The 2017 Heavies Awards - Breakout Fighter of the Year - Winner: Francis Ngannou

Breakout Fighter of the Year?


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The 2017 Heavies Awards - Breakout Fighter of the Year
Thanks to everyone who has been voting in the Heavies Awards so far!

These are the fighters I believe should be up for Breakout Fighter of the Year - they have manged to create decent buzz around themselves in the media and coupled that buzz with some top wins. They've managed to use 2017 to rise through their divisions ranks quickly and become one of their divisions premier fighters - all of these fighters are unbeaten in 2017. There has been plenty of epic moments and great stories this year but it's up to you guys to see who wins this..

Be sure to tell us why you voted for who you did! Thanks for voting!



Nominees
Brian Ortega : 13–0 (1)
"T-City"
Wins in 2017: Renato Moicano, Cub Swanson
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Colby Covington : 13-1

"Choas"
Wins in 2017: Dong Hyun Kim, Damien Maia
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Darren Till : 16-0-1
"The Gorilla"
Wins in 2017: Jessin Ayari, Bojan Veličković, Donald Cerrone

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Francis Ngannou : 11-1
"The Predator"

Wins in 2017: Andrei Arlovski, Alistair Overeem
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Nicco Montano : 5-2
Wins in 2017: Roxane Modafferi (Woman's Flyweight Championship)
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Rose Namajunes : 7-3
"Thug Rose"

Wins in 2017: Michelle Waterson, Joanna Jędrzejczyk (Woman's Strawweight Championship)
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Volkan Oezdemir : 15-1
"No Time"

Wins in 2017: Ovince St Preux, Misha Cirkunov, Jimi Manuwa
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Volkan Oezdemir without question
 
Volkan did his breakout in no time so it's got to be him.
 
Some really good candidates Inverse. I'm going to think about this one before I vote.
 
Covington is a great pick.

But I have to go with my boy. T-City all the wayyyyyyyyyy!
 
Went with Ortega , He is knocking on the door of a title shot and has impressed me a lot lately .
was going to go with Francis seeing as he is getting a title shot but heavy weight is a weak division same with No time in being that LHW is weak .
 
Surprised Ngannou wasn't a lock for this one.

Ortega has 1 solid win.
 
Ortega, Till, Ngannou all good choices, but Volkan had the best wins, I think. Even if he only beat OSP by SD.

Does Namajunas even count? She's been around the top of the rankings for a while now. Granted she took a step up in level, but still.
 
Ortega, Till, Ngannou all good choices, but Volkan had the best wins, I think. Even if he only beat OSP by SD.

Does Namajunas even count? She's been around the top of the rankings for a while now. Granted she took a step up in level, but still.

I guess, but I feel she was completely overlooked until 2017 though and her wins over Waterson and JJ really put her into the spotlight.
 
Easy decision for me...

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Going strong with 1 vote...

<13>
 
In terms of sucess is Namajunas, since she's the only one in there with a belt.
But in terms of buzz, it's Ngannou. A lot of poeple will tune in to see him fight for the title.
 
Ponzinibbio!

Taleb, Nelson and Perry in 2017!

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Tough choice for me. I'm going to have to hold off on making my pick but I'm thinking either Ngannou, Till or Ortega.
 
My personal choice is Gastelum, 2 KO wins over Vitor & Bisping, a defeat to Whineman but he put up a pretty good fight.
I think he would have beat Anderson if Anderson wasn't pulled by USADA

And his over Kennedy was huge, though that came in the end of 2016.

From that list though, it's Ngannou

Colby/Till

i don't rate them much, good performance but against only 1 fight
 
This is a really tough category, I'm not sure who I'll pick yet.
 
My personal choice is Gastelum, 2 KO wins over Vitor & Bisping, a defeat to Whineman but he put up a pretty good fight.
I think he would have beat Anderson if Anderson wasn't pulled by USADA

And his over Kennedy was huge, though that came in the end of 2016.

From that list though, it's Ngannou

Colby/Till

i don't rate them much, good performance but against only 1 fight

I was tempted to put Kevin in but opted not to because of his loss to Weidman. He had a great 2017 though and put together some really great wins.



Ponzinibbio!

Taleb, Nelson and Perry in 2017!

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I was also tempted to put him in, he had a great 2017, an honorable mention for sure.

It was hard to pick, I was aiming to have only 5 fighters in the poll.
 
Rose has the title, and Annihilated a dominant champ to do so.

N'gannou beat 2 chinny Heavyweights he was favored to beat due to the style matchup.
 
I think if Kelvin beat Weidman he would've been a lock for this. I think we're all forgetting this guy was a WW who simply couldn't cut weight but he's still pretty undersized for MW. And he iced 2 former champs, even though one was just choked out and one is 86.

In terms of getting your name out there it's probably Ngannou. Sometimes the timing of a beautiful KO can really propel guys, and he picked the best time imaginable.

But personally I'm picking Volkan, just because I barely even knew who he was at the beginning of the year. Now he's the guy who finally broke through all the Gus/Rumble/DC/Jones action. You forgot to list "The Guy at the Bar" to his 2017 wins though.

And am I wrong for laughing at the Nicco Montana gif? That was intentional right? We've got Ngannou's N-Bomb, Rose silencing Joanna and right in between that is... a girl falling on another girl during during TUF? Come on....
 
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