ONE Championship and Bellator make a showing, but this year’s World MMA Awards nominees were, as expected, dominated by the UFC.
Fighter’s Only has announced the nominees for the 2019 World MMA Awards. Not surprisingly, the list is pretty heavy with UFC talent, but both Bellator MMA and ONE Championship make a showing as well. In fact, ONE’s Aung La N Sang was named not once, but twice – for both Fight of the Year, and International Fighter of the Year.
The full list of nominees is below.
Charles ‘Mask’ Lewis Fighter of the Year
Khabib Nurmagomedov
Gegard Mousasi
Dustin Poirier
Daniel Cormier
Aung La Nsang
Female Fighter of the Year
Valentina Shevchenko
Tatiana Suarez
Jessica Andrade
Ilima-Lei Macfarlane
Amanda Nunes
Breakthrough Fighter of the Year
Thiago Santos
Israel Adesanya
Anthony Smith
A.J. McKee
Aaron Pico
International Fighter of the Year
Khabib Nurmagomedov
Kamaru Usman
Israel Adesanya
Gegard Mousasi
Aung La Nsang
Fight of the Year
Robert Whittaker vs. Yoel Romero 2 – UFC 225
Thiago Santos vs. Jimi Manuwa – UFC 231
Douglas Lima vs. Rory Macdonald – Bellator 192
Dustin Poirier vs. Justin Gaethje – UFC on FOX 29
Tony Ferguson vs. Anthony Pettis – UFC 229
Knockout of the Year
Jair Rodriguez vs. Chan Sung Jung – UFC Fight Night 139
Cris Cyborg vs. Amanda Nunes – UFC 232
Mandel Nallo vs. Carrington Banks – Bellator 207
Vitor Belfort vs. Lyoto Machida – UFC 224
Brian Ortega vs. Frankie Edgar – UFC 222
Submission of the Year
Tyson Pedro vs. Saparbek Safarov – UFC 221
Donald Cerrone vs. Mike Perry – UFC Fight Night 139
Zabit Magomedsharipov vs. Brandon Davis – UFC 228
Aljamain Sterling vs. Cody Stamann – UFC 228
Ryan Hall vs. B.J. Penn – UFC 232
Comeback of the Year
Claudio Silva vs. Nordine Taleb – UFC Fight Night 130
Tony Ferguson – Injury
Paul Craig vs. Magomed Ankalaev – UFC Fight Night 127
Derrick Lewis vs. Alexander Volkov – UFC 229
Angela Lee
Upset of the Year
Khalil Rountree Jr. vs. Gokhan Saki – UFC 226
Alexander Hernandez vs. Beneil Dariush – UFC 222
Ray Cooper vs. Jake Shields – PFL
Amanda Nunes vs. Cris Cyborg – UFC 232
Henry Cejudo vs. Demetrious Johnson – UFC 227
Coach of the Year
Din Thomas
Firas Zahabi
Mike Brown
Trevor Wittman
Javier Mendez
Trainer of the Year
Michelle Ingels
Sam Calavitta
George Lockhart
Nick Curson
Phil Daru
Gym of the Year
Factory X
City Kickboxing
MMA Lab
ATT
AKA
Referee of the Year
Josh Rosenthal
Dan Miragliotta
Mike Beltran
Herb Dean
Marc Goddard
Ringcard Girl of the Year
Carly Baker
Jhenny Andrade
Summer Daniels
Arianny Celeste
Mercedes Terrell
Leading Man
Dana White
Jeff Novitzky
Martin Lewandowski
Chatri Sityodtong
Scott Coker
Best Promotion
Rizin
KSW
ONE Championship
Bellator
UFC
Personality of the Year
Jon Anik
Chael Sonnen
John McCarthy
Brendan Schaub
Joe Rogan
Analyst of the Year
Robin Black
Michael Bisping
Paul Felder
Daniel Cormier
Dominick Cruz
Best MMA Programming
The MMA Hour
JRE MMA Show
UFC Embedded
Dana White’s Contender Series
Anatomy of a Fighter
MMA Media Source of the Year
Sherdog
MMA Fighting
MMA Junkie
Bloody Elbow
FloCombat
MMA Journalist of the Year
Chuck Mindenhall
John Morgan
Brett Okamoto
Ariel Helwani
Karim Zidan
MMA Clothing & Equipment Brand of the Year
RVCA
Reebok
Hayabusa
Badboy
Venum
To vote, head on over to WorldMMAAwards.com — the winners will be named this July in Las Vegas.
