
5. Mercedes Terrell

Leading Man
1. Victor Cui
2. Lorenzo Fertitta
3. Bjorn Rebney
4. Ray Sefo
5. Dana White

Personality of the Year
1. Bruce Buffer
2. Kenny Florian
3. Joe Rogan
4. Bas Rutten
5. Chael Sonnen

Best Promotion
1. Bellator MMA
2. Cage Warriors
3. One FC
4. UFC
5. WSOF

Best Lifestyle Clothing
1. Bad Boy
2. Fear the Fighter
3. Headrush
4. Roots of Fight
5. Torque

Best Technical Clothing
1. Bad Boy
2. Clinch Gear
3. Hayabusa
4. Jaco
5. Venum

Best Technical Equipment
1. Bad Boy
2. Century
3. Everlast
4. Hayabusa
5. Venum

Media Source of the Year
1. Inside MMA (AXS TV)
2. MMA Fighting
3. MMA Junkie
4. Sherdog
5. UFC Tonight (Fox Sports 1)

Journalist of the Year
1. Mike Chiappetta (Fox Sports)
2. Gareth A Davies (The Daily Telegraph / Fox Sports)
3. Ben Fowlkes (USA Today / MMA Junkie)
4. Ariel Helwani (MMA Fighting / Fox Sports)
5. John Morgan (USA Today / MMA Junkie)

Days after women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey was announced to be headlining Sara McMann at UFC 170, the UFC has officially added another bantamweight fight to the card — this time it’s Rousey’s nemesis, Bryan Caraway. Caraway will face Brazilian Lucas Martins on Feb. 22 in Las Vegas.

The 25-year old Martins was successful in his bantamweight debut against Junior Hernandez at UFC Fight Night 28 back in Sept., needing only a little over a minute to win via rear naked choke. Before that fight, while competing as a featherweight, Martins knocked out Jeremy Larsen. His only loss to date was against Edson Barboza back in January.

Meanwhile Caraway has slowly emerged as a presence in the 135-pound class, and not just in winning three of his last four fights. Caraway has also taken home multiple end of the night bonuses, his latest for Submission of the Night when he tapped Johnny Bedford at UFC 159 back in April.

It will mark Caraway’s first fight since appearing as a coach alongside his girlfriend/training partner Miesha Tate on The Ultimate Fighter 18.

Fight card as it stands for UFC 170, Feb. 22 in Las Vegas:

Ronda Rousey vs. Sara McMann (for women’s bantamweight title)
Rashad Evans vs. Daniel Cormier (Cormier’s light heavyweight debut)
Rory MacDonald vs. Demian Maia
Gilbert Melendez vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov*
Rafael dos Anjos vs. Rustam Khabilov
Mike Pyle vs. TJ Waldburger
Raphael Assuncao vs. Francisco Rivera
Robert Whittaker vs. Stephen Thompson
Alexis Davis vs. Jessica Eye
Bryan Caraway vs. Lucas Martins

*This fight is still not official

Another top women’s bantamweight showdown is set for UFC 170.

Alexis Davis is slated to square off against Jessica Eye on Feb. 22 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, according to UFC officials Monday night.

Davis (15-5) has won four straight fights, including her first two in the UFC. She defeated Liz Carmouche at the UFC Fight for the Troops 3 this past Novemember.

Eye (11-1), who has won eight straight fights, earned a split-decision win over former Strikeforce champion Sarah Kaufman in her UFC debut at UFC 177 on Oct. 19 in Houston.

Ronda Rousey will defend her women’s bantamweight title in the main event against Sara McMann.

The UFC held a conference call Monday with Dr. Steven Sanders, the UFC’s orthopedic surgeon who recently operated on Anderson Silva, and UFC COO Lawrence Epstein. Sanders discussed the procedure, the severity of the injury, the former champion’s possible return, and more in the audio above.

(Editor’s note: After first 13 minutes, there are several pauses during the course of the recording but the entire call is there.)

At the UFC 168 special presentation press conference, the UFC will make an announcement just an hour before UFC 168 will begin. Watch the video live above at 6 p.m. ET.

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The one-time PRIDE Open Weight Grand Prix champion isn’t done yet, at least not in kickboxing.

Mirko Filipovic, or Mirko Cro Cop, is set to face fellow kickboxing great Remy Bonjasky on March 8th. The bout will headline GLORY’s 14th show and will take place in Cro Cop’s home country of Croatia with Zagreb has the host city. The bout was announced by GLORY earlier this week.

Cro Cop, 39, briefly retired from MMA and combat sports generally in 2011, but returned to both in 2012. Cro Cop is 1-1 in MMA since returning, having most recently lost to Oleksiy Oliynyk at Legend Fight Show 2 in November. His MMA record is now 28-11-2 with 1 no-contest.

His return to kickboxing, however, has been more promising. Since restarting his kickboxing endeavors in 2012, Cro Cop has gone 6-0 and earned a K-1 World Grand Prix title, albeit against a dimished field. His current kickboxing record stands at 22-7.

Bonjasky, 37, is a three-time K-1 World Grand Prix winner with a record of 77-18 in professional kickboxing. He, too, took a hiatus from the sport due to an eye injury, and was out for all of 2010 and 2011. He returned to professional fighting in 2012, and has since gone 2-3. He most recently fought Anderson ‘Braddock’ Silva at GLORY 13 where he lost via unanimous decision.

Cro Cop and Bonjasky previously fought in 2002 where Filipovic won via second-round TKO stoppage.

GLORY 14 will air on Spike TV in North America. No other fights have been announced for the show.