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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
There were a ton of fights in 2013, which led to a very large amount of finishes to sift through for the annual year-end awards. The year was filled with fantastic knockouts and submissions, along with some excellent fights in general, some really fun fight cards, and some hugely successful fighters. We've been breaking it all down this week, and we continue tonight with the 2013 "Event of the Year."
2013 Event of the Year: UFC 166 "Velasquez vs. Dos Santos III" - 10/19/13
Though each subsequent fight in this series between Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos drew less and less viewers, the October pay-per-view in Houston as a whole provided the most bang for a fan's buck this year from the UFC. John Dodson and Gabriel Gonzaga opened the pay-per-view card with fantastic first round knockouts, Gilbert Melendez and Diego Sanchez put on a highly exciting three round "Fight of the Year" candidate, and though there was a bit of a lull in the co-main event, the third Velasquez-dos Santos fight brought a brutal conclusion to their feud. Add in a really solid preliminary card, and this was just the best event of the year start to finish.
The Best of the Rest (In Chronological Order)
UFC 157 "Rousey vs. Carmouche" - 2/23/13
Take out one of the worst pay-per-view fights of the year between Dan Henderson and Lyoto Machida, and this event could have seriously contended for the top honor. Three excellent main card finishes from Ronda Rousey, Urijah Faber, and Robbie Lawler made this an immensely enjoyable main card, and the prelims had a number of strong performances as well. Most notable were the Matt Grice-Dennis Bermudez fight and Kenny Robertson's crazy straight leg submission over Brock Jardine.
UFC 160 "Velasquez vs. Bigfoot" - 5/25/13
The UFC Heavyweight Champion was a part of a couple of great events this year, but his quick and expected win over Bigfoot Silva on this card was just the cap to an exciting night of action here. There were a number of solid fights on the undercard, but then the card finished off with T.J. Grant's knockout of Gray Maynard, Glover Teixeira's impressive submission over James Te Huna, and Junior dos Santos' fantastic spinning wheel kick to stop Mark Hunt prior to the main event.
UFC Fight Night 26 "Shogun vs. Sonnen" - 8/17/13
The UFC launched Fox Sports 1 with a bang in August, bringing five straight hours of entertainment to the brand new network. The prelims featured Steven Siler's sick knockout of Mike Brown, along with my "Submission of the Year" from Michael McDonald against Brad Pickett. Then the main card hit and for the final two hours gave FS1 everything they could have hoped for. Matt Brown and Travis Browne gave the big KO victories, Brown blitzing Mike Pyle and Browne pulling off one hell of a comeback against Alistair Overeem; Urijah Faber survived an early bad position against Iuri Alcantara then came back strong to win a decision; finally, Chael Sonnen shocked absolutely everyone when he locked on a guillotine choke on Shogun Rua, pulled guard, and forced the tap. Best free card of the year by a wide margin.
UFC 164 "Henderson vs. Pettis" - 8/31/13
The UFC's return to Milwaukee featured one of the best main cards of the year, with four of five fights ending in a stoppage and the sole holdout being an excellent fight between Dustin Poirier and Erik Koch. The preliminary card was fun enough, but it was the four fight stretch on the main card which boosted this card even further. Ben Rothwell and Chad Mendes each had thrilling third round TKO wins, Josh Barnett decimated Frank Mir, and Anthony Pettis sent the hometown crowd in Milwaukee into a frenzy with a Title winning first-round submission. That I was in attendance for this one doesn't hurt, either.
UFC 168 "Weidman vs. Silva II" - 12/28/13
The UFC's final event of the year was one of its most eventful. Though it will be remembered more for Anderson Silva's broken leg than anything else, the card featured some top notch action the entire night. That included six straight finishes prior to the main event, including the stunning KO of Josh Barnett by Travis Browne, and Ronda Rousey's thrilling third-round submission over Miesha Tate. It had the makings of closing 2013 on a high note until the unfortunate injury turned things sour. Still, there was a lot of positivity to remember from the night, and it was one of the best events of the year.
Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/penickstake/article_19826.shtml
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