UFC heavyweight champ Stipe Miocic shakes the hand of Alistair Overeem during the UFC 203 event at Quicken Loans Arena on September 10, 2016 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo : Getty Images/Rey del Rio)
2016 may have been the best year for Irish mixed martial artist Conor McGregor after breaking record after record in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. However, his dominance may have been surpassed by fighters, who also made noise this year as the middleweight and heavyweight division saw different champions this time.
UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic has been on a tear this year after opening 2016 with an outstanding technical knockout win against Andrei Arlovski at UFC 195 last January. That win propelled him to a title fight against former champion Fabricio Werdum, whom he defeated via knockout with still 2:13 to go in the first round to steal the belt at UFC 198 last May.
The 34-year-old then defended his title against Alistair Overeem with a first round knockout win at UFC 203 last September in his home state to end 2016 with a 3-0 record. CBS Sports ranks him at No. 1 in the 2016 Fighter of the Year race.
Other than Miocic, UFC middleweight champ Michael Bisping also made the news with a big year. The English mixed martial artist ended his 10-year UFC title drought by knocking out Luke Rockhold in the first round of their UFC 199 fight last June.
The 37-year-old veteran then took a unanimous decision win against contender Dan Henderson at UFC 204 last October to defend his crown. Bisping has a perfect record this year at 3-0 as SB Nation's MMA Mania puts him at the top of the list of the Fighter of the Year.
Though he has no title yet, Donald "The Cowboy" Cerrone is also a candidate for the Fighter of the Year after going perfect in four of his fights this year. After suffering a defeat against Rafael dos Anjos in December 2015, Cerrone has turned his beast mode on this year starting with a submission win over Alex Oliveira last February.
He then TKO'd Patrick Cote last June before registering back-to-back knockouts against Rick Story and Matt Brown last August and December, respectively. The Cowboy will not be stopping anytime soon as he looks to score his fifth straight win when he faces Jorge Masvidal on Jan. 28.
Watch the video below to see the highlights of Miocic:
