The year of 2014 has generally been a down year for MMA, with box office receipts for the UFC considered to be down. Newly crowned welterweight champion Robbie Lawler had a spectacular year, going (3-1) against the best the UFC’s welterweight division has to offer and walking away with the title to end the year.
In boxing, the question will be slightly more complicated, as it was a year of solid performances all around, but not one stratospheric, stand out performance by any one fighter. Terence Crawford, Gennady Golovkin, Nicholas Walters and Sergey Kovalev all had noteworthy years and are in the running. Be on the lookout for our blog breaking down the competition for boxing’s ‘Fighter of the Year’.
In MMA the choice was more clear cut with Lawler. Lightweight Donald Cerrone went (4-0) in a breakout year, defeating Eddie Alvarez and Jim Miller in his last two outings to put him in the title mix. The deciding factor however, was the two five round wars that Lawler fought with Johny Hendricks. Lawler logs a very strong 16 rounds of MMA in 2014, making him this year’s stand out performer.
In this latest video blog, our veteran MMA expert Miguel Iturrate reviews Robbie Lawler’s year and answers some of the potential critics. Check it out.
