The Highly Unofficial Half-Year UFC Awards

UFC.com’s Thomas Gerbasi posted his own "unofficial half-year UFC awards," ranking top fights, fighters, knockouts and submissions from the first half of 2007. Gerbasi follows each category with his detailed analysis and reasoning behind his picks.

Here are Gerbasi's categories and picks:

Top Fighters
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1. Quinton Jackson
   
2. Randy Couture
3. Anderson Silva
4. Gabriel Gonzaga
5. Matt Serra

I don't know if I completely agree with the order of these fighters.

I think Anderson Silva should be on the top of this list. Silva has proved himself in Cage Rage, PRIDE, and has been constantly proving himself in the UFC. With four fights and a title defense, Silva has finished opponents all by way of knockout or submission, all in impressive fashion.

Quinton Jackson on the other hand, has beaten a less than impressive Marvin Eastman in his UFC debut and Chuck Liddell, whom he had alreayd mauled once in PRIDE. Don't get me wrong, I am a big fan of Jackson but, I think we need to see more than 2 fights in the UFC before we jump to call him this year's best fighter. I can't wait to see him fight Hendo at UFC 75 and in a rematch against newly signed Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.

Couture definitely deserves to be on the list, seeing that he took out UFC's former heavyweight champion, the much disliked Tim Sylvia. Thank you Couture! In a stylish manner to say the least. Couture stepped it up to heavyweight, where he started at, and took hold of the belt. Much deserved for "The Natural," much deserved.

As far as Gonzaga and Serra, I'm pretty apathetic about the two. Both coming off what's considered the sports' greatest upset, they do deserve some recognition.

Top Fights
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1. Spencer Fisher def. Sam Stout — UFC Fight Night 10
2. Tyson Griffin def. Clay Guida — UFC 72
3. Roger Huerta def. Leonard Garcia — UFC 69
4. Randy Couture def. Tim Sylvia — UFC 69
5. Michael Bisping def. Elvis Sinosic — UFC 70

The only fight I disagree with is the Bisping-Sinosic. I don't really remember this fight really being uber impressive, it doesn't stand out in my mind. I think the Houston Alexander versus Keith Jardine fight could easily take its place for a "top fight."

Top Knockouts
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1. Gabirel Gonzaga KOs Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic — UFC 70
2. Quinton Jackson TKOs Chuck Liddell — UFC 71
3. Matt Serra TKOs Georges St. Pierre — UFC 69
4. Rashad Evans KOs Sean Salmon — UFC Fight Night 9
5. Houston Alexander TKOs Keith Jardine — UFC 71

Alright, this list is dead on in my book as well. All knockouts had me jumping out of my seat, and crying for some. Good picks.

Top Submissions
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1. Din Thomas def. Jeremy Stephens (armbar) — UFC 71
2. B.J. Penn def. Jens Pulver (rear-naked choke) — The Ultimate Fighter 5 Finale
3. Chris Lytle def. Jason Gilliam (triangle choke and armlock) — UFC 73
4. Joe Stevenson def. Melvin Guillard (guillotine choke) — UFC Fight Night 9
5. Kenny Florian def. Dokonjonosuke Mishima (rear-naked choke) — UFC Fight Night 9

These were all pretty accurate as well with my picks. Though, my favorite one would have to be the Penn-Pulver one only because of the hostility and bad blood that boiled between the two.

Well, 2007 hasn't really put out EXTREMELY impressive fights but there should be more to come with the likes of Shogun and Nogueira added in the mix of things.

The Lianger