Top 25 MMA Moments From 2010

With 2010 coming to a close it is time to look back on the best moments in the world of MMA.

It was quite a memorable year for the fastest growing sport in the world. We saw a 10 year undefeated streak come to an end. There were upsets, title changes, the end of one of the best MMA promotions and so much more.

If there is a moment that you think should be on the list that I didn't get on here throw it in the comments section. A year filled with so many great moments and only 25 spots to fill it.

Here are the top 25 moments in MMA from 2010.

25. The Undertaker-Brock Lesnar Staredown

After Cain Velasquez obliterated Brock Lesnar at UFC 121, MMA reporter Ariel Helwani did an interview with WWE Superstar The Undertaker.

Taker used to work with Brock back when Brock was in the WWE in the early 2000's.

As the interview is being conducted, Lesnar walks by The Undertaker and they just stare at each other for what feels like an eternity. Helwani asked what that was all about and Taker said that it's personal stuff.

Apparently it was a work for something that WWE wants to set up for their annual Wrestlemania PPV in 2011. It's doubtful that anything will happen with it but it still made for a great moment when it happened.

24. Santiago-Misaki 2

Jorge Santiago met Kazuo Misaki in a middleweight championship fight in the Sengoku Raiden Championships in Japan in August.

It was an epic fight that went nearly four full rounds. Near the end of the fourth round Santiago was pounding on Misaki but he kept coming. Eventually his corner couldn’t take it anymore and threw in the towel for the challenger.

23. Struve Shakes Off Morecraft’s Assault For TKO

Stefan Struve fought Christian Morecraft at UFC 117. The fight looked like it was going to be completely one-sided. In the first round Morecraft was all over Struve. He was beating on him and not letting him get any kind of advantage.

The second round starts…and ends just like that with Struve knocking Morecraft out in about 20 seconds. It was one of the great single round turnarounds in MMA in 2010.

22. Mike Russow’s KO Of Todd Duffee

At UFC 114, Mike Russow and Todd Duffee met in a fight that no one really had circled on their list of must-see fights. For almost three full rounds, it was dull.

There was nothing exciting happening at all. The crowd in attendance was bored and the people watching at home weren’t entertained much either.

But halfway through the third round Russow swung and connected with a punch knocking Duffee completely out. He was on the canvas for a long, long time after too.

21. Chris Leben Lives At UFC 116

Chris Leben has gone through a number of valleys lately in his career. At UFC 116 against Yoshihiro Akiyama he made a big statement, particularly since he took the fight two weeks after fighting on TUF Finale in mid-June.

It was a great back-and-forth fight for three rounds until there was about 30 seconds left in the third and both guys were on the ground and Leben caught Akiyama in a triangle for the submission.

20. John Hathaway’s Knee To Diego Sanchez

At UFC 114, John Hathaway beat the crap out of Diego Sanchez for three rounds. He was all over him from the beginning of the fight. So much so that one judge actually gave a 10-8 round, which is something to take notice of.

In the first round, Sanchez was attacking with punches. He went to hit a shot and Hathaway landed a beautiful knee strike square on the jaw of Diego.

19. The Emergence Of George Sotiropolous

George Sotiropolous had a banner year in UFC. He started by defeating Joe Stevenson in February and it ended with a win against Joe Lauzon.

All told he went 3-0 in 2010 and emerged as one of the fastest rising stars in the lightweight division.

His submission victory over Joe Lauzon at UFC 123 remains his highlight of his year.

He had him on the ground, caught his arm and made him tap to an armbar.

18. Nam Phan Is Screwed Against Leonard Garcia

On the finale of The Ultimate Fighter 12, the first match on the main card was Leonard Garcia versus Nam Phan. Not a glamorous fight on paper but it would be memorable at the end.

They fought three rounds and went to a decision.

Watching the fight you could see that Phan had the fight won. It was close in the first round, possibly with Garcia taking that round or even a 10-10 score. Second round was all Phan, could have been 10-8. Third round, Phan wasn’t as dominant against Garcia but he did win the round.

The judges saw something that apparently we didn’t and scored the fight for Leonard Garcia.

