The Top 10 MMA stories of 2010
1. UFC sells 10 percent share to Abu Dhabi-based Flash Entertainment. Despite several offers to go public or take on…
1. UFC sells 10 percent share to Abu Dhabi-based Flash Entertainment. Despite several offers to go public or take on additional investors, the Ultimate Fighting Championship remained a private outfit since Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta purchased it in 2001.
2. UFC cracks down on piracy. Tiring of losses incurred by illegal pay-per-view broadcasts, White in January said Zuffa LLC would throw the book at individuals and websites who posted illegal streams of UFC events.
3. Disaster strikes in Abu Dhabi. Everything seemed to be going according to schedule in the UFC’s first trip to Abu Dhabi at UFC 112, with the exception of a tremendous upset delivered by lightweight challenger Frankie Edgar over then-dominant champ B.J. Penn.
4. Strikeforce fighters brawl under the CBS eye. “Sometimes these things happen in MMA.” So said announcer Gus Johnson in a now-infamous phrase as he struggled to explain a swarm of amped-up young men, including three Strikeforce champions, brawling in the final moments of the CBS-televised “Strikeforce: Nashville.”
5. The legend of superhuman Fedor dies. It was a small miscalculation with one big price. Fedor Emelianenko, the decade’s most dominant heavyweight, believed he had PRIDE and UFC vet Fabricio Werdum hurt after a flurry of punches inside the one-minute mark of a June Strikeforce event bearing their names.
6. The return of Lesnar. Brock Lesnar’s fighting future wasn’t looking good by the end of 2009. Diagnosed with a severe case of diverticulitis — a disorder that caused his intestines to swell and later become infected to the point of severe pain — the former WWE wrestler and then-UFC heavyweight champ laid in a hospital bed for 11 days and lost 40 pounds as the result of his illness.
7. Michael Kirkham becomes second death in sanctioned MMA. On June 28, tragedy again touched the sport of mixed martial arts when 30-year-old Michael Kirkham, a six-foot-nine, 155-pound fighter known as “Tree,” became the second fighter to die as the result of a sanctioned MMA competition.
8. Chael Sonnen falls short and pops positive. It was the performance of a lifetime. Chael Sonnen, once a preliminary attraction in middleweight circles, took middleweight kingpin Anderson Silva down and beat on him for four rounds in August’s UFC 117. He appeared to be well on his way to backing up a prodigious trash-talking campaign with a decision victory. Then it all went south.
9. WEC closes shop, merges with UFC. A chock full of exciting fights, World Extreme Cagefighting in the end befell the same fate as other promotions that tried to co-exist with the juggernaut known as the UFC: brand confusion.
10. Keeping the “fight” in Ultimate Fighting. UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre answered criticism of a dominant yet action-light title defense at UFC 111 against Dan hardy by openly admitting he fights “safe” inside the octagon. That sent thousands of fans into a froth; some called the champ a coward; some called him smart; others demanded he refund the money they spent on his pay-per-views.