Make your pick for the biggest upset of 2020 in Bloody Elbow’s Year-End Awards.
It’s back!
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 course of 2020. There will be a total of eight different categories you’ll be asked to vote on. 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 ten years in a row. Originality? What originality? Also, is ZST! even a thing any more?)
It’s pretty simple. I’ll post 5-10 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.
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s get onto the second poll – the biggest upset of 2020. As usual in MMA, you can never tell who is going to win even if you think you have a good idea. Here are some of the most unlikely outcomes of the year.
Julian Erosa over Sean Woodson, UFC on ESPN 12
Erosa took the fight on no notice and was 1-4 in over two prior Octagon stints. Woodson was an undefeated prospect with a UFC win already under his belt. Erosa didn’t start strong, but the fight was pretty back-and-forth until Erosa was able to secure a late D’Arce choke to cash in the +400 range.
Sasha Palatnikov over Louis Cosce, UFC 255
This one featured two guys making their UFC debuts, but Cosce had a much higher profile coming off a big Contender Series win. Besides a big upset victory, this turned out to be one of the best slugfests of the year. Eventually Palatnikov wore Cosce down though, and stopped him in the third round. You could have got Palatnikov around +430 before the fight.
Roxy Modafferi over Maycee Barber, UFC 246
Barber calls herself The Future for a reason – she was one of the top prospects in the sport coming into her January fight with grizzled veteran Modafferi. Barber was as high as a -1000 favorite, but dropped a one-sided decision to Roxy.
Khaos Williams over Alex Morono, UFC 247
This wasn’t the biggest one strictly from an odds perspective, as Williams was around +330 going in. But he was taking the fight on very short notice against a man with nine previous Octagon appearances under his belt and was on a three-fight winning streak. 27 seconds later, Morono was asleep and Williams was a new star.
Shana Dobson over Mariya Agapova, UFC on ESPN 15
This is the biggest upset in UFC history odds-wise. Dobson had lost three in a row and was around a +800 dog. In retrospect, Agapova didn’t have the record or experience to deserve being such a favorite, but Dodson took her out in the second round.