The 15th Annual World MMA Awards took place Thursday night in Las Vegas, and included at least one send-off, as veteran ring card girl Brittney Palmer laid down her shorts (quite literally, in a nod to fighters laying down their gloves), announcing her retirement after winning Ring Card Girl of the Year.
Palmer has had multiple wins as ring card girl, and has spent over a decade circling the octagon.
Once again, the year was heavy on UFC content, with Fighter of the Year both male, female, and international being housed by the promotion. The UFC also won promotion of the year. But Oktagon MMA, a Czech promotion making waves of late, found itself in the running for both submission of the year and promotion of the year. The former went to Alexa Grasso’s face crank submission of Valentina Shevchenko, selected over an inverted omoplata in Oktagon, and a buggy choke in Invicta FC.
Leon Edwards triple dipped, picking up Fighter of the Year, and Comeback of the Year, and Knockout of the Year (for his head kick KO of Kamaru Usman). Edwards is set to defend his welterweight title this weekend at UFC 296.
The 15th Annual World MMA Awards were hosted by Chael Sonnen and streamed on ESPN+ on Thursday night. Winners can be found below.
15th Annual World MMA Awards Results
Charles Lewis Fighter of the Year
Leon Edwards — winner
Aljamain Sterling
Israel Adesanya
Islam Makhachev
Sadibou Sy
Female Fighter of the Year
Alexa Grasso — winner
Amanda Nunes
Larissa Pacheco
Seika Izawa
Liz Carmouche
Breakthrough Fighter of the Year
Dricus Du Plessis
Alex Pereira — winner
Ilia Topuria
Sergei Pavlovich
Alexa Grasso
International Fighter of the Year
Leon Edwards — winner
Israel Adesanya
Dricus Du Plessis
Sergei Pavlovich
Sadibou Sy
Fight of the Year
Justin Gaethje vs. Rafael Fiziev (UFC 286)
Dustin Poirier vs. Michael Chandler (UFC 281)
Islam Makhachev vs. Alexander Volkanovski (UFC 284) — winner
Brennan Ward vs. Sabah Homasi (Bellator 290)
Matt Schnell vs. Su Mudaerji (UFC on ABC 3)
Knockout of the Year
Leon Edwards vs. Kamaru Usman – Head kick (UFC 278) — winner
Israel Adesanya vs. Alex Pereira – Punches (UFC 287)
Sadibou Sy vs. Shane Mitchell – Spinning wheel kick (PFL 6, 2023)
Krzysztof Głowacki vs. Patryk Tołkaczewski – Punch (KSW Colosseum 2)
Ismael Bonfim vs. Terrance McKinney – Flying knee (UFC 283)
Submission of the Year
Alexa Grasso vs. Valentina Shevchenko – Face crank (UFC 285) — winner
Louis Glismann vs. Melvin van Suijdam – Inverted omoplata (Oktagon 43)
Islam Makhachev vs. Charles Oliveira – Arm-triangle choke (UFC 280)
Olga Rubin vs. Claire Guthrie – Buggy choke (Invicta FC 53)
Reinier de Ridder vs. Vitaly Bigdash – Inverted triangle choke (ONE 159)
Comeback of the Year
Jon Jones (Career)
Leon Edwards vs. Kamaru Usman 2 (UFC 278) — winner
John Hathaway (Returning from lengthy illness)
Matt Schnell vs. Su Mudaerji (UFC on ABC 3)
Yaroslav Amosov (Returning from war)
Upset of the Year
Alexa Grasso vs. Valentina Shevchenko (UFC 285) — winner
Larissa Pacheco vs. Kayla Harrison (PFL 10, 2022)
Christian Echols vs. Pat Downey (Bellator 289)
Jesus Pinedo vs. Brendan Loughnane (PFL 4, 2023)
Zebaztian Kadestam vs. Roberto Soldic (ONE Fight Night 10)
Shawn Tompkins Coach of the Year
Eugene Bareman
Mike Brown — winner
Dave Lovell
Ray Longo
Eric Nicksick
Trainer of the Year
Heather Linden — winner
Jonathon Reynolds
Everton Oliveira
Jordan Sullivan
Brandon Gallagher
Gym of the Year
City Kickboxing
American Top Team — winner
Team Renegade
Kill Cliff FC
American Kickboxing Academy
Referee of the Year
Marc Goddard
Jason Herzog
Mark Smith
Herb Dean — winner
Rich Mitchell
Ringcard Girl of the Year
Brittney Palmer — winner
Louise McKie
Brookliyn Wren
Jhenny Andrade
Luciana Andrade
Leading Man
Dana White (UFC) — winner
Scott Coker (Bellator)
Peter Murray (PFL)
Maciej Kawulski (KSW)
Ondrej Novotny (Oktagon)
Best Promotion
UFC — winner
Bellator MMA
PFL
KSW
Oktagon MMA
Personality of the Year
Joe Rogan — winner
Laura Sanko
Chael Sonnen
Daniel Cormier
Jon Anik
Analyst of the Year
Michael Bisping — winner
Paul Felder
Dan Hardy
Anthony Smith
Kenny Florian
Best MMA Programming
Morning Kombat
The MMA Hour
Dana White’s Contender Series — winner
The Anik & Florian Podcast
UFC Embedded
MMA Media Source of the Year
MMA Fighting
Sherdog
MMA Junkie
ESPN — winner
Bloody Elbow
MMA Journalist of the Year
Ariel Helwani — winner
Aaron Bronsteter
Marc Raimondi
John Morgan
Nolan King
Fighting Spirit Award
Yaroslav Amosov (Adversity – returning from war to unify the Bellator welterweight title)
Steven Ray (Strength – fighting for his family)
Biaggio Ali Walsh (Bravery – helping his community in the face of danger)
Themba Gorimbo (Charity – building a water pump in Zimbabwe and putting others ahead of himself) — winner
Chris Barnett (Adversity – overcoming great personal loss and adversity in the cage)
Lifetime Achievement Award
Ken Shamrock — winner
