{"id":789238,"date":"2026-07-09T13:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T13:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/789238\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T13:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T13:12:10","slug":"17th-annual-world-mma-award-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/789238\/","title":{"rendered":"17th Annual World MMA Award Results"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<img width=\"780\" height=\"439\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2285303897-e1783597504371.jpg\" class=\"attachment-featured-image size-featured-image wp-post-image\" alt=\"Joshua Van\"   decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>The 17th annual World MMA Awards were handed out on July 8 in Las Vegas, Nevada, and you can check out the winners of all the categories here.<\/p>\n<p>22 award winners who were voted on by MMA fans, plus one lifetime achievement award was also given out.<\/p>\n<p>Keep in mind that the awards were for fights, performances, and storylines that took place between July 1, 2024, and December 31, 2025.<\/p>\n<p>17th Annual World MMA Award Results<\/p>\n<p>Fight of the Year: Joshua Van def. Brandon Royval (UFC 317)<\/p>\n<p>Lifetime Achievement Award: Duke Roufus (Late Legendary MMA Coach)<\/p>\n<p>Knockout of the Year: Mauricio Ruffy def. Bobby Green via spinning wheel kick (UFC 313)<\/p>\n<p>Knockout of the Year:<br \/>\nMauricio Ruffy vs. King Green UFC 313<br \/>\n<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow external\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/WorldMMAAwards?src=hashtag_click\">#WorldMMAAwards<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Male Fighter of the Year: Merab Dvalishvili (Former UFC Bantamweight Champion)<\/p>\n<p>Charles \u201cMask\u201d Lewis Fighter of the Year:<br \/>\nMerab Dvalishvili<br \/>\n<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow external\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/WorldMMAAwards?src=hashtag_click\">#WorldMMAAwards<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Female Fighter of the Year: Kayla Harrison (UFC Women\u2019s Bantamweight Champion)<\/p>\n<p>Commentator of the Year: Jon Anik (UFC Commentator)<\/p>\n<p>Ringcard Girl of the Year: Brookliyn Wren (UFC Ring Card Girl)<\/p>\n<p>Promotion of the Year: <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/ufc\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">UFC<\/a> (Ultimate Fighting Championship)<\/p>\n<p>MMA Personality of the Year: Nina Drama (MMA Content Creator)<\/p>\n<p>MMA Journalist of the Year: Ariel Helwani (Uncrowned)<\/p>\n<p>Upset of the Year: Reinier de Ridder def. Bo Nickal (UFC Iowa)<\/p>\n<p>Comeback of the Year: Jared Cannonier def. Gregory Rodrigues (UFC Vegas 102)<\/p>\n<p>Comeback of the Year:<br \/>\nJared Cannonier vs. Gregory Rodrigues<br \/>\n<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow external\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/WorldMMAAwards?src=hashtag_click\">#WorldMMAAwards<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Coach of the Year: John Wood (Syndicate MMA Head Coach)<\/p>\n<p>Fighting Spirit Award: Ben Askren (Survived Severe Lung Failure)<\/p>\n<p>Best MMA Programming: Dana White\u2019s Contender Series (DWCS)<\/p>\n<p>Referee of the Year: Marc Goddard (MMA Official)<\/p>\n<p>Trainer of the Year: Everton Oliveira (American Top Team S&amp;C Coach)<\/p>\n<p>Submission of the Year: Jean Silva def. Bryce Mitchell via ninja choke (UFC 314)<\/p>\n<p>Submission of the Year:<br \/>\nJean Silva vs. Bryce Mitchell \u2013 UFC 314<br \/>\n<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow external\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/WorldMMAAwards?src=hashtag_click\">#WorldMMAAwards<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Gym of the Year: Syndicate MMA (Las Vegas-based MMA Gym)<\/p>\n<p>International Fighter of the Year: Paddy Pimblett (UFC Lightweight Contender)<\/p>\n<p>MMA Media Source of the Year: MMA Junkie (MMAjunkie.com)<\/p>\n<p>Breakthrough Fighter of the Year: <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/ufc\/joshua-van-finishes-tatsuro-taira-classic\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Joshua Van<\/a> (UFC Flyweight Champion)<\/p>\n<p>Leading Man of the Year: Dana White (UFC President)<\/p>\n<p>History of World MMA Awards<\/p>\n<p>The World MMA Awards began being awarded in 2008, honoring the best in the world of mixed martial arts. They are presented by Fighters Only Magazine.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, there are 22 World MMA Awards given out, though in the past there were additional categories that are now defunct.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/author\/mmadammartin\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Adam Martin<\/a> Adam Martin is a sports journalist with over 15 years of experience. He has a speciality in MMA, while also covering the Big 4 Sports. Adam is currently a contributor to Heavy.com, with previous experience working for The Toronto Star, Sportsnet, theScore, Bookies, BJPenn.com, and MMAOddsbreaker.com. <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/author\/mmadammartin\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">More about Adam Martin<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 17th annual World MMA Awards were handed out on July 8 in Las Vegas, Nevada, and you&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":789239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-789238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=789238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/789239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=789238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=789238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=789238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}