17. Faber Gets Back On Track

The biggest reason that WEC was able to succeed for so long with out being on PPV was because of Urijah Faber. He was the biggest star in the company for so long. However, his momentum was slipping a bit with losses to Jose Aldo and Mike Brown.

He needed a good performance against Takeya Mizugaki at WEC 52 and he got it. He came out fast and furious. He was able to take Mizugaki down and locked in a beautiful rear-naked choke to get the submission.

16. Penn KO’s Hughes In 21 Seconds

BJ Penn has done a lot of great things in MMA. He has the skill and talent to be one of the best fighters in the world. The problem is he doesn’t always seem interested in fighting. He tends to get lost or distracted by something.

At UFC 123 Penn fought Matt Hughes in a rubber match of their storied rivalry. The bell rang and both guys approached each other. Penn swung a right hand, Hughes went down and the fight was over just like that.

Penn was so excited that he immediately ran right out the cage and into the crowd.

15. Chuck Liddell’s Career Ends Not With A Bang, But With A Whimper

The magnificent, storied career of Chuck Liddell came to a sad end at UFC 115 against Rich Franklin. Liddell came out in the first round and was just fantastic. He was punching and kicking Franklin looking a bit like the Ice Man of old.

However, at the end of the first round when Chuck was trying to knock Franklin out he left his chin wide open. Franklin swung and connected right on the butt of the jaw, sending Liddell to the mat.

It was a sad image for those that know what Chuck Liddell meant to MMA but it was the end of the Ice Man.

14. Cain Velasquez Shocks The World

Cain Velasquez was not the most well known fighter in the world. Sure, he had never lost a fight before but he still wasn’t thought of as a big-time fighter. Maybe it’s because he is not naturally charismatic or something but fans didn’t really know who he was.

At UFC 121 fans got to know a whole lot about Cain as a fighter.

He was taking on Brock Lesnar for the UFC heavyweight title. When the fight started Lesnar came out and tried to overwhelm the challenger. He took him to the ground early but Cain was able to get right back up.

After another Brock takedown, Cain found an opening and started to melee Lesnar with punches. He kept punching and then rocked him with a right that left the champion staggering. Cain pounced on his opportunity and was crowned the heavyweight champion.

13. WEC Is Absorbed By UFC

In October of 2010, UFC President Dana White announced that after the WEC show on December 16 that the WEC would cease operations and would be absorbed by the UFC.

Zuffa, which own both companies, didn’t feel the need to keep the WEC going any longer. That’s not necessarily a bad thing because now it gives all the great WEC fighters a chance to shine on MMA’s biggest stage.

12. Frankie Edgar Shocks BJ Penn, Twice

Frankie Edgar has been a good fighter for a while. He never really did anything great but he was a quick fighter who could use that to his advantage against certain people.

He got a UFC lightweight title fight against BJ Penn in April 2010 at UFC 112. Not a lot of people gave him a chance to win.

He came out and was able to use his speed and quickness to make Penn’s striking useless and scored a somewhat controversial decision victory over Penn.

They had a rematch at UFC 118 and it was more of the same. Edgar completely dominated Penn for five rounds with speed and technique. It was one of the bigger upsets in MMA in 2010.

11. The Strikeforce Heavyweight Title Finally Gets Defended

Alistair Overeem has been the Strikeforce Heavyweight champion since 2007. Guess how many times he has defended that title in three years?

One time.

After numerous injuries and things of that nature he was finally able to defend the Strikeforce heavyweight title against Brett Rogers.

Overeem made quick work of the challenger, defeating him late in the first round via TKO.

10. Garcia Versus Sung Jung

At WEC’s PPV in April the main fight was Jose Aldo-Urijah Faber but the fight that stole the show was Leonard Garcia versus Chan Sung Jung.

These two guys had a great back-and-forth three round battle.

This was WEC at it’s finest.

One guy would attack with punches then the other guy would attack with punches. It was beautiful to watch. It’s no wonder that the people that watch WEC often said that it was the best MMA promotion around. Fights like this are the reason why.

