Bloody Elbow 2016 Half-Year Awards – Best Event

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 first half of 2016. With these being half-year awards, there will be an abbreviated number of categories – five to be exact.

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 six years in a row. Originality? What originality?)

It’s pretty simple. I’ll post 5 or more 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.

Our third category is best event. There were a number of awesome cards that have taken place in 2016 already, so this is your chance to pick your favorite. You can still vote forbest submission and best knockout too.

UFC 195 – The first half of the card saw a lot of decisions. But things picked up in the featured prelim when Michael McDonald picked up a comeback submission win. Abel Trujillo picked up a win to open the main card. Brian Ortega scored a sweet submission win in a fight he was losing. Albert Tumenov and Lorenz Larkin put on a fine striking display. Stipe Miocic starched Andrei Arlovski in the co-main event. Then, the pinnacle of violence came last – Robbie Lawler vs. Carlos Condit. One of the best fights ever.

UFC 196 – Five finishes in seven prelim fights got the night off to a rocking start. The main card stalled out a bit with three straight decisions, but Miesha Tate’s thrilling comeback win over Holly Holm ramped up the atmosphere. Then it was Nate Diaz and Conor McGregor. That alone makes it worthy of being on this list.

UFC Fight Night: Hunt vs. Mir – Four straight decisions to kick off the prelims didn’t make this look like it was going to be a great card. But it was – seven of the last eight fights ended in finishes, with the highlights being Neil Magny’s wild comeback win over Hector Lombard, and Mark Hunt hitting the walk-off KO on Frank Mir. Oh, and Steve Bosse’s monster KO of James Te Huna.

UFC Fight Night: Overeem vs. Arlovski – The last five fights were all finished inside the distance. Gunnar Nelson defeating Albert Tumenov was sublime. Stefan Struve ended Antonio Silva in 16 seconds. And Alistair Overeem earned a title shot with a beautiful finish of Andrei Arlovski.

UFC 199 – The last eight fights were all action, and six featured knockouts. Beneil Dariush stopped James Vick. Brian Ortego pulled off another comeback finish, this time on Clay Guida. Dustin Poirier ended Bobby Green’s taunting. Dan Henderson hit a crazy back elbow on Hector Lombard and finished him. Max Holloway and Ricardo Lamas absolutely threw down for the last 10 seconds of their fight. Dominick Cruz easily beat Urijah Faber. Then the mother of all upsets, Michael Bisping won the UFC middleweight title by finishing Luke Rockhold.