2011 Mid-Year UFC Awards: Top 5 Beatdowns of the Year

After a long stretch of major MMA events ended with UFC 132, we are now midway through the calender year. As we wait for the MMA schedule to pick back up, Bleacher Report will be taking a look a several different mid-year awards.

This installment will focus on the UFC Beatdown of the Year, which will be handed out to the fighters who doled out the most lopsided walloping of 2011. Already, there have been plenty of options for the award, but we had to narrow it down to five nominees.

Here are the top five UFC beatdowns from the first half of 2011.

5. Melvin Guillard vs. Evan Dunham

At UFC Fight for the Troops 2, Melvin Guillard arrived as a contender with a first-round thrashing of Evan Dunham.

Dunham was coming off of a controversial loss to Sean Sherk, but he was expected to get a bounce-back win against Guillard. Guillard had other plans, though, as he finished Dunham with a barrage of strikes less than three minutes into the fight.

4. Chris Leben vs. Wanderlei Silva

Some predicted a 15-minute war between Wanderlei Silva and Chris Leben at UFC 132. So much for that.

Silva only landed one big shot before being brutalized and finished by Leben's uppercuts in only 27 seconds. Unfortunately, this may be the last image we see of Silva inside the Octagon.

3. Vladimir Matyushenko vs. Jason Brilz

At UFC 129, high-level wrestlers Vladimir Matyushenko and Jason Brilz squared off in a clash of underrated light heavyweights.

Despite their backgrounds, this fight never went to the ground, as Matyushenko caught Brilz with a punch and put an end to the bout in just 20 seconds.

2. Kyle Kingsbury vs. Ricardo Romero

At UFC 126, Kyle Kingsbury defeated Brazilian submission ace Ricardo Romero. Kingbury jumped on Romero from the opening bell and forced the referee to step in after only 21 seconds.

Surprisingly, Kingbury has gone the distance in all four of his other fights with the UFC.

1. Mark Hominick vs. George Roop

Mark Hominick didn't dispose of George Roop as quickly as some of the other winners on this list did with their opponents, but that is what made this beatdown even worse.

Hominick completely outclassed Roop on his feet, rocking the Shawn Tompkins protege and ending the fight inside of 90 seconds.

Sean Smith is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report MMA. Sean has also had his work featured on UFC.com. For the latest insight and updates on everything MMA, you can follow Sean on Twitter @SeanSmithMMA.