The World MMA Awards 2023 results will be be announced Thursday night.
MMA Fighting has been nominated for MMA Media Source of the Year, an award that the outlet has won five times. Ariel Helwani has both been nominated for MMA Journalist of the Year, an award he was won 13 times. Meanwhile, Helwani’s popular The MMA Hour program has been nominated for Best MMA Programming.
The World MMA Awards, which will be held at the Sahara Theatre in Las Vegas, will be featured on ESPN+ at 10:30 p.m. ET.
See the full list of nominees below (nomination period spanned from July 1, 2022 and June 30, 2023):
Here are your nominees for the 15th Annual Fighters Only World MMA Awards:
Charles Lewis Fighter of the Year
Female Fighter of the Year
Seika Izawa
Breakthrough Fighter of the Year
International Fighter of the Year
Fight of the Year
Justin Gaethje vs. Rafael Fiziev (UFC 286)
Dustin Poirier vs. Michael Chandler (UFC 281)
Islam Makhachev vs. Alexander Volkanovski (UFC 284)
Brennan Ward vs. Sabah Homasi (Bellator 290)
Matt Schnell vs. Su Mudaerji (UFC on ABC 3)
Knockout of the Year
Leon Edwards vs. Kamaru Usman – Head kick (UFC 278)
Israel Adesanya vs. Alex Pereira – Punches (UFC 287)
Sadibou Sy vs. Shane Mitchell – Spinning wheel kick (PFL 6, 2023)
Krzysztof Głowacki vs. Patryk Tołkaczewski – Punch (KSW Colosseum 2)
Ismael Bonfim vs. Terrance McKinney – Flying knee (UFC 283)
Submission of the Year
Alexa Grasso vs. Valentina Shevchenko – Face crank (UFC 285)
Louis Glismann vs. Melvin van Suijdam – Inverted omoplata (Oktagon 43)
Islam Makhachev vs. Charles Oliveira – Arm-triangle choke (UFC 280)
Olga Rubin vs. Claire Guthrie – Buggy choke (Invicta FC 53)
Reinier de Ridder vs. Vitaly Bigdash – Inverted triangle choke (ONE 159)
Comeback of the Year
Jon Jones (Career)
Leon Edwards vs. Kamaru Usman 1 (UFC 278)
John Hathaway (Returning from lengthy illness)
Matt Schnell vs. Su Mudaerji (UFC on ABC 3)
Yaroslav Amosov (Returning from war)
Upset of the Year
Alexa Grasso vs. Valentina Shevchenko (UFC 285)
Larissa Pacheco vs. Kayla Harrison (PFL 10, 2022)
Christian Echols vs. Pat Downey (Bellator 289)
Jesus Pinedo vs. Brendan Loughnane (PFL 4, 2023)
Zebaztian Kadestam vs. Roberto Soldic (ONE Fight Night 10)
Shawn Tompkins Coach of the Year
Eugene Bareman
Dave Lovell
Ray Longo
Eric Nicksick
Trainer of the Year
Heather Linden
Jonathon Reynolds
Everton Oliveira
Jordan Sullivan
Brandon Gallagher
Gym of the Year
City Kickboxing
American Top Team
Team Renegade
Kill Cliff FC
American Kickboxing Academy
Referee of the Year
Marc Goddard
Jason Herzog
Mark Smith
Herb Dean
Rich Mitchell
Ringcard Girl of the Year
Louise McKie
Brookliyn Wren
Jhenny Andrade
Luciana Andrade
Leading Man
Dana White (UFC)
Scott Coker (Bellator)
Peter Murray (PFL)
Maciej Kawulski (KSW)
Ondrej Novotny (Oktagon)
Best Promotion
UFC
Bellator MMA
PFL
KSW
Oktagon MMA
Personality of the Year
Analyst of the Year
Best MMA Programming
Morning Kombat
The MMA Hour
Dana White’s Contender Series
The Anik & Florian Podcast
UFC Embedded
MMA Media Source of the Year
MMA Fighting
Sherdog
MMA Junkie
ESPN
Bloody Elbow
MMA Journalist of the Year
Ariel Helwani
Aaron Bronsteter
Marc Raimondi
John Morgan
Nolan King
Fighting Spirit Award
Yaroslav Amosov (Adversity – returning from war to unify the Bellator welterweight title)
Steven Ray (Strength – fighting for his family)
Biaggio Ali Walsh (Bravery – helping his community in the face of danger)
Themba Gorimbo (Charity – building a water pump in Zimbabwe and putting others ahead of
himself)
Chris Barnett (Adversity – overcoming great personal loss and adversity in the cage)