9. Strikeforce Nashville Ends With A Brawl

Strikeforce on CBS has not always been smooth sailing. When they aired the Strikeforce event from Nashville in April things got really nasty. Jake Shields had just successfully defended the middleweight title against Dan Henderson.

Afterwards, Jason Miller got into the cage when Shields was doing an interview and got in his face asking for a rematch. Nick Diaz, who was in the cage as well, threw a punch and then all hell broke loose.

8. Shogun KO’s Machida

Lyoto Machida is one of the most polarizing fighters in MMA. Fans either love his defensive aggressive kind of style or they hate it. Those that hate it have waited for someone to come in and be able to catch him with a punch.

That someone was Mauricio Rua.

In a rematch of their fight from at UFC 104, Rua was able to get Machida down with punches and he won the rematch and claimed the UFC light heavyweight championship.

7. Josh Koscheck Vs GSP

The rematch between Josh Koscheck and Georges St Pierre wasn’t a particularly good fight. It went five rounds, but GSP dominated the entire time.

However, the build to that fight was as good as you will see from any promotion.

It started on this season of The Ultimate Fighter when Josh Koscheck was the greatest heel in the world. It went all the way up until the night of the fight.

The best part may have been the great sixty-second video package that UFC put together to hype the fight.

6. WEC Holds Their First PPV

WEC never really got the credit that it deserved. On this night in April they were able to take center stage with their first, and only, PPV event headlined by Urijah Faber and Jose Aldo for the WEC featherweight title.

It was a very good event, headlined by Aldo’s decision victory over Faber to retain the title. It’s sad that was the only time that company got to be on the biggest stage in their history.

5. Boxing Vs MMA

At UFC 118, the boxing world and the MMA world met in a head-on collision when boxer James Toney met with former UFC Champion Randy Couture.

The fight was over in the first round as Couture got Toney to submit. The story wasn’t the fight because no one expected Toney to win. The story was that a professional boxer got into an MMA ring.

It was a gutsy move by Toney and though he didn’t win the fight he earned a lot of credibility and respect from the MMA community for stepping up and taking on this fight.

4. Brock Lesnar Returns

Brock Lesnar was out for nearly a year with a serious illness that left not only his career in question but also his life.

He was able to return at UFC 116 against Shane Carwin in a fight to unify the UFC heavyweight title.

In the first round, Carwin dominated Lesnar. He was pounding on him for the entire round, but Lesnar never quit. He came out in the second round, when Carwin was gassed, and took him down and got him to submit to a choke.

It was the first time that the fans really took to Brock Lesnar in MMA.

3. Anderson Silva Escapes Against Chael Sonnen

The Spider has been thought of as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world for years now. He has never really been challenged by anyone in a long time.

Enter: Chael Sonnen.

At UFC 117, Sonnen and his brash, cocky attitude made it known that he was going to beat Anderson Silva for the UFC middleweight title.

When the fight started Sonnen was actually winning. He was beating on the champion and looked like the better fighter. Sonnen dominated the fight for four-and-a-half rounds. He was going to beat Anderson Silva.

Near the end of round five, they went to the ground and Sonnen was trying to get fancy. Silva caught his arm and made him tap with a triangle armbar. It was one of the great endings to a fight in 2010.

2. Fedor Loses To Werdum

One of the most impressive and legendary streaks in MMA history came to an end in June 2010 when Fabricio Werdum made Fedor Emelianenko tap out.

In Fedor's entire career he had only lost one fight, and that was controversial because he was illegally cut. He was 32-1 and had never been submitted by anyone.

On this night, however, Fedor was down and as he was trying to attack Werdum his arm got caught and he was forced to submit to an armbar.

It was one of the most shocking defeats in MMA history.

1. Anthony Pettis' Matrix Kick

The best MMA moment from 2010 came from one of the best fights of the year, Anthony Pettis vs Ben Henderson at WEC 53.

For those of you that haven't seen it, watch this video it is one of the best things that you will ever see in an MMA fight.

In the fifth and final round of the WEC lightweight title fight, Pettis scales the cage and propels himself off and lands a kick square to the face of Henderson. It was a great way to send the WEC out into the sunset.