With
397 votes cast in the poll, the winner of the 2017 Heavies Award - Breakout Fighter of the Year goes to
Francis Ngannou, who starched Andrei Arlovski and Alistair Overeem in the first round and earned a title shot against the HW champ Stipe Miocic in less than one week from today. Ngannou earned 160 votes, almost twice as many as the next closest fighter.
In second came Octagon newcomer Volkan Oezdemir, with 82 votes, booping his way into our hearts with a short notice split decision win over Ovince Saint Preux followed by two physics-defying knockouts of Misha Cirkunov and Jimi Manuwa.
Rose Namajunas snagged third place, because although she had been on the scene and fought for the inaugural UFC women's strawweight belt, her massive upset of Joanna Jedrzejczyk scored her 58 votes.
In fourth, Darren Till remained undefeated as he beat up on Jessin Ayari and Bojan Velickovic before clubbing Donald Cerrone in the first round in 2017, earning 41 votes.
"T-City" Brian Ortega tapped his way into contender status by guillotining Renato Moicano and Cub Swanson this past year, earning three post-fight bonuses for those two fights combined, getting 39 votes and fifth place on the list.
Making a lot of new friends this year, Colby Covington went from decent wrestler to top contender by stifling "Stun Gun" Dong Hyun Kim and Demian Maia, while getting in a boomerang fight with Fabricio Werdum and also enraging the community by posting spoilers on Twitter about the new Star Wars film. His new persona picked up 13 votes on here and sixth place.
Last but not least, Nicco Montano went from a loss on a regional promotion to a UFC champion after her season of TUF where she beat Lauren Murphy, Montana De La Rosa (nee Stewart), Barb Honchak, and Roxanne Modafferi en route to the inaugural UFC women's 125 pound crown. Despite this, she only earned four votes.