The 2020 Heavies Awards - Comeback Fighter of the Year - Winner: Brian Ortega

Voted Strickland just because of what he had to come back from.

 

CoGar!




I used to hate it when some Sherbro used to post 10 threads a week calling him CoGar... First of all, It's longer to type than CODY.

But yea... glad to see him back in form. Such a mad amount of talent. If he gets a good mentor, and works on his Fight IQ, I really believe he has another dominant run at the top in him

 

Always thought Ortega's striking was sub par and lacking, but then he comes back and walks through KZ like a new man.
Fucked up my parlay in doing so...

 

Big Mac Attack for me!

 

Strickland.

Dern coming back from a Big Mac habit isn't inspiring.

 

Might have to go with Ortega. It was just one fight but he looked like a completely new fighter after the beating from Max and long layoff. Dern and Strickland had good comeback years as well.

Horiguchi also deserves a mention.

 

I'd say Ortega, been off for ages and I thought Zombie was going to beat him up, but he had an exceptional performance.

 

I went with Cub because he was gonna hang up the gloves, but stuck around and finished a much younger, hard-charger in Pineda.

 

Gonna vote Cody because how bad he has done in the 3 fights before this getting slept in them all (his performances were actually decent until getting buzzed) and then coming back with a contender for koty over a very good opponent in assuncao

 

I voted for cub. mad respect for the guy. hes a warrior. strickland story is super inspiring.

 

Gonna roll with Dern since she's been the most active. Hard to judge a comeback on the weight of 1 fight (or 2 in the case of Strickland).

 

Strickland was rather impressive lol voting for them.

 

I can understand that. I feel like giving credit to a fighter for making weight is a little bit of a participation trophy, IMO. Still think her downfall wasn't as bad as Cody's, and her best win wasn't as impressive as Cody's, but I can get behind the argument for activity being an important criteria.

 

Cody Garbrandt

 

I hear you, and much of what you said went through my mind as well. I think you could argue the quality of opponents are better for some of the guys, and some fell harder too. But Ortega beating KZ after losing his shot at the title doesn't seem that much of a fall, or a comeback. And Cody's win over Assuncao for me proved less than Dern showing steady progress after getting her shit together. I'd like to see more out of both Cody and Ortega before confirming their comeback was more than just having a solid night. And maybe Strickland's comeback is better too, but if I'm being honest, I don't really know enough about the guy to have much of an opinion on him in this moment.

I'm not sure if he's out of the running because his comeback spans both 2019 and 2020, but if I'd give the best comeback to anyone, I'd go for Glover Teixeira.

 

Man, Jan vs Glover in a test of old man strength for the LHW title would be great to see in 2021.

Also, Glover not being in the UFC during the pre-Jones era is one of the biggest misses in MMA. Him getting a shot, and potentially seeing a title around his waist would definitely make up for it.