[JonInMiddleGA]

January 1, 2003

2002 Year-End Awards from Blurcat.com

Fighter of the Year
Manuel Silva- GAMMA
Welterweight was 4-0 for 2002 with three KO's and one UD, culminating with his main event KO of Mikey Wallace in December to claim the GAMMA Welterweight Title for the first time.

Female Fighter of the Year
Mizuki "The She Wolf" Watanabe - CSA & XCC
She wrapped up a 3-0 year in November with a submission win over April Watson, giving her three straight first round wins. She also took down Karen Curtis & Temperance McCoy earlier in the year in XCC and WEFF respectively, giving her wins in three different promotions in a 9 month span.

Rookie of the Year
None
No rookie fighter was deemed to have had significant enough impact to warrant the award

Rise of the Year
"The Great Japanese Hope" Kanezane Fujii - CSA
2 fights, 2 wins, in a total of 5:24 of action. But it's been enough to create a good bit of hype around the newcomer.

Fall of the Year
"The All-American" Vanessa Phillips- WEFF
4 losses in the year extends her losing streak to five, all by unanimous decision. She's 1-7 in the last 24 months, certainly enough to cause a major drop in stock.

Promotion of the Year
GAMMA
Not sure how droppping from the #2 promotion in the world to the #3 promotion in the world makes you promotion of the year but ... whatever.

Team of the Year
Euro Team Thunder
Their 20 members accounts for 7 champions with 9 title reigns between them.
'Nuff said, and 'nuff for a second straight honor.

Show of the Year
GAMMA 74: Watson vs Patinkin (January 2001)
Junior Patinkin shocked Mike Watson to win the GAMMA LHW Title in the main event, just minutes after Buddy Garner beat Neil Napier with the Submission of the Year to win the GAMMA Middleweight Title.

Fight of the Year
Shuler Eigenberg vs Anderson Desailly (CSA March 2002)
A second round TKO in the second fight of the night impressed a lot of people apparently.

Worst Fight of the Year
Melvin Custard vs Nicky Shapiro(Independent Show May 2002)
Custard won a UD in a fight that could have set the sport back several years if anyone had actually watched it.

Knock Out of the Year
Niko Soldo vs Jin Katou (ALPHA-1 April 2002)
Only a decent fight but a big KO at 4:32 of the final round of the opening match of the night.

Submission of the Year
Buddy Garner vs Neil Napier (GAMMA Jan 2002)
A rear naked choke at 4:40 of Round 4 made Garner the GAMMA Middleweight Champion. Little did anyone realize at the time that it would be his last fight for the company before jumping ship to Alpha-1.

Main Event of the Year
Temperance McCoy vs Roz Wareing (WEFF December 2002)
A knockout in the first minute of the final round of a main event that drew 741 people. The internet does strange things to people I guess.

Upset of the Year
Elizabeth Fraser defeats Sayoko Ebisawa (WEFF April 2002)
The fight hasn't exactly done much for either participant. Fraser hasn't won since while Ebisawa retired immediately afterwards.