We at FiveKnuckles are proud of the fact that our site is truly a site for the fans and our 2009 MMA Awards are another way to show our appreciation to our readers and members. Our staff has come up with nominees in five different categories and it's you, the fans, that will decide who wins. If you haven't already, register now for the fastest growing MMA forum on the net and cast your vote for Fighter of the Year, Fight of the Year, Knockout of the Year, Submission of the Year, and Breakout Fighter of the Year. In the "General MMA Discussion" section of our forums, you'll not only be able to vote in the polls that decide who takes home the hardware in our first annual awards, but you'll also have the opportunity to explain your choice in the thread beneath the poll.

Fighter of the Year

The first category of the First Annual Fiveknuckles MMA Awards is Fighter of the Year. This award is based on success during the calendar year both inside and outside of the octagon. The nominees are as follows:

Georges St. Pierre: The UFC welterweight champ fought twice in 2009 and completely dominated BJ Penn and Thiago Alves, respectively, and always conducts himself in a classy manner.

Fedor Emelianenko: The Last Emperor knocked out Andrei Arlovski and Brett Rogers, both in the first round.

Lyoto Machida: Machida remained undefeated by going 3-0 in 2009, including a victory over Rashad Evans which earned him the UFC light-heavyweight title. Although his 3rd win was a controversial decision over Mauricio Shogun Rua, he still fought a very good fight.

Jose Aldo: Aldo went 4-0 on the year with 4 KOs, 3 of which were in the first round. The 4th, a 2nd round KO over Mike Brown, earned Aldo the WEC featherweight championship.

Gegard Mousasi: Mousasi finished the year 3-0 and defeated Renato "Babalu" Sobral in his Strikeforce debut to become the light-heavyweight champion.

Fight of the Year

This category is self-explanatory. The writers and staff of FiveKnuckles came up with 5 nominations for the best fight of 2009. The nominees are;

Diego Sanchez vs. Clay Guida: This was a three round war at the Ultimate Fighter 9 Finale that ended in a split decision win for Sanchez.

Miguel Torres vs, Takeya Mizugaki: A five round back and forth battle for the WEC bantamweight championship in which Torres was victorious by unanimous decision.

Tyson Griffin vs. Rafael dos Anjos: This was another back and forth battle that took place at Ultimate Fight Night 19. At one point, dos Anjos had Griffin trapped in a nasty compression lock that Griffin was able to withstand until the round ended.

Scott Smith vs. Benji Radach: Radach appeared to have Smith beaten and almost knocked out on more than one occasion but Smith showed tremendous toughness and came back with a devastating right that ended the fight.

Gilbert Melendez vs. Josh Thomson: This Strikeforce: Evolution fight for the lightweight championship was a well-deserved unanimous decision win for Melendez but they both fought hard and the action was non-stop.

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Randy Couture: By popular demand, we've added this fight to the voting. It was a very technical fight between two veterans that Nogueira won by unanimous decision.

Knockout of the Year

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